Ajit John
ajit@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: As the state prepares to welcome tourists during the course of another season that commenced on October 14, there are concerns that local and international factors may have cast its dye on what should have been another bumper year. The value of the rouble vis-a-vis the dollar and the increase in tariffs are expected to play an important role this season.
Francis Braganza, president TTAG expressed his apprehensions about the season saying that tourism was sensitive to international as well as domestic issues. The 2014-15 season would be affected by such international events. The Ukranian crisis would affect the inflow from Russia. Given that Russians do not generally plan their holiday in advance unlike the tourist from Western Europe. The indications, he said was not good but could improve as the season progressed.
He went on to say that many of the western European countries like Germany, Scandinavian countries, UK, etc were seeing decreasing numbers on account of various issues which are not being addressed by the state which was mainly garbage and taxi issues. The death of the three Russians and issues with taxi drivers would definitely have an adverse effect on the inflow of tourism. He said “We need to put our house in order. The taxi issue as usual has already raised its head this year and is creating very adverse publicity in the international and domestic press.”
Ernest Dias, VP, Sita Goa pointed out the fact that the present value of the rouble made holiday packages very expensive for Russian nationals and with 15 charter companies going bankrupt, the Russian traveler was worried and were contemplating short haul destinations.
In addition the absence of the facility of providing visa’s on arrival had also had an effect. Another important factor in any tourist destination is the rate charged by various hotels in Goa.
Aloo Gomes Pereira said that inflation and taxes in the state had resulted in rates increasing by 22% to 25%. In one case he said it had gone up by 40% making it very uncompetitive.
He said “This is a price sensitive market and when the prices increases in such a manner the problems can be well imagined. Then ofcourse there is the visa problem and the issue of garbage. This year I believe there will be a drop of approximately 20% to 22% in the number of Russians coming to the state.”
Asked what he expected the government to do he said they would have to look at the infrastructure and cleanliness. Taxation was another subject that aroused strong emotions. Senior executives who did not want to be named said that they were paying anywhere between 19.42% and 21% taxes depending on the segment they were catering too. Earlier they said during the off season they were paying 4% which had now increased to 13% during off season depending on the category. Today they were paying 21% approximately in season from the time when they were paying 13%. This they believed had increased the cost of operations which then lead to an increase in the cost of packages. The increase in the cost of living resulted in an increase in the cost of hiring manpower. From the time when manpower cost was just 7%, today, senior managers claim it is approximately 21% of their cost of operation.
Another executive claimed that in Europe he could have one individual handle 40 covers where as in Goa he would have to hire 1 to handle 14 covers. All this had to be paid out of the cost of the packages sold to domestic and foreign tourists.
Amarendra Kumar, Assistant Director of Sales, Alila Diwa revealed that over the last three years, the inbound market had grown by 5 to 7 percent on an average year on year while the domestic market by 3 to 5 percent. They expected a correction in rates in November since the inbound market was not as buoyant as the last three years. The Russian business was down due to travel companies going bankrupt and the inflation in the rouble.
The share of the European market was declining due to the negative publicity received by the country concerning the safety of women. The United Kingdom, he said had kept up with last year’s performance but was not great since it had declined over a period of three years. With regards to the domestic market, business looked good but since it moved only on weekends the weekdays showed less traction. Since November did not have long weekends, the pace would not be as exciting as October.
Ekaterina Belyakova of Tara Leisure Pvt ltd said that there would easily be a drop of approximately 20% in the number of Russian tourists coming to the state due to the problem in Ukraine as well as the increase in the cost of the packages.
Francis Braganza however believed that Goa would find a way to manage and survive. He said “ The situation created by the Ukranian crises, will be offset by new markets and new airlines coming into Goa. Ethiad is starting their flights directly into Goa on 14th of November. I believe another low cost airline “Fly Dubai” is going to start its operations into Goa this season, which will again through “Emirates” connect us to the rest of the world. This year we have connectivity though Air Asia to the whole South east Asia and Australia”.
The number of domestic numbers is also expected to increase given that Goa is the only choice. Francis felt this would disturb the balance required to be maintained between the international and domestic tourists in order to keep Goa’s image as an international tourist destination.
Many a domestic tourist were in his opinion attracted to Goa since it had an international flavour on account of large amount of foreign tourists visiting Goa regularly. The domestic tourist he felt could lose interest once Goa lost its tag as an international tourist destination, on account of reduction of foreign tourists. He said “We need to keep a strong presence of international tourists in Goa throughout the year”.
Perhaps sometime next year in March the truth about this season will be revealed , till then everyone shall wait and watch.
