The conventional tourist season has ended. The English tourists are back in blighty
enjoying the world cup cricket tournament and Wimbledon. Meanwhile in Goa, the
monsoon has settled in to do its job of refilling the traditional water sources
and the provide the farmers with water for their fields. The business of
tourism has changed dramatically with tourists now visiting “tourists spots”
around the year. That seems to be the case with Goa too. For the last decade
tourists have been visiting the state in the monsoons. It has been an
interesting mix. Domestic tourists along with tourists from countries as
diverse as the UAE and Iran. How will it be this year, will the number of
tourists coming to Goa register a growth?
The monsoons in Goa can make for a very intense experience and
can be quite disconcerting for some but for the average Indian it is nothing
new. A long-term operator of a hotel in the north said the domestic tourist
would continue to come in droves but that did not necessarily mean a good
thing. He said “They are not interested in paying more than Rs 600 per room.
They are aware that rates drop during the monsoon due to the excess
availability of stock but this is ridiculous. It does not work out for us. I
have to keep my property functioning so I give it at low rates but it is not a
good time. Our Indian customers negotiate very hard. The odd foreign visitor is
usually someone who is working in Mumbai or Delhi and has decided to come down
for the weekend. Many of them are young and are freelancing and hence have a
limited budget”.
Like anything in India, it is always possible to get a reaction
that is exactly the opposite. Anand Chatterjee GM of Planet Hollywood said he
expected business to be as expected during this time of the year. Anand said
“We get most of our guests from Mumbai, Delhi and other parts of North India.
They stay for a duration of 3 nights. By July end and August, we get visitors
from the middle east most of whom are entranced by the rains.”
The head of another five-star property in the south said
business would not be good this monsoon. Attempts to contact the famously
reclusive head of the hotel proved futile after the phone connection failed and
the attempts to resume the conversation proved futile. Given the poor economic
indicators and the general depressed sales figures registered across sectors,
perhaps the drop in numbers could be in sync with this trend.
A events management company that coordinates with companies in
Mumbai said it had several corporate events to work on but the budgets had been
slashed drastically keeping in mind the general economic sentiment.
Savio
MessiasPresident of TTAG said the monsoon season would see usual business one
expected during the monsoons. The corporate events would take place because the
rates would be low and very competitive but he expressed his fears about the
construction of the bridges which were causing traffic jams. This he said had
resulted in some people missing flights. On the whole he said it would be like
any other season.
