Baani Vaidya, an IT professional from Pune,
managed to involve three of her friends in an impromptu plan to drive to Goa
and have a good time this weekend. A regular visitor to the state, an impulsive
Baani decided not to book her rooms in advance but to directly show up at her
favourite place of stay in Calangute in a bid to avail of a good deal on the
tariff. What she did not consider, however, is the fact that she was going to
be joined by thousands of other tourists from other parts of India who also had
similar plans. It was only after arriving in Goa that it hit her when she found
almost every accommodation option in the Baga-Calangute area running to full
occupancy.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Baani
wasn’t the only one to face this. Laurenco Fernandes, owner of a beach house in
Baga, says, “We have been running full for the past one month. A major chunk of
tourists who hadn’t planned their short vacation well in advance have had to
make-do with whatever options they could get to have a roof over their heads.
The upcoming season looks quite promising.” Apart from hotel and lodge owners,
businesses in the form of restaurants and pubs also cashed in on the high
tourist attendance. Joaquim Lobo, owner of The Love Shack along the Calangute
stretch, says, “It is nice to see that everyone is getting business from
tourists without having to fight for it. This year, October has started on a
much better note as compared to last year.”
The long weekend also seems to be a live
experiment to test Goa’s traffic management skills ahead of the peak tourist
season. If Thursday morning saw the stretch from Mandovi bridge to O Coquiero
circle in Porvorim congested, Friday only made it worse with traffic jams
hitting other parts of the Northern beach belt like Arpora, Candolim and Nerul.
Locals also complained of incompetent traffic management in Old Goa near the
churches as tourist vehicles were seen parked along both sides of the road,
leaving room for only one vehicle to pass through at a time.
WIth two more days to go before the crowd
shrinks, a lot seems to be in store – for the tourists and the locals.
