Let’s be honest. Things have been a bit
ruthless on the stakeholders of the tourism and hospitality industry in Goa
this tourist season. First, it was demonetisation that shook things up really
bad and left people with no money to spend, quite literally. Then came the code
of conduct that barred all commercial establishments from sale of alcohol past
10:30 pm, shooing away potential tourists who would have made a beeline to Goa
over the long weekend around Republic Day. This has encouraged owners of
business establishments to explore newer avenues of revenue generation and
thus, the good ol’ brunch is back!
Lana De Souza runs a restaurant with her
partner Spiro called the Riverhouse in Arpora. De Souza is one of the many
stakeholders of the hospitality industry in Goa who is unhappy with the timing
of the implementation of the code of conduct. While speaking to Café earlier,
De Souza had said, “Considering that Goa has a tourist season of six months,
the code of conduct came at a time when these are our last few months where a
substantial amount of our income in this period helps us tide over the slower
months in the year. What do we do instead? We open up earlier; we have day
parties, sunset parties, happy hours in the afternoons etc. Unfortunately, we
have no choice so we put a smile on our face, think positive and learn to
adapt, as there is no other option.”
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Vinesh Iyer, Co- Founder and Director,
Inspire Trust and Art Escape, has been working towards keeping the live music
scene alive by putting together live music, stand-up comedy, workshops and
various other acts. Vinesh, who has also experimented by merging all of this
into a brunch affair, says, “I think the brunch is a difficult model to
sustain. It is not an easy task to pull people in on a Sunday afternoon. In the
past, we have experimented with various artistes – we have had a few stand-up
comedians, musicians, we’ve had workshops, etc, yet the idea of a brunch does
not inspire confidence as much as an evening act would. And this is despite the
show being open to the public. Things get even worse when it is a ticketed
event. Overall, I think the practicality of the code of conduct really needs to
be thought over. There is no doubt that it has really affected the tourism
industry in Goa.”
The folks at The Park in Calangute have
tasted success with their signature Sunday Bikini Brunch, that has been
attracting mostly expats for the last couple of years. Saurabh Khanna, General
Manager of The Park, says, “Our Sunday brunches were already popular with the international
tourists. But due to the implementation of the code of conduct, we have seen a
drastic increase in footfalls of locals also.” But does that mean that the
sheer lack of long-running evening parties has encouraged people to participate
in day-parties with as much enthusiasm? Khanna says, “Not as much as we
anticipated. We anyway didn’t do late night events at The Park so this has not
impacted us much. But there were day events not only at our property but in
other places also, which were marketed well and were well received.”
