Goa and New
Year’s Celebrations has been a marriage made in heaven and going strong from years now.
Although there has been a lot of speculation around the inflow of tourists this
year, but guess when it comes to New Year’s, Goa hasn’t lost it after all.
“We had great
footfalls and revenue overall and in comparison to last 5 years, this probably
was one of the best. And not just one property but also all of our hotels did
extremely well, and we had a good mix of tourists as well as locals. The
brunches especially saw a lot of local clients visiting us and otherwise also
we were completely sold out. Even though the season kicked in a little late,
but overall it has been great”, said Vincent Ramos, Area Director Goa, Taj
Hotels.
After the Thomas Cook
and Cox & Kings fall out, the industry has been going under tremendous
pressure in regards to the tourist influx. Sunburn provided some relief to the
hospitality industry with a presence of 1lakh spectators and is believed to
have had a revenue of Rs 250 crores, according to Goa’s Tourism Minister,
albeit with deaths of 3 young men who came as EDM fans
On the contrary some
hotels and restaurants had a huge business loss on the Sunburn days because of
the barricading and security issues.
Tarun Sibal, owner,
Titlie Culinary Bar said, “Although we have seen a steady growth month on month
and it’s our first season in Goa, we have no complaints. Since November, we
have been getting a 80% revenue jump every month and its been going good. Just
on the Sunburn days, people were practically unable to reach us because of the
barricading on those routes and we did lose some business. Otherwise,
yesterday, we had a full house and it seems like a good season.”
“The month of
December began on a very dicey note and we didn’t really know what to expect,
but after the second half of the month, business started to look up and since
then it’s been more like a steady footfall. We were completely sold out both
for lunch and dinner yesterday and if I have to compare, I would say that this
year has been better in terms of footfalls and revenue than the last year”,
stated Mohit Mamtani, Brand Manager for Mahe.
Going by numbers in
the last week of the month, we can at least establish the fact that New Years
and Goa are still going strong and that equation hasn’t been affected. This
last week of the month has been a major relief to the tourism industry and
Goa’s nightlife shined as usual.
David de’ Souza the
head of Tito’s, Goa’s best known nightlife spot, said, “We had a great season
and great New Years Eve. I don’t know about others but all I can say is since
ours is a brand that has been in the market for years and we know exactly what
we are doing and offering, we haven’t been affected by the overall tourism
fluctuations. In fact, everything went off smoothly, no cop troubles, no other
issues, so I can say that it was a good for business and the revenues have been
great so far.”
Well,
the sun is shining again on the sands of Goa and the nightlife is lit up and
alive like always. We hope that the season keeps going strong this way for
everyone in the business but like they say, ‘Make Hay While The Sun Shines’.
