Two events took place across the seas this week. In our Goa, the much awaited shacks were finally “allotted” kick-starting a process, after a massive delay again, for the setting-up of shacks on Goa’s beaches, and stakeholders of Goa’s tourism industry arrived in London for the World Travel Market. Of course the events were directly unrelated and yet they completely weren’t.
Those who went from Goa, each one of them, attended the WTM, or the “meeting place for the world travel industry”, with one single purpose, bring more tourists to India in the face of three key challenges:
a) Unpleasant overall experience with mounting taxi rates and boorish behaviour of taxi drivers;
b) Ineffective garbage disposal system in most places;
c) The absence of the friendly neighbourhood shacks, which to the majority has always been the be-all and end-all of Goa’s tourism experience.
While there really hasn’t been any traction on resolving the first two, there is a big cause for worry about the manner in which the relationship between the government and the best stakeholders of Goa’s tourism, the shack owners has soured. To be fair though, the current impasse and delay over the shack allotments can be partly attributed to litigation in the National Green Tribunal and the directions given by NGT to conduct the beach carrying capacity of Goa’s beaches. At the same time the term of the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority ended and thus the Beach Carrying capacity study could not be conducted.
The large point here is this. The government and those managing tourism, do not take shack management and shack welfare as a priority. Shack owners should be treated not just with kid gloves but recognised as Goa’s finest tourism ambassadors. The single point objective should have been to start all shack operations by October 1 and everything should have been geared towards that. If a priority was set, then the Ministry of Environment and Forests should have been pushed to constitute the GCZMA, carry out the beach carrying capacity story, allot shacks, complete the demarcation and the inspection and commence operations.
From the number of applications, it is so very clear that shacks are the backbone of Goa’s coastal economy. There were as many as 1023 applications for shack licences both from experienced and new comes. Of these, only 349 have been cleared, leaving 674 applicants without a business to run. The lives and livelihoods of these 674 families have to be a concern.
The bottom line is this. The government and those who manage Goa’s tourism must see tourism as a primary livelihood, which can put more food on the table in many Goan homes, in the coastal belts than any other source of income and its primary responsibility is to ensure a smooth passage for these livelihoods to thrive. At the same time the tourist taxi business in the hands of locals should be supervised so that they do not continue to be the biggest source of harassment. Here is a piquant case of two groups of crucial stakeholders, offering two contradictory Goan experiences. And the government has been protective towards tourist taxi operators who have been the source of displeasure for so many tourists, while ignoring the real needs of shack owners who have been Goa’s finest foot soldiers and ambassadors of tourism.
Goa really needs to be in sync of its, and India’s tourism, needs. The World Travel Market Global Trends report released at London WTM has a section on India and it stated, “Tourism (in India) is empowering women by offering opportunities to enter the formal economy, supported by a government drive and start-ups focusing on women.”
In Goa, even the women taxi service launched with such fanfare doesn’t exist. The very least Goa can do is give more opportunities to locals to enter the tourist economy by helping them earn livelihoods through avenues to serve tourists. And a very good beginning would be to treat our shack owners as family members of the tourism fraternity and ensure that they get to start their businesses on October 1.
