It’s Christmas and New Year season, the most important fortnight for Goa’s tourism sector and the industry is in turmoil. And the worst part, the government of the day seems clueless on how to keep the industry intact and unified so that the visitors leave with an awesome experience.
What happened at the Mormugao Port on December 14, as rightly pointed out by Travel & Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) members, was simmering for a long and erupted on last Wednesday, causing great inconvenience to our international guests. The incident is not just shameful from the point of insulting guests but beyond dangerous as it has the potential to destroy atleast the cruise liner tourism for Goa.
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However, it does not end here and the government which ensured that the Manohar International Airport at Mopa was inaugurated by the Prime Minister is not able to provide a modest mode of transport for the passengers who will begin to arrive at the new airport from January 5.
Transport Minister for a while has been talking about multi-mode transport facility at the new airport. However, the reality is far from the statements and let alone multiple choices, the only choice arriving passengers will have are the Kadamba Transport Corporation (KTC) buses. As announced by the Tourism Minister, 8 KTC buses will be pressed into service every hour to ferry arriving passengers to their destination.
This idea of KTC buses is a non-starter as the government arm which has been unable to streamline its public transport services due to lack of fleet, how will it even provide 32 buses, if one considers the turnaround time for every bus to be 4 hours. If the idea has been copy pasted with editing from the Dabolim Airport experiment, then perhaps the government hasn’t realised that the new airport is a 24×7 arrival and departure facility unlike the Dabolim Airport which has restrictions and no-fly-time for civilian aircrafts during the morning half of the day.
However, the icing on the cake of failures is the Goa Taxi App proposed by the government, one which was to unify the tourist transport stakeholders in the State. With less than a fortnight for the Mopa airport to commence functioning, the government has not even brought the App proposal for a discussion in the Cabinet meeting. On the other hand, around 800 taxi owners and operators of Pernem have outright rejected the proposal and refused to join the App based taxi service. Lest we forget, the government has not been able to resolve the Goa Miles issue, even after 4 years of the issue keeping the State on its toes with the App based taxi operators still being at the receiving end.
As the date nears for the first flight to land at the Mopa Airport, the government is running out of time to ensure that the State is not let down once again by the boisterous agitating taxi operators who have upped their ante against anything that the government proposes except their demands. The failure of the State has turned them into goons, who can create ruckus and bring shame not just to Goa but the nation as well.
The BJP led government will have to give up its stance of pleasing every voter base. Mormugao MLA took responsibility for the goondaism and disrespect meted out to the American guests on December 14 at Mormugao Port. What action has the party taken against its MLA for supporting the violent behaviour?
Goa’s beachbelt is the most after sought pie of the tourism sector and the politics around the coastal belt is equally important to the ruling dispensation. However, by not having a concrete policy and a strong executionable plan, the government is leaving the fortress of tourism without guard.
The tourism industry is already marred with drugs, rape and sexual assaults, murders and the almost half a decade long taxi problem. The delay in having an efficient transportation system from the airports is only adding to the worries that beginning of the new airport and the year 2023 will be rough.
