Announcing the Carnival dates and programme, Tourism Minister Manohar (Babu) Azgaonkar said that due to some reasons, tourism has dropped. Indeed it has, and the reasons are quite clear. In fact, the writing is on the wall. It may be a virtual wall, but a wall it is nevertheless and the writing on it is by the people who matter most. During a period when the Goa tourism industry should have been at its busiest, hotels this season have reported low occupancy and to add salt to the wounds, British tourists have posted on their social networking site pages of their travails in Goa and the reasons why they won’t come back. Most of the reasons the Britons have reported in not wanting to return to Goa or of the troubles they experience here is the escalated room tariffs and menu prices.
The postings expose a rather sordid state of how the industry functions, where there have been accusations of prices being doubled and even tripled if the tourists are ‘white-skinned’. This is a serious allegation and one that the government has to investigate. The State cannot afford to have its reputation dented due to such charges with no reply coming from the government to these postings. With the social media playing such a major role today and influencing decisions of potential travellers, shouldn’t Goa Tourism’s public relations team be on the ball and replying to such claims when they are made on the internet? It does appear that the local tourism administration is not geared up to the challenges of digital marketing.
From the messages posted on social media, it is clear that many of the tourists are looking to go elsewhere – South East Asia and even other Indian States – are the options. More concern for Goa emerges from the fact that it is not just the British tourists who are looking at alternatives to Goa, but the Russians too. Here’s what a Russian tourist posted, “The Russian-speaking community thinks the same. There are other States in India waiting for us.” Indeed, there are, and the competition is increasing with Goa running the race at a leisurely pace, when it should be dashing to retain the advantage that it has held on to all these years.
It is easier to build a new destination, than to recover from a blow and then catch up with the other emerging destinations. That struggle is always far more difficult, hence Goa cannot let slip the advantage in beach tourism that it has held over the past years. As other Indian states open up their coasts for tourism purposes, the increased competition will send Goa reeling. However much it might be attempted to play it down, it is now clear that tourism in the State is beginning to fall apart. Tourism, it has to be reiterated here, is a very fickle industry and one bad season, a few bad reviews can spell the end of the industry.
The greed for a quick buck that has led to increasing tariffs will lead to the downfall of the industry. The taxi business has been accused of it, now it is the hotels and the State is unable to take action. Difficult as it is to admit, there is some truth in what a tourist said when he posted that the government doesn’t have a clue of how to promote tourism and that it appears that the State actually want to destroy the industry. Can we prove this wrong by tackling the situation in such manner that the next season brings in larger numbers and makes good the losses that the stakeholders are staring at this season?
