A friend sent this writer a thread from the social media platform X, it was about the recent spat between Maldives and India and how the Prime Minister by promoting Lakshadweep was indirectly getting at the Maldives tourism business. The point that came up in the discussion was that going to Lakshadweep was not as easy as it seemed, since there were processes and permits that Indians had to take. The reason these permissions are in place is to protect the fragile ecosystem of Lakshadweep which can easily get destroyed with unregulated tourism. While many users did point out Goa, Himachal, Port Blair as worst examples, where unregulated tourism had messed up these once upon a time beautiful places into trash, the other side of the argument that was made especially by author of the thread was that Goa has become one of the richest State in the country because of tourism.
The author of the above mentioned thread is quite influential and not some fly by night troll; has a following of 1.5 Million on X, founded companies, yet seems to have made up his mind that it is tourism that has made Goa and Goans rich compared to other States of the country. If educated and savvy people get the impression that tourism is the cause of our high standard of living, it means Goans have not publicised enough our real sources of income. A tourist especially arriving in the Christmas season and on seeing restaurants and hotels at the peak of the business, unwisely gets the impression that tourism is the reason Goans can afford such a high standard of living.
For the record, especially to our Indian fellow citizens, please rectify this wrong notion that tourism has made Goans rich. Almost 95% of Goans don’t make a rupee on tourism, the percentage will only increase if you leave the taxi drivers who are at the bottom of the tourism pyramid collecting crumbs from tourists, yes crumbs even if we complain that they charge high, living in Goa they unfortunately have to endure the same high standard of living the place has to offer.
Not every tourist reads the data government institutions dish out regularly that keeps Goa on a comparatively high economic pedestal, so than what makes the tourist come to the conclusion that Goa and Goans are rich. The first impression they get from the airport to their hotels is that Goans live in decent spacious living spaces mostly consisting of independent dwellings with a well-manicured garden. They also notice the high-end restaurants they visit as tourists, are also frequented by Goans, which means the local Goans spending power is superior as compared to other parts of India. Hence the assumption that Goans enjoy a high standard of living and because a tourist only notices a thriving economy based on tourism, they tend to build the wrong theory.
Here is a partial history lesson as far as Goa’s real estate is concerned. Tourism did exist in Goa before the year 2000 but it was only a trickle. The starred hotels raked in the moolah but the scale was much lower. Even the restaurants which have become big and flashy after the year 2000 were run as small humble eating joints. Then one day a website rated Goa as one of the top destinations and that opened the doors for tourists and the trickle turned into a wave. This also coincided with the mass use of internet and social media which became word of mouth publicity for tourists to visit beautiful Goa.
Now most of the houses Goans live were built much before the tourism boom began from the year 2000. While some mansions are around four hundred years old, the newer ones were also built when Goa was dealing in tourists with shoe string budgets. This small history lesson only goes to show that Goans decided to live in style much before tourists landed in Goa. So to assume that Goans maintain a high standard of living only because of tourism is not accurate. On the contrary most housing spaces have started becoming smaller for Goans to live, for the simple reason that tourism also gave rise to a temporary real estate bubble and priced Goans out of the game.
So then, who really has been financing the building of Goan homes before or during the ongoing tourism boom? Who are the ones funding home improvements or for that matter even pay for the daily household expenses? Non-Resident Goans, it is! It is their foreign remittances that are mostly responsible for running the economy. Please note, Goa’s foreign remittances might look small compared to other big States, but Goa is small with less population and therefore Goan foreign remittances never make it to the headlines. Also, we, resident Goans never show our gratitude to these remittances, be it parents, siblings, friends or government, we use Non-Resident Goans only as cash generating machines, while making every effort to keep these remittances invisible as much as possible.
These invisible foreign remittances also have a multiplier effect in the auto and home building industries. While the economy gladly accepts the money they pour into building their dream homes, our government works overtime in disenfranchising them out of Goa on some crazy technicality. The more we try to keep our foreign remittances invisible, the more vocal tourists are going to get in boasting that the economy of Goa runs on their spending. Agreed, there are starred hotels and some new silly souls making money, but please check the shareholding pattern and the ownership details, most of the profits they make are not going into Goan pockets, so please stop making assumptions that our high standard of living is due to tourism. On the contrary Goan way of life has taken a hit with the nuisance unregulated tourism has created.
The only entity generating revenue consistently on tourism is the Government of Goa with their taxes, but even they are in huge debt to finance their never ending capex, which means they have a total mismatch to deal with. In this messy economic situation the only consistent flows have been Goa’s foreign remittances, they might be invisible in nature but remain a sizeable portion of the economy, it just does not show on the books.
(The author is a business consultant)
