“I need to be a millionaire to holiday in Agonda: UK tourist” (Herald dated Jan 8) only confirms what Goans have been witnessing for some time now – the death throes of their tourism industry, which is the very last bastion of the State’s economy. However, while there is some merit in the opinions of international tourists carried in the Herald that capricious pricing has played a role in bringing this about, one also needs to consider the possibility that this situation could be the manifestation of an unwritten vision of the present political dispensation, that comes through in a number of its inexplicable actions taken against the interests of Goa and its tourism industry.
After all, it doesn’t take rocket science for a government to comprehend that turning a tourist destination into a coal hub, lowering CRZ regulations, creating an unrealistic logistic hub in a place which has no land even for necessary infrastructure, are sure fire ways of destroying it. All this by a Government which has proved its total inability to even provide adequate power, water or effective garbage and law enforcement.
And while there is substance to Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo’s lamentation that the vagrants masquerading as tourists are destroying quality tourism in Goa, he needs to explain how his vision of turning a place of natural beauty into a concrete jungle through PDAs is going to regain lost ground for Goa’s tourism industry. It is also revealing that Michael Lobo and his Government do not make any attempt to act in enforcing existing laws that would discourage such tourists from despoiling the environment while accruing no benefits to Goa or Goans.
Building a huge second Mopa airport at the cost of 50,000 trees, 43 natural springs, livelihoods and homes of Goans when tourist footfalls are on a severe decline, is a clear indication of the Government’s attitude towards Goans. The Tourism Master Plan itself reveals that the humane tourism we once knew is over and done with. The big boys are here to stay with sin, sleaze, casinos and all that go along with it. Get ready to face the future.
