Team Herald

Calangute: After Calangute, Baga beach is now losing its charm for foreign charter tourists because of the domestic tourist crowd, according to Shack Owners Welfare Society (SOWS) general secretary John Lobo who operates a shack in Baga.

“This season, there have practically been no foreigners coming to my shack in Baga. It’s the same on the main Calangute beach. It’s because these places are crowded with cheap domestic tourists,” he said.

Now foreign charter tourists are only visiting beach shacks in south Calangute areas like Gauravaddo and the Candolim-Sinquerim beach stretch further down to avoid the domestic tourists who ask foreign women in bikinis to pose for photos with them, the shack owners said. “Shack owners there are doing quite well with foreigners,” Lobo added.

“They don’t want to mingle with the domestic tourists, so they walk to shacks in Gauravaddo, Tivaiwaddo. Hardly 20% of customers are foreigners in Maddawaddo and 5% in Umtawaddo (Calangute main entrance). They also avoid shacks which play loud music,” Manuel Cardozo, president of the Traditional Shacks Owners Association said.

After the abrupt end to the season in March 2020, this season is the first time that foreign charter tourists have arrived in large numbers to Goa, and with the central government reintroducing the e-visa facility, the number of British charter tourists visiting the Calangute-Candolim beach-belt has been rising.

While this has brought some cheer to beleaguered shack owners after two disappointing seasons, there’s a downside. “The foreigners will be there till March; then they will be gone,” Cardozo said. The beach shack season ends in May.

Besides foreign charter tourists, even other foreign tourists now avoid Calangute-Baga because of the rowdy domestic tourists, Lobo said. “The government should do something to reduce the number of these cheap domestic tourists, by only allowing tourists to cross the border if they have confirmed hotel bookings or some such measures,” he said.