Team Herald
CALANGUTE: An argument between tourists and shack operators at Calangute took an ugly turn early on Tuesday after the shack workers assaulted the group of visitors, leaving a 28-year-old holidayer dead. Shack owner Agnelo Silveira, 64, his son Schubert, 23, and two shack workers, Anil Bista and Kamal Sunar, both from Nepal, have been arrested.
According to reports, the brawl broke out after the workers at the Marina Shack at Tivaiwaddo, Calangute, refused to serve food to the tourists around 1 am on Tuesday, as the shack had already shut for the night. The group got angry and allegedly started arguing and insulting the shack workers, who then turned around and reportedly thrashed them with sticks, leading to the death of 28-year-old Bhola Ravi Teja, a resident of Andhra Pradesh.
According to the police complaint by Spandan Bollu, who was part of the group of tourists, others with them who were also beaten up were Chaitanya Gopi Pandapu, Kairam Giridhar, and Deepak Satyanarayana.
According to John Lobo, general secretary of the Shack Owners Welfare Society – Goa, a dispute over the bill probably led to the unfortunate incident. “I heard that they were refused food way beyond the closing time. When waiters asked them to pay extra if they wanted food to be made so late, they refused,” he said.
Lobo added, “There are instances where tourists get intoxicated and start abusing the staff and management, which ultimately turn into brawls. What has happened is really unfortunate and truly regrettable. I sympathise with the bereaved family,” Lobo said.
Manuel Cardozo, president of the Goan Traditional Shacks Owners Association, said the huge crowds in the Christmas-New Year peak season has left the shack workers exhausted, which could be one of the factors behind the tragedy.
Goa’s famed hospitality: Are players no more hospitable?
Team Herald
CALANGUTE: The shocking murder of a 28-year-old tourist from Andhra Pradesh at Marina shack in Calangute, which sent shock waves across Goa, has put a big question mark on the safety of tourists in the State, with tourism stakeholders claiming that hospitality trade and its players in Goa are no more hospitable.
Terming the incident an “unfortunate”, Santosh Divkar, Goa Tourism Board Member (GTB) and President of Small and Medium Hotels Association, said, “There is need to train and update the shack business with the current needs and challenges. Shacks today are being run by Goans, but the staffers employed are non-Goan. They don’t extend the same hospitality like Goans do. In addition, they are not trained in customer handling etiquettes. It’s a concoction of these deficiencies combined with rude unruly guests that results in incidents.”
Divkar said, “There is a need to train and enhance the skills of the persons running the shack business because it is a mirror of the Goan hospitality.”
Vivek Kerkar from Skal, an international organisation, focused on worldwide students and young professionals from the tourism industry said, “This is a peculiar situation Goa is facing. The quality of tourism has gone down and the shack owners were not used to such kinds of tourists. In addition to that, shacks are being run by a few Goans now. When there is an extra billing and normal tourists do not challenge, aggressive tourists get into an argument. It is a combination of both.” Kerkar said that this situation in the tourism of Goa will stay for a while.
Cruz Cardozo, Shack Owners Welfare Society president had a different take. Acknowledging the fact that it was a sad incident, he said, “The shack owners have been facing a harrowing time due to the unruly behaviour of tourists. As shack owners, we are suffering a lot. There are several incidents that happen, but shack owners don’t report because they do not want the matter to aggravate.”
Cardozo said, “If the Police force is deployed and responds on time there won’t be such incidents. There are incidents where police do reach on time. But there is a need for a better, faster turnout time to instil discipline.”
Tourism professional Lyndon Alves said “The incident at the shack was very unfortunate, especially at this time of Goa bashing. It’s frustrating that we receive a lot of brash tourists, but all the same we cannot take the law into our hands and that brings a bad name to Goa. Looking at what’s going on all over, the late night music and bars, etc., everyone seems to be taking the law into their own hands.”
GTB member Sanjiv Sardesai said, “The murder in a shack is shocking and shameful. The hospitality trade and its players in Goa are no more hospitable. It is time that the Goa government and Tourism Department come down heavily on such operators, and publicly keep away any elected representative from interfering, who have been incompetent to control such acts in their respective constituencies. Such tragic incidents give Goa a bad name, as never before! There are cases of paid media working against Goa’s tourism interests. Stop such acts, before the fair name of Goa gets degraded further.”