Cooked charter tourism deflates goa's seasons in the sun

The liquidation of Thomas Cook UK has exposed the harsh reality of Goa Tourism and its heavy dependence on foreign charter tourist arrivals to sustain the industry. With Goa already staring at losing nearly 50,000 Britishers in the coming season and expected losses predicted to be over Rs 1 crore, VIBHA VERMA, speaks to tourism stakeholders who share a grim view about the near future. Goa has already lost chartered visitors from Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Holland and other countries over the past couple of years. What will and should the government do to help the industry tide over this crisis, is the question. More importantly, is it time to start looking at different avenues to help Goa’s tourism be great again?

Published on:

27 Sep 2019, 12:44 am

The thrill of taking a leap into the air with just the knowledge of there being an elastic cord strapped to your body to break the fall, comes with the fear of plummeting into nothingness. Goa’s newest tourist attraction of bungee jumping may not shore up the dwindling numbers of tourist footfalls, but it’s a rather stark comparison to the condition of tourism in the State. The industry has been plunging into a future that is unknown, with only the charter flights as their anchor of hope. But that has changed.

The liquidation of the over one-and-half-century-old Thomas Cook UK has exposed the harsh reality of Goa Tourism and its heavy dependence on foreign charter tourist arrivals to sustain the industry. The sudden closure of the UK-based tour operator, which specialised in offering all-inclusive travel packages, is likely to jack up the fares of flights from Europe. With Goa already staring at losing nearly 50,000 Britishers in the coming season, the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) foresees a loss of over Rs 1 crore.

The collapse of Thomas Cook UK is one in a list of setbacks to Goa. Earlier this year it was the withdrawal of Finnair, and some seasons earlier the pioneers of charter tourism in Goa – Condor from Germany – stopped landing at Dabolim. Over the past couple of years, Goa has lost chartered visitors from Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Holland and other countries. The arrivals from some countries were reduced from a few hundreds to two digits and then nil.

Industry expert and former TTAG president Ralph D’Souza slammed the attention given to UK tourists, while ignoring other countries. “We had many Germans, Scandinavians and English tourists among other international visitors. However, in the last 10 to 12 years, Russians started increasing in numbers and hoteliers began ignoring other Europeans. As a result, the Germans were the first to exit and till now Scandinavia, Finland and many more are not looking at Goa,” he stated.

D’Souza’s analysis is right. The signs of the waning appeal of charter tourism were there. While the cord in the bungee jump is tested for strength before every jump, Goa’s cord of charters hasn’t been tested, although it has become frayed and worn. Somehow the administrators of tourism in Goa did not check to see just how strong the charter industry in Goa is faring or for any potential major disruption.

The charter section of tourism in Goa has been wading through some difficult times faced with a drop in landings. The situation reached a disquieting point when the 2018-19 season ended prematurely, owing to a drop in Russian chartered tourists. In 2017-18, there were 4.64 lakh chartered tourists who arrived in the State, and then the numbers slipped to 4.20 lakh the following season. The number of chartered flights also plunged from 1,984 to 1,599. This should have been an indication to the tourism industry to sit up and take notice, but even as the stakeholders cried about the bad season, Goa Tourism failed to pay heed to the writing on the wall.

The situation has raised an important question – whether Goa’s dependence on charter tourists should continue or whether it is time to look for alternative avenues to garner international visitors.

Pioneers in the travel and tourism industry, Trail Blazer Tours India Pvt Ltd, conceded that charters are an important component of the tourism industry although this segment constitutes barely 20 per cent of the arrivals. “Goa has all types of segments like business, conferences, wedding, charter, etc. Charter tourism is one segment and it is less than 20 per cent of the entire industry. But it is an important segment because of the room nights created by the tourists,” said Chief Operating Officer (COO) Aloo Gomes Pereira.

He, however, emphasised that Goa needs to keep all segments alive. This comment signifies that the tourism sector’s focus should not be restricted to charters business.

Endorsing Gomes Pereira’s views, D’Souza explained the importance of charter visitors, especially given the fact that the number of their room nights is more than that of any other tourists. “Charters are extremely important for survival of the tourism industry. Majority hotels are packed during the seven months of the season because the average stay of a charter tourist is 15 days, whereas a domestic tourist usually spends three days ,” he said.

D’Souza and Gomes Pereira are tourism veterans, who ventured into the industry when the description of the beaches as pristine was still true. Today in the 2010s, decades since that time, the silvery-white sand is now discoloured and there’s also the threat of glass shards cutting the feet of those who walk barefoot on the beach. This is almost a reflection of Goa Tourism, which from a promising but hiccup-prone start-up on the lazy shores of Goa, has turned into a struggling industry peppered with the uncertainty of stepping into the unknown.

With Thomas Cook UK no longer flying, Goa faces a challenge of filling a massive vacuum of room night bookings as around 50,000 British tourists would be less in the coming season. On an average, Thomas Cook UK would land one flight to Goa daily during the season, each plane load consisting of around 320 passengers.

It is not that the industry did not foresee this. Melroy D’Costa, heading a Russian charter handling company in Goa, is forthright when he says the sun in setting over Goa’s tourism prospects. “The reason for a decline in charters is due to less demand for Goa. It would not be wrong to say that Goa’s sun in tourism has been slowly setting,” he lamented. D’Costa, however, pointed to other reasons for the slow disappearance of the charters. He explains that lack of security and road safety, crime against foreigners and garbage on the beaches are among a long list of negatives that have been keeping tourists away from the State.

Charters may be bringing just 20 per cent of the total number of tourists, but as pointed out by TTAG president Savio Messias, it is this segment that kept many small and medium hotels in business. Lacking sales and marketing avenues, he pointed out that they depended entirely on charters to keep their rooms occupied.

“Charter tourists stayed for longer periods, like 7 to 21 days, unlike the domestic tourists. A huge number of apartments and guest houses also sprung up due to the huge inventory of unoccupied accommodation available in Goa. We would need to look elsewhere but can the domestic market fill up this accommodation is a difficult question to answer,” he said.

Putting it into perspective, Messias explained that Thomas Cook was very successful in the Goan market and on an average around 15,000 room night bookings have been lost as around 30,000 people booked accommodation in guest houses, apartments etc. The approximate loss, he said, amounts to crores of rupees, not considering the money spent by tourists for day-to-day purchases. “It’s a big blow to all the stakeholders,” he said.

Charter tourists looked for cheap tickets, and attempts to get them to come via regular airlines may not bear results. Already, private airlines have increased their fares, making it all the more difficult for the UK visitors to continue their plans of a Goa holiday. An operator, closely working with Thomas Cook, apprehends that arranging other airlines to fly UK tourists to Goa is not possible in such a short time.

“Qatar Airways, Oman Air and Air India have already hiked fares. It is not easy to go immediately to look for other airlines to ferry the passengers to Goa. Moreover, UK tourists book their tickets well in advance and plan their holiday in a way that fits their budget. It is difficult to get the passengers of Thomas Cook via other airlines in a short span of time,” he stated.

It is obvious that the Goa Tourism marketing strategy needs to be amended. It needs to be strengthened, perhaps even replaced, but what is the alternative? Pereira suggested that the government will have to support tour operators and charter handling agents by making enough budgetary provisions to help market Goa and get potential charter business countries. The main question, however, is whether Goa should continue to depend so heavily on charters. It perhaps is time to change that old cord and attach a new anchor to the industry, which will keep it floating rather than facing an uncertain future.