“It’s like from top to bottom,” Ma nuel Cardozo, president of the Traditional Shack Own ers Association, Calangute, says of the trajectory of the beach shacks business in the Calangute-Candolim beach-belt, which has more than half of all the beach shacks in Goa. Although it’s the midst of the Christmas-New Year peak season, shack business is a pale shadow of what it once was, said stakehold ers, and add that it’s un likely that the boom days of shacks witnessed during the three decades from around 1990-2020 will ever return looking at the scenario of the last five years. “This season is the same as the last few seasons. It’s low-budget domestic tourists and every year the crowd is getting cheaper. It’s like from top to bot tom,” said Cardozo. For eign tourists once visited Goa in large numbers and were the main customers in beach shacks as they would spend their holiday loung ing on beach beds to soak up the sun and get tans. “Today there is not a single foreign tourist in Baga. It’s all packed with domestic tour ists,” said John Lobo, General Secretary of The Shack Own ers Welfare Society (SOWS) in Baga, on Saturday. The Calangute-Candolim beach stretch along with Baga beach had over the years become the preferred destinations for upper crust domestic tourists who would come in large numbers. However, even the profile of the domestic tourists coming to these beaches has gone down, said Cardozo. “The days when tourists would come and order sea food are gone. Today I was sitting in a shack and a group of three domestic tourists ordered tea, but they had brought their own biscuits. It’s tea or they have Maggi noodles.” The low-budget tourists also avoid shacks. “Now there are too many cheap places in Calangute where they can eat. At least in Baga and Candolim there are slightly better domestic tourists,” said John Lobo. Beach beds were once a big source of revenue for shack owners. Many unemployed youth also had licences for beach bed rental, simi lar to rent-a-bike etc. A beach bed would be rented for Rs 500 a day to a foreign tourist. “Beach beds are still there as part of the license for beach shacks. Now we give them free for tourists to lie down if they make a bill of at least Rs 500. Those who have only the beach bed license are still there, they charge Rs 100, but they’re only there in some areas in Baga and Can dolim,” said John Lobo. Calangute shacks allow tourists to use them free of charge, Cardozo said. “It’s only in some areas that the beach beds are still being given on rent where there are some foreigners”. Foreigners would visit shacks only during daytime, dining in restaurants in the evening. But now many do mestic tourists visit shacks at night for loud music entertainment, leading to late-night problems like last year’s violent incidents.
Peak season brings little cheer for Calangute–Baga shacks
