Team Herald
PANJIM: Not long back, Goa opened its doors for domestic tourism on July 2 amidst the COVID-19 crisis. On Wednesday, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant announced a short-term lockdown in the wake of significant rise in cases.
While the decision is an attempt to contain community transmission, the tourism sector by and large is not perturbed by the development. However, the ‘confidence’ among the stakeholders is likely to take a slight hit.
At 260 hotels, which recently received granted permission to resume operations, the guests are minimal. The Goa Hotels & Restaurant Association said the lockdown is a positive decision for a healthy situation in future.
“It (lockdown) will make no difference to the hotel industry because in any case, none of the tourists are coming down; and there is hardly any occupancy. For the betterment of the society and to bring down the cases, this is a good decision,” said Association President Gaurish Dhond.
Dhond clarified that those tourists who have already checked-in will not face any inconvenience as they will continue to stay till the lockdown is lifted.
“There is community spread of the virus, and a change is the need. Unless there is a lockdown, you cannot bring a change. Community spread has to be stopped,” he added while citing how a single case at a private firm in Verna led to nearly 130 cases.
With lockdown enforcement, all the entry points for non-essential services remain closed which purportedly includes air and rail service too.
The umbrella organization of travel and tourism industry – Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) also conceded that bookings in Goa ‘are not that great’ but confidence could be hit.
“Fortunately, the bookings are not that great in Goa, so the lockdown will not have a major impact. Otherwise, confidence-wise it will hit. But unfortunately as cases are going up… we also don’t know if a lockdown was required or not,” said TTAG President Nilesh Shah.
He has urged the government to not cancel the scheduled flights as well as transport to ferry passengers to the airport.
“Secondly we also have a lot of Goans who are travelling back to different places to join work; and those on repatriation flights have connecting travel from Goa. Lockdown should not affect all these,” he added. Shah reiterated that with “low tourism” at the moment, lockdown would not have a major impact but positive sentiments to carry on with the business will be impacted.
Along with these, Goa’s ambitious adventure tourism projects could also face hurdles even during the coming days.
The projects introduced during the tenure of Dilip Parulekar as Tourism Minister in 2014 have often been ridden with hindrances such as clearances, opposition to operating sites, etc. Except for the Hot Air Balloon; other projects such as the seaplane service, anti-terrain vehicle rides, amphibian vehicles and the helipad tourism did not take off as expected.
Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar is however optimistic that these activities will resume based on central guidelines and said, “The tourism is on and the adventure sports activities are also to continue. Soon after the Central government gives a nod, all these activities will also resume.”
For now, white water rafting has been suspended for the entire season this year.
