CALANGUTE: The Shack Owners Welfare Society (SOWS) has urged the State government to ask the Centre to make the ‘free visas on arrival’ facility available for foreign tourists at the airports in Goa to save the beach shack business.
“Most of the beach shacks across the State are largely dependent on foreign, especially charter tourists clientele,” the SOWS said. With foreign tourist arrivals plummeting, the beach shacks are struggling to survive, SOWS general secretary John Lobo said.
“This season, 90% of shacks in Candolim and parts of Calangute like Gauravaddo, Cobrawaddo, had to shut down in March as there was no business. These shack customers are mostly foreign charter tourists who now shy away from visiting Goa and prefer to places like Sri Lanka, Thailand etc instead which give free visas on arrival,” Lobo said.
“Most countries that depend on tourism give free visas on arrival
but only India does not. The only option to attract foreign tourists is to give free visas on arrival, at least for the countries from which we have been getting tourists,” Lobo said.
He said in the past, Goa received charter tourist flights from Scandinavian countries and Germany, besides UK and Russia in recent years. “Goa tourism is holding road shows and taking part in various international travel marts, but it is the visa issue which has to be sorted out if we want foreign tourists,” he said.
Foreign tourists are the main patrons of beach shacks. The Calangute-Candolim beach-belt has 200-odd shacks, the most in Goa, with hundreds of families dependent on the business. The Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) has also urged the government to sort out the visa issue.
