Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa Forward Party president Vijai Sardesai posted a video on social media expressing his anguish over an incident wherein a domestic tourist was seen urinating from an inter-state bus along the Miramar-Dona Paula road. The offensive video, that has gone viral, prompted the minister to demand that Goa needs to re-orient tourism and look for quality as well as high-end tourists.
“The people of Goa are disgusted with a few tourists who come and use Goa as a dumping ground and create nuisance. There are several instances and one such instance is a video that went viral of a tourist urinating from the bus on Goa’s most popular and well done Miramar-Dona Paula road,” he said, in a video message posted on the party’s official WhatsApp group and his Twitter account.
He claimed that these small sections of 6.5 million tourists who have visited the State in the past are the ‘scum of the earth’ for having created the biggest nuisance. “These people have no civic sense. These people are creating the maximum garbage and maximum nuisance. So there is a general feeling among Goans that we need to re-orient tourism to what it was before, Goa’s model of development is about low density and high cost. It is not about quantity but quality,” he said, adding that he is speaking for the local population.
“We may be laidback but not in this matter… I am willing to bell the cat. My party is willing to bell the cat. We want to maintain the unique identity of Goa be it architecture, ethos, or tolerance, but at the same time, we don’t want to develop Goa that it is only about numbers and not about quality. Certain section of tourists creating nuisance are scum of the earth. And we do not need such tourists. We have to try and see to bring quality and high end tourist,” he added.
The GFP president went back 50 years to the merger issue and said, “We are looking at a scenario where we are gobbled up from within and we will have to espouse these sentiments. We are a regionalistic party which is espousing these sentiments and I am not apologetic about it. This is not about xenophobia but this is about speaking for what Goans believe.”
The drive-in tourist culture that has off late severely dented the tourism economy and the State, has, in the recent past seen an almost unbelievable number of people travelling from neighbouring States in their own vehicles giving almost zero economic activity to tourism stakeholders. Buses and vans carrying low-budget tourists also contribute only filth and nuisance, triggering discussions when Goa will achieve its target to encourage high-end tourists.
