There is an eerie sense of resignation in the streets of Palolem and a despondent look on establishments around one of Goa’s most iconic beaches.
The only constant movement is the sound of tourists calling for a taxi or looking for a bus to return to Dabolim airport as they plan to leave Goa and head back home or to another tourist destination. “The tourist season is over. Almost all of the tourists have left or are leaving,” lamented a taxi driver stationed on the roadside near the Palolem beach.
It’s the second week of May and Palolem is empty, unlike the golden years where Palolem never had to bother about foreign tourists visiting their shores. Now you will find only a small trickle of tourists visiting Palolem and even in this gloomy scenario, as soon as these foreign tourists set foot on the beach, they have Lamanis bombarding them with items to sell or a group of creepy Indian men staring at them with a perverted glee.
Those present, grumble about not being able to walk on the beach without being approached by water sports operators. The peace and quiet that was once on offer has now given way to the hustle and bustle of any other of Goa’s famous beach stretches. The identity of Palolem is slowly changing for the worse.
While the shacks have a lot of Indian tourists on the weekends, some of the boutique resorts at Palolem have closed for the season, especially those run by foreigners.
“There has certainly been a dip among the foreign tourist arrivals at Palolem. This could be due to the trend in Goa as a whole with the number of visitors dropping but even these prefer other neighbouring beaches like Agonda or Morjim in the north,” said Ramesh Dessai, who runs a boutique cafe on the beach along with an Israeli.
“Palolem still has that exotic charm on the domestic market but it seems to have lost that charm with the kind of foreigners that would frequent the beach in the past. On one hand, it is good that Palolem gets high profile Indian tourists on the weekend as it is good for business but there has been an overload of the other type of Indian tourist that just want to stare at women in bikinis and this naturally drives tourists away,” said Cruz Cardozo, President of the Shack Owners Welfare Society of Goa.
“Secondly, there is no infrastructure at the beach. The British and Russian tourists for example, who return are disappointed as there is no change here, as compared to the other tourist destinations in other countries. The government should spend money to improve the infrastructure and then promote it but they have still not solved the parking issue,” quips Cardozo.
“Palolem has a parking issue and the main beach road gets congested, particularly on weekends. Many tourists now prefer to stay in Patnem, Galgibag and Agonda which are quieter beaches and look less commercial than Palolem. Palolem itself is still a gorgeous beach but it has become over-developed in the last 10 years and despite the increase in prices, a lot of the accommodation still remained quite basic. Travellers became priced out of the market making way for more two week holiday makers and there has been quite a rise in domestic tourism.
“Palolem was a unique beach located at the extreme end of Goa. The local bodies and the Government have done nothing to prevent the slide of the beach from its premier position twenty years back. The Government needs to provide sewage treatment and control illegal hotels who let their sewage into the sand without any mode of treatment. The subsoil is contaminated. Gradually therefore, the quality tourists have disappeared. One can see them in places like Agonda which is kept clean by the locals,” said Francisco de Braganca, Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) president.
Sinead who heads business development in India for National Geographic Traveller UK, and the Association of British Travel Agents felt that while the beach itself has always been clean, the issue lies at the surrounding village that has a problem with garbage issues.
“When you look around the roads leading to the beach, there are piles of rubble and sites that don’t make it attractive. With a concerted effort to tidy up, I think Palolem could be much more appealing. There has been a drive to clean up Palolem and the surrounding areas in Canacona which I think will help tourism in general in the area. Palolem now has a new backpacker hostel which should attract this market back to the area,” added Sinead.
