Boom Time Blues

IT is the success story the Goa government loves to talk about: the dramatic growth in Goa’s tourism market. Over the past few years, the influx of tourists to this paradisal beach resort has indeed boomed beyond expectation, peaking at 1.06 million arrivals (close to the state’s population) last year. The state’s tourism graph shows a 23 per cent increase in foreign arrivals and an overall growth of 10 per cent a year in traffic in the last three years, the 1994 plague notwithstanding. The flourishing industry contributes a tenth of the state’s gross domestic product, rakes in a yearly princely sum of Rs 150 crore in foreign exchange and employs 20 per cent of the state’s 1.2 million population. Boasts Goa’s Tourism Minister Dr Wilfred De Souza: "We’re the envy of the tourism sector in the rest of the country."

But not for much longer perhaps. The boom has put a severe strain on the state’s limited infrastructure. Though nine chartered flights land here every week in the season, bringing in on an average 2,250 tourists from countries like England, Germany, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and Portugal, airport facilities have been found sorely lacking with just three immigration counters to clear the 300-odd passengers a flight, and only one money exchange counter.

Garbage lies piled up around local beach cottages in the heart of Goa’s tourism belt at Calangute, Anjuna, Baga and Candolim. Most of these cottages rent out rooms cheaply to foreigners on a shoe-string budget. Director of Tourism, U.D. Kamat admits to failure on this count, but says the department has received little co-operation from the local panchayats. "There is tremendous pressure on our infrastructure with the sheer numbers of middle and lower income travellers, he says." The government is also apprehensive about the opening of the Konkan Railway line (slated for February 1996) and the "swarm of tourists" it is likely to bring to Goa. "Whether we have the infrastructure or not, they keep coming. How are we to stop them?" asks a harassed Kamat.

The question is: can Goa’s creaking infrastructure cope? In order to ease the strain, the government now plans to shift the emphasis to upmarket tourism, discouraging lower bracket charters. The government has drawn up ambitious expansion plans to promote upmarket tourism, converting historical forts into luxury resorts and increasing accommodation capacity to 20,000 beds by the turn of the century. Private ventures on the anvil are the Taj Man Singh collaboration project, a 200-room deluxe resort at Benaulim, and a Lalit Suri venture under Bharat Hotels Pvt Ltd for a 240-room deluxe resort in collaboration with Hilton at Talpona, south Goa.

But before the government’s expansion plans can be implemented, it will have to boost infrastructure and spruce up the city. "For Goa to become an upmarket destination, an upmarket infrastructure has to be first cleared, with better roads, telecommunications and uninterrupted power supply," says Norman de Souza, managing director of the De Souza group which runs two middle level hotels for charter tourists in the Baga-Sinquerim area.

Unless the government brings in ‘tourism-friendly’ infrastructure like night clubs, late-night restaurants, better taxi and private coach systems, it cannot hope to attract high-spending tourists, says Victor Albuquerque, managing director of Dona Sylvia, a five-star resort. Responding to the criticism, Wilfred de Souza says the government has begun launching ‘operation clean-up’ on Goa’s beaches and enforcing greater control on the otherwise proliferating beach shacks. At the same time, however, the government’s ambition is to increase bed capacity from 17,000 to 20,000 by the turn of the century, says Wilfred de Souza. To justify this accelerated development, Kamat quotes a 1989 World Tourism Organisation report which estimates that Goa can sustain 2.5 million tourists (over twice its population) a year.

The fact is the Goa government can ill-afford to dictate terms to the charter operators who account for 80 per cent of foreign traffic to the state, despite the fact that they often flout the rules laid down by the Civil Aviation Ministry. These rules require that a charter tourist spend a minimum of $50 a day on food and stay, apart from the airfare. But some charter tourists live in shacks that charge as little as $15 a day.

Even as Goa’s ambitions on the tourism front continue to soar, the edginess and insecurity within the industry is apparent, underlining the fragility of the business. "If Sri Lanka opens, we are finished," predicts a worried hotelier.