Only crowd, no biz: Goa tourism sector

With Goa set to host the night-long beach parties in the run-up to the New Year celebrations, the tourism industry is complaining that there is only crowd this year who bring in no business at all and has blamed the drive-in culture that is on the rise for their plight.

“There was far fewer crowd this year during the key days of December 27, 28 and 29. But we expect the footfalls to increase during the last two days of the year,” said Michael Lobo, who owns three resorts. Though there are people on the beaches, they don’t contribute much to their business as they are “drive-in visitors from neighbouring states who spend their nights in their own cars before packing back the next morning,” he added.

Other stakeholders also echo Lobo stating that there is less crowd on the beaches this year and even those fewer crowd is not translating into business.

“What do you expect restaurants to do when visitors are happy eating street side vada-pavs?” asked Salvador Fernandes who owns a restaurant at Calangute, a beach known for low-budget visitors.

Vikram Varma, the legal counsel for Russian consulate in Mumbai, however, says 30,000-40,000 Russians would be celebrating their New Year in Goa this time as well. Nearly 1.4 lakh Russians are slated to visit the state during the course of the year.