GOA TOURISM IN TIMES OF COVID19 LOCKDOWN

Calangute beach 

Easter 2020 came and went in Goa with barely a whimper thanks to Covid19 and the accompanying lockdown. Easter Balls and entertainment fests are par for the course in Goa this time of the year. But Covid19 has shut down the tourism hotspot, lock, stock and barrel.

Almost 3500 tourists – both domestic and foreign - remain stranded in Goa. Only shops selling essential items like groceries and vegetables and pharmacies are open for limited hours. Covid19 has caused much concern and uncertainty over Goa’s most saleable commodity – tourism.

Calangute beach North Goa

Goa tourism minister Manohar “Babu” Azgaonkar told me that the pandemic has hit Goa tourism hard. “Right from the omelette-pao stall to the 5-star hotel, this has caused a huge financial loss to everyone and to the state. We are not even certain when this will end. Goa is lucky that we are not affected by the virus itself, thanks to the measures initiated by the chief minister (Pramod Sawant) and our government.”

Azgaonkar lamented that the nature of the pandemic was such that there was no certainty when it would end. “Roads, airlines, waterways and trains are all closed. But it’s dangerous to open up as the virus can kill people en masse. I think our tourism will take a long time to recover. When we are sure the danger has passed, we will meet with all stakeholders and discuss the way forward. We will succeed,” Azgaonkar said.

Menino D’Souza, director, Goa tourism department, laments that the pandemic has shut down not only tourism, but all allied activity like local taxi business and small guesthouses. “It’s difficult to quantify the loss we have suffered. We suffered earlier due to the collapse of Thomas Cook and its cancellations. Now this pandemic has affected every sector, but Goa tourism is the worst hit,” D’Souza said.

Reacting to criticism from some quarters that the Goa government has shown panic, D’Souza said “things are so unpredictable” and though “the government does not want a lockdown; it is forced to do it. If we open our borders, everyone might pour in and we do not know what will follow,” D’Souza said.

“It is zero tourism in Goa right now,” says Savio Messias, president of Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG), an NGO comprising hoteliers, airlines, tour operators, casinos and event management companies. “This will continue for another couple of months. Things may improve in Goa because the outbreak has not affected the state much. But that will not help us because the source markets are affected,” says Messias.

Source markets on the domestic front - Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, etc. are affected. Train and air connectivity to these markets is shut down. Messias is looking at the overseas market only post monsoon, which is October 2020, because overseas tourists do not visit India in the monsoons.

Never has the state been as silent, ever since the hippies discovered Goa in the 60s and the state burgeoned rapidly into a global tourism hotspot. In India’s smallest state, boasting 43,148 rooms and 73,667 beds in all categories (Goa tourism department figures), the pandemic has brought the rush-to-the-sun to a grinding halt.

Even without Covid19, tourism had declined in Goa. In 2018, the state received 80.15 lakh visitors. Till May 2019, the tourist footfalls had crossed just 27 lakh. Goa has a resident population of 15.15 lakh.

Beach shacks - Bosco's and The Hangout

All 18 rooms at the 3-star, 18-room Kingstork Beach Resort on the iconic Calangute beach (North Goa), are empty, except one. That room is home to an elderly British couple who are stranded in the resort due to the lockdown.

The loss of business is one thing, but the resort is now also stuck with 10 non-Goan staff who cannot travel to their home states. Retired British couples form a large part of Kingstork’s guests. These usually fly on Thomas Cook charter flights but book their long stays directly with the resort. At the beginning of the tourism season, the closure of Thomas Cook caused about 25 per cent cancellations at Kingstork. Covid19 has shut business much before season-end. With no income coming, Kingstork has to still pay costs.

The (Empty) Hangout Beach Shack

The Palolem Guesthouse, one of the oldest guesthouses at Palolem beach in Canacona taluka, the southern tip of Goa, had its last guests in the end of February. All bookings for March were cancelled. The 25-room guesthouse gets domestic and foreign tourists but new bookings are on hold due to the current uncertainty.  Palolem guesthouse feels that in all the 17 years of their operations, this is the worst tourism season ever.

Jewel of the Goan beach, the shacks are shut too. Built with wooden rafters and palm fronds, these offer tourists food and booze as they lounge on cane chairs in sinful states of undress, while at the same time, relish mouth-watering views of the ocean. Their idle staff now play football in the sand to pass the time. When this scribe visited Calangute beach two days ago, Bosco’s Beach Shack, a popular haunt for seafood lovers, had its tables all piled-up. The shacks on either side, The Hangout and The Buckingham Café, have removed all their tables.

Calangute beach, Goa’s most popular, is allotted the highest number of shacks by the tourism department. But many shacks have been pulled down prematurely, others are to be flattened soon; an economy gone bust.

Ernest Dias, Goa chief operating officer, SITA TRAVELS, is busy coordinating the repatriation of foreigners stranded in Goa. So far, SITA (Goa) arranged 5 flights to evacuate stranded Brits and 4 flights to Germany. There are tourists of several other nationalities stranded here and their evacuation is being planned. “But these tourists are happy to stay in Goa, they feel safer here,” says Dias.

He points out that the corona positive cases in Goa have fallen from 7 to just 2 and there is not a single Covid death here. Dias laments that the Goa government is “jumping the gun” by unnecessarily predicting poor tourism footfalls in November-December. “They should look at the immediate scenario and promote Goa’s safety record. The summer destinations like Turkey, Spain, Italy, Portugal have gone bust. I advise my agents to send people to Goa from September itself,” says Dias.

He admits that SITA revenues took a hit with Covid19 and the cancelled charter flights. Confident that Goa itself will remain safe, he however fears for the conditions in the source markets. “If the pandemic persists in the UK and other parts of Europe, and if their governments have long lockdowns, then we will have a problem. The Russians are bolder and if things are better there, they will be more than happy to travel. I am very confident things will improve,” Dias says.

Bosco's - tables, chairs stacked up

Like Dias, TTAG president Savio Messias also sees a silver lining in the Covid19-inflicted shutdown and is confident that tourism will flourish in Goa in the next season beginning October 2020. Said Messias, “Goa will bounce back. It is still a strong beach destination. Some people have posted pictures of Goan beaches on social media. For example, Calangute beach now looks like it looked 30 or 40 years ago; miles and miles of pristine beach with not a soul in sight. It’s beautiful.”