Goa is symptom, not disease

Unregulated development and culture of exploitation will deter tourists everywhere

Alok Tiwari

Goa is in the news, and not for good reasons this time. Apparently, someone released figures that tourist arrivals, both Indian and foreign, in that pocket of Indian bohemia are down. The news so rattled the Goan department of tourism that it filed an FIR against the social media poster who put out the figures. Since then, commenters have pitched in with their own information and explanations. Overcrowding, increased hotel and food rates, reign of taxi mafia, and disappearing local culture have been offered as reasons for tourists turning away. All these may be true.

For years Goa has been something of an outlier in Indian tourism. This former Portuguese colony began attracting foreign tourists long before they discovered beaches of Kerala and heritage of Delhi-Agra-Jaipur golden triangle. These foreigners, mostly Russians and some from UK, came in droves to escape harsh winters of Europe. Goa, with its fusion of Portuguese, Konkani, and Marathi cultures offered a quaint charm. Compared to rest of India, it was cleaner, safer, and a lot less inhibited. Add its unique food, music, and football to the mix and it offered a very distinct experience.

If Goa is in trouble, it is indeed a bad omen for the rest of the country. It can be said that rest of India is slowly growing over Goa. The actual disease is absence of a culture of welcome and hospitality in country. We may shout ‘atithi devo bhav’ but we have never meant it. It is for this reason that India has historically struggled with attracting foreign tourists. Even now our figures are dismal. Last year we got less than 65 lakh foreign tourists. This figure is less than our own pre-Covid figures when other countries have long recovered from the pandemic.

Our foreign tourist arrivals are fully a third less than Vietnam, a country barely the size of a major Indian state and with no particular tourism heritage. They are a fifth of Thailand, another small country. In recent years even Sri Lanka, with all its domestic political and economic troubles, has begun taking tourists away from India. In fact, middle class Indian tourists have now begun travelling to these destinations in large numbers shunning local places.

This should sound alarm bells among all stakeholders. They should be brainstorming about how this pathetic state can be reversed instead of shooting the messengers who bring the bad news. This is even more important as tourism is one industry that has potential to create large scale employment, something that India needs above all else. This industry is not amenable to automation like other sectors of the economy like manufacturing and IT. And it has potential to provide jobs in large number to people not having very high education or skills, our two other Achille’s heels. Even ordinary folks can serve as drivers, hotel staff, and guides.

Like in many other things, on paper India’s tourist potential is limitless. There is hardly a tourism category where India has nothing to offer. Be it nature or wildlife, heritage and culture, adventure, sunny coasts, mountains, or deserts we have it all. Plus, we have something by way of spiritual tourism that few countries in the world can match. We have different types of foods that are already known and popular in many parts of the world. In theory, India should be a tourism superpower, among the top two or three host countries of the world. In reality, we are a distant also-ran.

What gives? Our attitude towards the tourists. It is not one of welcome but of exploitation. This is true for all tourists but is much more pronounced in case of foreigners. The world over, word of mouth is big contributor to tourism growth. Every visitor to successful tourist destinations sends three or four more after returning or comes back again. In India’s case, the word of mouth may be a deterrent. The moment a visitor alights, he is faced with an environment of exploitation. Be it taxiwallahs, hoteliers, or guides all seek to squeeze a visitor to the hilt. Heck, even the entry charges for foreigners at our most visited places are many times more than those for domestic visitors. And God forbid if a foreigner should run into a problem and must deal with local police. Often, instead of helping, they will join in milking the person for all he is worth.

Finally, there is the larger issue of how the country is run. It is a theme this column has referred to often as it affects so many facets of our lives. It affects tourism much more directly and in bigger measure. Visitors say India is not for the faint-hearted. Our crowds, colours, smell sights and sounds can be daunting. But more than that, it is the general chaos and lawlessness that seems to pervade and is increasing that puts people off.

Just look at tourist places that even Indians covet. Most of them are now so overbuilt that they have stopped being enjoyable. Whether it is hill stations or pilgrim centres, they are all virtually overrun with uncontrolled development. Many international destinations face the issue of overcrowding by tourists, but not many of them have turned into urban nightmares as a result. Hotels and shops spring up practically anywhere and in any building. Local residents should be able to profit from tourist boom but the services they set up should be strictly regulated so as to preserve the charm of the place that brings the tourists in the first place. Most of our places have long lost that charm.

This is the result of general lack of civic governance seen all over the country. But for a tourist place, it can be fatal. Goa is seeing it today; others will see it in future unless we get our act together as a country.

This column appeared in Lokmat Times on Nov 20, 2024