Tourism in Goa could be eclipsed by regional competitors,Insistent innovations must forestall this trend

Goa Tourism

The ‘tourism question’ is one which has Goans divided with glaring claims and counter-claims. Individual and interest groups define these splits. This is the time for policy- makers to revive the destination and create new paradigms of tourism that have social components to match Goa’s unique potentials.

In fact, tourism products consumed by travelers belong to the ‘commons’. Tourism happens in spaces owned by the ‘commons’- the people. The government has only the responsibiliy of stewardship in those spaces. Therefore, when the tourism industry profits and exploits the spaces that are not theirs to begin with, it is wholly unethical. It is the ‘commons’ that must be the recipient of the fruits of tourism. By throwing their spanner into the ring, business and government are further creating contradictory interests and using power to accord gains from instruments of revenue e.g. taxation.

The discomfiting fact is that Goan tourism today is on the precipice of both qualitatively and quantitatively. The government is in denial and rejects the social facts. A bitter pill is hard to swallow. The one essential principle tourism planners have discarded is the need to incorporate long-term solutions within the core principle that must offer benefits to the local populace. Preferences about ‘big-ticket/high end’ tourism defy this critical social code.

Refusing self-critique of the social fallout, the Chief Minister and the Tourism Minister slander the steady downfall of tourism on supposed incentivized ’Influencers’ who, they allege, are creating a hype to dampen tourist flows into Goa. This is not the complete narrative. The real truth is worse. Goa has declined as a destination. Drugs, prostitution, gambling, money laundering, rave parties, trafficking, and worse happen daily. The police turning a blind eye, and are even hand-in-glove. This has given Goa a reputation as an unsafe space to travel to. By ignoring the revolting truths referred to, the government is inadvertently allowing itself to be named by negative images rather than highlight Goa’s rich content- the people, culture, culinary variety, music and dance.

The government is sweeping fault lines under the carpet. The CM and Tourism Minister announced there was not a single room available in accommodations. They counted footfalls that were far removed from facts. Stakeholders contradict his claims almost unanimously. Tourism has taken a massive nose dive. In 2019, visitors amounted to 8.5 million travelers. In 2023 that figure slid down to 1.5 million. Reality camouflaged by denial will not convert into facts.

Factors responsible for the decline include a polluted coast line, prohibitive costs, and infrastructure, and unreasonable local travel costs. These lag way behind in comparison to equally competitive destinations in the South and South East Asian neighborhood.

Even more critical is the whole matter of ease of travel. Other destinations offer packaged incentives. Goa has been close-to-static by comparison.

Waste management contracts are not handed to operators because of known expertise. The highest bidder wins the contract. Goa has a plethora of citizens who know more than a thing or two about waste management. Moreover, the government would gain from high savings on the contracts. Why won’t the government use environmentalists who know the issues, terrain, and will bring in expertise as well as social conscience?

Goans are far and away the best ambassadors of their own destination. They tend to welcome tourists whenever possible to indigenous sites and singular spaces accessible only by the road less taken. Government requires to from the shackles of status quo versions of tourism. Goa is urgently in need of reaching out for newness and must fulfill its promise of “less government; more governance” – a slogan that was made popular when it came to power. After all the people know best!

Multiple ongoing people’s initiatives such as ‘Heritage tourism’ by citizens groups all around Goa must be instantly recognized, subsidized and generously promoted. They could enrich the tourist experience by authentic people-to-people experiences of encounters with culture experiences. Many Goan village tours are run by village-city folk themselves who can speak to their own history, traditions, even serve them a delicious bona-fide Goan home-cooked meal. To share just one example: A group of tourists could easily spend an entire day in Agaçaim or Agassaim – a village on the northern banks of the  Zuari River  in  Tiswadi , surrounded by  Panjim  to the north,  Margão  to the south,  Vasco da Gama  to the west and  Ponda  to the east. It is famed for its one-of-a-kind Goan chouriço . Such social tourism could provide economic opportunities for local hosts, village advancement, especially those whose incomes can be augmented by the economic benefits that tourism can bring.

In the light setbacks of recent year’s Government should stop viewing tourism as the goose that lays the golden egg. The so-called ‘tourism industry’ must transition into social enterprises – the original definition of tourism. Tourism is after all, a social, cultural and economic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment. These people are called visitors or excursionists; and tourism has to do with their activities. We could then count on multitudes of visitors thronging back into the heart of the real Goa. Industry and government must amend their current profit orientation approaches to tourism and adopt social contracts which make them people-centric and accountable to grassroots communities and institutions.


In the run-up to revising tourism, citizens must be alert to Governments wasteful pleasure junkets and pricey overseas consultants. Consultants tend to offer cut-and-paste jobs from previous consultancies in countries quite unalike Goa. No wonder Government Public Hearings end up as public flops. It is imperative to develop an exemplar which contains a ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ in orientation. A top-down approach will only create a further debacle.

Ranjan Solomon, served as General Secretary of the Global coalition on Third World Tourism, Co-founded and coordinated the Centre for Responsible Tourism, and initiated the Global Tourism Action and Advocacy Forum (TAAF)

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