This story is from December 28, 2015

Season on, but mood somber along Calangute belt

Stakeholders Lament Increasing Number Of ‘Low-Spenders’
Season on, but mood somber along Calangute belt
Calangute/Baga: With sky-rocketing air fares and room rates keeping away tourists of the low-spending variety filling up Calangute, the mood among tourism stakeholders along the Calangute beach belt is, at best, resigned. The only people there in an upbeat mood are the organizers of the electronic dance music festivals.
“People who would come here at this time, like the British tourists, are going to Sri Lanka and other places because of the massive crowds here at this time of the year,” says former sarpanch of Calangute, Laxman Porob.
“The crowds which are coming here are the young Indian crowd who don’t have great spending power. What can we do?” he says.
Business is quite bad, says North Goa tourist taxi owners association’s vice-president, Ravindra Vengurlekar. “We called off our strike, which was to be held from December 23, as the existing situation is already bad with hardly any customers. We have asked the transport department and police to crackdown on illegal private rental cars, because if tourists go around hiring these illegal private rental cars, then we will have no business at all during the peak season. We will be forced to stop plying our taxis,” he says.
Jan Graveson, a British musician and fashion designer based in Anjuna, says the e-visa facility is not working. “Goa is very quiet this season. The e-visa facility is not really a success as it has not been implemented properly. One has to stand in a 3-mile-long queue after a long tiring flight, which is the worst thing a traveller can be expected to do. Also there is just one person at the entry. How can one person fill all the forms?” she questions. “The state of the airport is the first impression that people get of a country. People have been going back and complaining. Moreover, the e-visa is not cheap at all,” she says.
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