First charter arrives: No shacks yet?
The tourist season begins!
The first foreign chartered flight of the season, ‘Air Rossiya’ with 492 Russian tourists landed at 4 pm on Sunday. But still no shacks on beaches!
The second charter with domestic tourists from Surat (Gujarat), (first Indian charter), will arrive on October 24, on the eve of Diwali, Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar told reporters. (http://indiatoday.intoday.in/
The first charter flight of the season has arrived. The second one is due to arrive. With the tourism season already begun, no shacks can be seen on the beaches of Goa.
The presence of shacks on the beaches attracts tourists. The music and attractive lighting make for a pretty sight at night. Shacks provide employment to much goan youth and also serve some delicious cuisine. Besides, shacks make food and drink easily available to tourists, enabling them to enjoy a relaxed time at the beach.
Shack owners woes
Every year the shack owners lose a lot of money due to operating licences being received late from the government. They also tend to miss one and a half months of the tourist season. Additionally, from a meagre sum of Rs.500/- in early 1990’s to Rs.55,000 last year, the government fees have been skyrocketing, forcing goans out of the business.
“In return, we are not provided with any facilities like water, electricity and garbage collection. It was only after repeated requests by the society that infrastructure was provided to shacks in a few areas,” stated Cardoz while speaking at the workshop on ‘Corporatisation of Tourism — Impacts on livelihoods and community resources. Asserting a people’s charter for tourism’, organised by the Centre for Responsible Tourism and Equations, Bengaluru, as part of the People’s Forum on BRICS – Goa in Panaji, (as reported by TOI).
Cardozo also said that they have to obtain all other licences from various government departments, hiking expenses of putting up beach shacks.
The draft tourism master plan released by the government made no mention of beach shacks at all which was disappointing, mentioned Cardoz in a TOI report.
Every year the shack owners do not receive their licences on time even though they apply much in advance. Not only does this inconvenience tourist, but also do the shack owners incur huge losses.
