Goa has always been known as THE place to be in for New Year’s Eve for both foreign and domestic tourists. Everyone wants to be here for all the parties that happen all along the tourist belt beaches of Baga, Calangute and Candolim as well as on the beaches further in the north of Goa. These parties get bigger every year and everyone is out to have the time of their lives when in the state.
Unfortunately, it looks like all that is about to change.
An Expensive New Year’s Eve in Goa
According to reports published in certain newspapers, with the implementation of GST, the room tariff of almost every five star category hotel in the state, has hit the roof. High-end resorts like Taj and Marriott are quoting about a lakh of rupees per night which obviously includes the GST at 28% as per the tax slab that such hotels come under. And these rates are approximately 3 – 5 times more expensive than nice lower-end hotels in locations like Dubai and Bali.
Hotels like the Taj properties in Goa are quoting rates between 50 grand to over a lakh for just the one night of New Year’s Eve on the 31st of December. If you take into consideration, the above rate of the stay in India for the year-end, the cost of a room plus airfare and airport transfers in top international holiday destinations like Dubai and Bali would be five times cheaper.
The sources revealed that, even budget hotel booking portals like OYO Rooms have become almost 30% more expensive as compared to the last year. Since high-end hotels’ are too expensive this year, businessmen and tourists visiting the state during this period, have started looking elsewhere for accommodation. And it would seem that the rates have spiked in the case of the budget hotels as well.
Quality of Tourists Has Dropped Too
It’s no wonder then, that Goa has lost its charm with the decent and paying tourists. Instead, we get the ones from the borders of Maharashtra and Karnataka and hinterland areas of the country that have never seen the beach or women on the beach for that matter. Those tourists that arrive by the jeep-loads and busloads and literally set up camp wherever they please and make a general nuisance of themselves.
We need to ask ourselves, is all this disregard for the state and the tourism that is supposed to bring in much of the revenue, worth it at all?
ItsGoa/DEC/KDGP
