Goa is the top most destination for tourists. The serene beaches, the infrastructure, food, people etc make it the best. Tourists come from different parts of the world. They all want to go visit the beautiful places Goa has to offer.
Tourism being the major economy in Goa has it benefits. A lot of people are employed in various businesses, some even put up their own. Shacks, restaurants, taxi’s and hotels are some of them.
For the past few years the business has been going smoothly with a gradual increase every year, but last year it wasn’t the same. The tourists have been declined terribly. The reasons being falling currency, Russia-Ukraine crisis, increase in prices, rising crime cases and more.
Due to the drop in tourism there has been a major setback for the people who rely on them. Some of them have lost their jobs, closed down their shacks and taxi driver’s have faced unemployment.
Talking mainly about taxi drivers, during the season there are a lot of tourists. They want to go visit places, taxi’s are right at their service at all times. Having a taxi as a business was easier because people thought it was fast money. Having multiple taxi’s would generate double the income. Putting this business at the top of other businesses.
Lots of Goans would even leave their other day jobs and take up driving taxi’s as a business. But when the tourism industry started on a downfall taxi drivers went on a loss, they started having low income. There weren’t much tourists in the state to go around, therefore having no business or job. This was one of the main reasons for low income there are other reasons why taxi drivers were facing challenges.
The tour operators and transport companies had a clash with the local taxi drivers. They were claiming that these companies were taking away their customers. Also stating that there are similar companies that are illegally which were run by Russians. These Russian companies would have their taxis at lower prices and also the language barrier between the tourists was solved. Hence gaining more customers than the local taxi drivers. Adding to the low income for them.
This went on since the tourism industry didn’t get any better, taxi drivers all over suffered great losses. Although in this year’s season tourists are seen coming in, hopefully as the industry tries to get back up this year, the fate of the business will change.
