The paradox of plenty: Goa tourism destroys itself (T0I)

Vivek Menezes,TNN | Jan 12, 2014, 02.03 AM IST PANAJI: Early morning walkers on Caranzalem beach have good news to report. The suspension of mining means much less silt in the water, and far less tar and pollutants from the transhipment vessels that used to crowd the horizon. This has resulted in a wonderful rejuvenation of the waterfront environment: cleaner sands, many more migrant birds, an abundance of shellfish like has not been seen for many years. But the traditional ramponkars who have fished off this very same beach as far back as history has been recorded have a different story to tell. They have worried expressions as they shoulder their distinctive seine nets. Their catch is dramatically reduced from last year-even more when you consider five years ago. The day labourers who help to bring in their catch now take home barely 100 or 150 per day, and could stop working any day. Just two years ago they were assured five or six times as much. It's not just the ramponkars, this season it's evident an exactly similar process is at work in Goa's tourism marketplace. On the surface, conditions for tourism have never been more obviously favourable: far more connectivity via air, road and rail than ever before; a proliferation of holiday and recreation options for every segment; more government willingness to help, and better awareness both at home and abroad than has existed since organized tourism first sparked into being in the Goa of the 1970s. But here again, every hotel and tourism operator has a rather different story to tell than you might expect at first glance. They too have worried looks on their faces. That's because Goa's most valued, high-spending, decent, tried and true tourist clients are now just as rare as the mullets off Caranzalem beach. The state's brand value is shifting very fast from pristine idyll to paradise lost, and so discerning travelers are increasingly shifting elsewhere. Earlier this week, the UK's Guardian newspaper put it succinctly about Goa, "the sun-seeker's haven is rapidly acquiring a darker reputation" quoting Kartik Kashyap, the superintendent of the police anti-narcotics unit saying, "the rot has set in". Economists have long noted something called "the resource curse" in countries and regions with an abundance of natural wealth. Also known as "the paradox of plenty", this curious phenomenon is mostly associated with non-renewable resources like oil or uranium. The countries which possess these kinds of resources in greatest abundance tend almost invariably to feature slower economic growth and worse development outcomes than other regions and countries which are less blessed. This is precisely what is happening in Goa, which is home to extraordinary natural advantages with regard to tourism potential in the 21{+s}{+t} century-there are very few places in the world with as many world-class attractions crammed into such a small territory, Heritage, history, architecture, spirituality, cuisine, global brand recognition, you name it: this state has it all and more. So why is it that Goa now ranks a lowly 11th among Indian states when it comes to foreign tourist arrivals? Given every possible advantage, including hundreds of direct flights from every part of the world, why has Goa's tourism marketplace nudged forward an abysmal 0 to 1% overall the past five years? It's certainly not the global downturn to blame, because Bihar-yes Bihar-and West Bengal have registered healthy growth to shoot past Goa into the top 10. Contesting a Goa newspaper story that ascribed the steep drop-off in UK tourism to Goa to "the recession", London-based Eddie Fernandes of the Goan Voice webzine said, "humbug! UK tourists continue to holiday to other parts of the world in greater numbers! The drop in numbers going to Goa is due to visa costs and bureaucracy, women's safety, garbage, rapacious taxi drivers, etc." There's much worse too. As the Guardian reported, Goa has now become "a hub for international drug trafficking and tourists chasing a high". All this is just more evidence that Goa tourism's stakeholders have steadily cooked their own goose over the past decade. They turned an amazingly golden scenario into heaps of garbage due to nothing more than their own irresponsibility and greed. Now everyone can see they are ferociously competing with each other in a race to the bottom. The best travellers and tourists have already been driven out, and the remaining droves of second-best are leaving too. Only dregs prevail in a beautiful land which once was really very much like heaven. The writer is a well-published photographer and author. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/The-paradox-of-plenty-Goa-tourism-destroys-itself/articleshow/28693941.cms