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| Goa may revive this season |
| Mrinalini Krishna / New Delhi Jan 05, 2009, 00:59 IST |
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TOURISM: Lower air fares and discounts offered by hotels might just do the trick for India’s favourite destination this holiday season.
The holiday season this year has been lukewarm for India’s hottest party destination, Goa. Buckling under the double impact of the global economic slowdown and the Mumbai terror attacks, it has seen a drop of nearly 25 per cent in tourists in the current holiday season.
As most parts of Europe, the US and North India reel under severe cold this time of the year, tourists head for the beaches of Sun-kissed Goa. Not too expensive by global standards, it is jam packed with revelers from November up to February.
The reports till late-December clearly said this year would be washout. The negative sentiment prevailing after the Mumbai terror attacks in November has, for some, even questioned the reason to celebrate. Many youngsters have cancelled their party plans to Goa as they feel that ‘there is nothing happy about this New Year’.
However, after airlines have dropped fares and some hotels have indicated that they are ready to offer discounts on their rack rates, there could be some recovery in what remains of the peak tourist season.
Industry sources claim that the situation, which looked bleak at the beginning of December, has improved a little. The loss in business, after all, may not be as huge as predicted a couple of weeks ago.
“There was some reluctance on the part of the customers. However, instead of booking in advance, they have merely delayed their decision and will now travel last minute to Goa,” says Dhruv Shringi, CEO, travel portal, yatraonline.com.
Some travel experts say that while the terror attacks and the elevated risk perception has brought down the number of international tourists , domestic travel to Goa has gone up.
Travel agents say that most of the people who had made plans to travel to Goa will still go ahead. These include a large number of expat Indians who come to India not only for leisure travel but also club it with meeting their families.
What seems to have definitely helped matters is the airfare cut announced by leading airlines in the last one week. With state-owned oil marketers cutting jet fuel prices, airlines have decided to cut fares to revive air travel. Most travel portals have reported record bookings after the fare cuts were announced. Some agents mentioned that people have cancelled their train bookings to travel by air.
The other issue is hotel tariffs. After doing brisk business around Diwali, many hotels had increased their tariffs. While the top rung hotels are not willing to bring their tariffs down, despite the scarce demand, the middle and lower rung hotels have slashed their rates to attract tourists.
Tarique Khatri, vice-president (business development), Cleartrip.com, believes that there has been a qualitative shift in demand because the pricing has moved out of the affordable range of the customers. “People are now looking for smaller weekend getaways which are 3-4 hours of travel away,” he says.
Goa will not see the all night beach side festivities this year as the government has prohibited all beach parties. Though most hotels have plans to organise their own shows, these too will be restricted by a time deadline.
Shringi believes that this will have only a marginal impact as beach parties are frequented by people in the age group of 18-25, while a major chunk of the holiday tourists are families that would be content with the hotel festivities.
“Goa is an experience in itself. There are about 2,000 charters in Goa alone. The beach party ban will not affect travel plans of people,” says Subhash Goyal, the chairman of Associated Chamber of Commerce’s committee on tourism.
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