Seema, in her 30s, visits Goa twice a year for some solitude, and gets back to work on a higher spiritual pedestal.
“I love the feeling of being alone in Goa. The calm is difficult to describe,” she says as she wades in the river.
An artist, Seema thinks there is no place like Goa. “It has anything and everything,” she chuckles, as she sips from her water bottle, and then adds, “This is one place where I love being barefoot.”
If Goa is paradise for Seema, Inderjit Singh from North India feels the same, but suggests that the air fares be regulated to allow people, like him, the freedom to come to Goa at least twice a year.
“Airfares have to be regulated. People from North India pay airfares equivalent to any South East Asian country – Rs 12,000 to 15,000 on an average – depending on whether one is flying from Delhi or Jammu and Kashmir,” he says.
The pinch of high airfares has been echoed by most travel agents who think the onus is on the government to reduce fares that increase and hit a high during the festive season.
“There are times when the government needs to step in, and this is one such time. It needs to intervene and ask the Central government to contain the spike in airfares when there has not been a corresponding hike in air fuel and other costs,” reasons Orlando Nunes, Associate Vice President of Trail Blazers India.
He further explains, “Travel costs cannot be contained by us. It is for the government to speak to the airlines because air costs have become arbitrary this season. There is absolutely no justification on the costing of airfares.”
Agree Inderjit, “Previously, airfares were affordable, and those of us who can spend are throttled by steep airfares. This is my personal observation since I have been travelling to Goa twice a year for the last two decades.”
If travelling to Goa is costly, living in Goa appears to be expensive, too. “There is construction everywhere and its natural beauty is vanishing. Business owners need to pay huge rents to Goans, and that explains the hike in prices of services by outsiders,” says Afzal from Bombay.
“Locals,” he adds ruefully, “also have a soft corner for foreigners as many of them are not aware of the prices and end up being overcharged. They cannot do that with us as we know the price and haggle for the right amount.”
However, foreigners too are feeling the pinch. Pamela Bordes, a tourist, says, “Goa needs a reset button. The industry needs to decide what class of tourists to cater to. The rise in companies and issues are all in line with the increase in low-cost domestic tourism.”
“All law-and-order issues are attributed to this. Goa was fine as long as it catered to international tourists who were more responsible,” she understands.
If Mark Trout is to be taken seriously, his experiences indicate that it is very rare that once prices have risen, they ever drop and that could be a worry for stakeholders as high prices of airfares is clearly emerging as one of the ugly heads responsible for low footfalls this season.
As Michelle Eastwood aptly says, “Thing is us, Brits, won’t come back, too much money, they think we are rich without realising how much it costs us to come.”
The ball is at the feet of the government, and if it needs to roll to increase the footfalls, it should be kicked in the right direction.