Shacks are not attracting any tourists in this holiday season owing to the tussle between two shack-owners’ organizations. Business has come down to almost nothing, shack owners, who fork out thousands of rupees for a license, lament

«I have never seen Goa like this. It is so lifeless. Look at the beaches. Only private shacks are open presently and they are very few. It is a very disappointing scene», Abhishek Gupta, a tourist from Mumbai, said.

A dispute between the Shack Owners Welfare Society (SOWS) of Goa and The Goan Traditional Shack Owners’ Association (TGTSOA) over the criteria of allocation has delayed the process.

Not many tourists are coming, especially foreigners. They are our main customers and this season, when there are no shacks, they too are shying away from coming here», Dominic Parera, a lone shack owner on Coco beach, North Goa, told IANS.

A shack licence for six months, November to April, costs around Rs 25,000. Then there are excise duties, liquor licence fees, food licence fees and so on. The overall cost comes to Rs 60,000-80,000, Parera said.

Like Parera, shack owners and tourists are hoping the dispute will end soon so that Goa beaches get back to their normal state of tranquil business.

Source: Pune Mirror, Saturday, December 05.

Editor`s comment:

Someone need to ring the alarm bell`s inside the Tourism Industry in Goa. Insted of increasing the level of activities and strengthen the infrastructure, the Government of Goa govern a reversal.

The delay of allotment of beach shack`s this season is just a symptom of a serious decline within the tourism sector. The Governmental errors are many, and things are getting worse.

Like:

Why dont shack owners get their license in April or May? Why do the Tourism Ministry «have to wait» till the first October charter flight stands at the gate at Dabolim airport?

And, may someone please explain:

Do the Government it self have an interest in maintaining systems that automaticaly leads to unkind and unprofessional delays?

The Tourism Ministry of Goa need to have the best interest of both the local people and their clients, the tourists, in mind. Today, that is simply not the reality on the ground.