Goanet meets in Goa: December 27, 12 noon and January 7, 4 pm (meeting point: Kala Academy canteen). See you there! ------------------------------
Quite a number of assumptions in the comments below. Including ones that: * Peak-season rates (which lasts a fortnight) indicate how well the tourism sector is doing. * Hotels earning at one time of the year would necessarily reflect in greater prosperity to the state as a whole. * A lot of money coming in (even if it does) means that there's no problem on the environmental or resource-allocation fronts. * That the "top rates" charged by hotels indicate the status of a disparate hotel sector, which has an esimated 33,000 rooms in all, from luxury five- and seven-stars to an-extra-room-in-my-compound. * Overcharging in a highly-seasonal industry, which has to cope with empty rooms for much of the year, though unfair to the tourist coming at this time, amounts to "pillaging". * Tourists "who have the whole world to visit" might somehow be doing Goa a favour by coming on holiday here. * Those working in the tourism sector (20%, where did this figure come from?) are actually sharing from the peak-season high rates. Why do some expat Goans have to be so defensive everytime a critique of tourism comes up? Maybe we have a tourism-divide (those who can be tourists, and those who can't) coming up among the community. FN On Sun, 21 Dec 2003, Gilbert Lawrence wrote: > I am always attracted by articles on Pillage of Goa OR should it be > Pillage IN Goa. Among today's stories was this year's booming tourist > business in Goa. The top rates for this time of the year are $130-150 > per room per night. Next year it is going up 15%. With these rates at > these Hotels (50-60% foreign and 40-50% domestic tourists), I am > wondering who is pillaging whom. This shows that the tourists who have > the whole world to visit are willing to spend their hard-earned money > and enjoy every penny, get pleasure from spending it in Goa. That is a > lot of poixe even for bhaile. > > With 20% of native Goans working in tourist business, I am glad to see a > major portion of that tourist poixe being spent in Goa. > > It is phun to see Goans who have gone abroad talk about their land being > pillaged ani native Goenkars making money. Hilarious, Amusing ani > Witty!!! ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################