The Go Goa Push. Wet inside!
Creative planning involves pushing tourists away, in the right direction
By Cecil Pinto
This week we interview Fatima de Sa, Chairperson
of Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC),
which oversees all long and short term planning for Goa tourism.
Cecil: Tell me broadly what is the direction in which Goa tourism is headed?
Fatima: Briefly, our motto for the next few years is, "Wet inside!"
Cecil: Whaaa?
Fatima: It is a slogan coined from a combination
of our two major thrusts, Monsoon Tourism, which
involves encouraging people to visit Goa in the
rains, and Hinterland Tourism that encourages
tourists to visit the interiors rather than the
beach belt and conventional touristy areas. Our
Creative Department came up with the slogan "Wet
inside!" after a lot of brainstorming. And also a
campaign logo - a coconut which too is 'wet inside'.
Cecil: And how exactly are you promoting the "Wet inside!" drive?
Fatima: As you know in any marketing or promotion
there is a combination of 'pull' and 'push'
efforts. The 'pull' involves making Hinterland
and Monsoon tourism desirable by attracting
tourists using creative promotional campaigns.
Simultaneously the 'push' would involve giving
the travel industry in India and abroad
incentives to sell Goa's hinterland and monsoons.
Our Creative Department had a brainstorming
session and decided to eliminate the 'pull' effort completely.
Cecil: I guess that's why the regular GTDC
adverts are totally uninspired and have atrocious
errors in English? Glad to know it's part of a
planned move to repulse tourists from visiting during peak season.
Fatima: Yes, and in addition we have given a
different dimension to the 'push' angle of
promotion. We have decided to push people away
from the beaches and into the hinterland. We will
push them away from the peak-season period and
into the monsoons. Our entire campaign hinges around this pushing away.
Cecil: Like how?
Fatima: For example we have intentionally kept
less lifeguards, and absolutely no life saving
motorboats, on the beaches. Our Creative
Department, after another brainstorming session,
came up with the slogan "Why risk your life on
the beach? Drown your worries in the interiors".
You see Goa has miles and miles of scenic river
waterways. We want tourists to appreciate these
water bodies too, and not just drown on the beaches.
Cecil: Interesting. What else have you done?
Fatima: You know the peak peak season is from
22nd December till 4th January. Now we want
people to keep away during this time and come
during the off-season. So we have made sure that
traffic arrangements are very bad during these
peak days, especially in the busy areas like
Panjim and Calangute. You will see tourists in
traffic jams that are miles long with no traffic
police in sight. The few traffic cops we do
depute are instructed to be pro-active in giving
challans, rather than regulating traffic.
Hopefully such bad experiences will make the
tourists come off-season time next year.
Cecil: What has been the response from the
tourism industry, considering the fact that it is
overwhelmingly privately owned?
Fatima: The response from South Goa has been very
encouraging. In fact the taxi drivers there have
started some unique initiatives of their own to
push tourists away from peak time and away from
the beaches. They have started threatening and
even hammering up tourists in mini-buses and
coaches chartered by starred hotels to transport
guests. And also they force passengers who hire
their cabs to visit the ubiquitous Kashmiri
handicraft emporiums. Actually speaking between
the South Goan taxi drivers and the Kashmiri
vendors our 'push' project has been very
successful. More and more regular tourists are
returning to North Goa despite the South having
much better, and uncrowded, beaches. But we have
to work harder. We don't want them going North,
we want them going East into the interiors of
Goa. Or going away, and coming back in the rains.
Cecil: The North Goan tourist industry is not
co-operating with your 'Wet inside!' push initiative?
Fatima: No they are not! They keep treating
tourists well. They offer products and services
at reasonable rates. They are polite to tourists
and don't rip them off. Just tell me why would a
tourist go away and return in the monsoon if
everything's ok during peak season? Unless they
pull up their socks the North Goans will be
making so much money in the peak season that they can close down off season.
Cecil: Interesting. These brainstorming session
that your Creative Department has, and comes out
with these genius ideas and slogans, when and
where are they held? And who exactly constitutes the think-tank?
Fatima: Well we have this ad agency guy for
ideas, and this female journalist for slogans and
event names. Other than this we have experts from
our departments and their families. We normally
have these brainstorming sessions over a weekend
at a five star beach hotel, once a month from October to May.
Cecil: Shouldn't you be having these sessions in
the interiors instead of at the beach? Shouldn't
they be held during the monsoons?
Fatima: What interiors are you talking about?
Where are the hotels? What decent restaurants are
there? What tourist spots have been developed in
the interiors? What infrastructure has been set
up? It's all very well to speak of hinterland.
You show me anything worthwhile for us to enjoy
during our brainstorming sessions if we have them in the interior?
Cecil: ButÂ…
Fatima: And you want us to take Government
sponsored holidays in the monsoons. Are you out
of your mind? What is there to do in the
monsoons? What activities or events has anyone planned?
Cecil: But I thought "Wet inside!" was all about
promoting hinterland and monsoon tourism.
Fatima: Of course it is but you don't expect the
Government to do it alone do you? Look at the
history of tourism in Goa. Whatever success we
have is because of private enterprise. In fact
tourism has thrived despite Government
intervention because of smart private
entrepreneurs with vision. The present Government
is taking things one step further. We will have
brainstorming sessions and dish out ridiculously
amateurish advertisements and corny slogans.
Private entrepreneurs will somehow salvage the scene, as always.
Cecil: Well all the best in your "Wet inside!" campaign.
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The column above appeared in Gomantak Times dated 4th January 2007
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