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Tourism Travails and New directions Back to the Drawing Board Pamela D'Mello The Goan 17 Aug 2015 After a particularly bad year for the tourism business in Goa, it was interesting to listen to legislators and government explain away the issue and detail their analysis on what they perceived had gone awry with the Goa tourism growth story. The tourism department statistics reveal that charters in the year 2014-15 dropped to 813 with a total of 1,54,047 tourists on board, from 1128 charter flights in 2013-14 with 4,41,543 passengers. Total international arrivals dropped from around 5 lakh arrivals in 2013-14 to 4.41 lakh arrivals in 2014-15. Domestic visitors dropped from approximately 35 lakhs to 28 lakhs in 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively. For an industry that the government said added some 300 hotels, 84 travel agents, 127 water sports operators, 1583 tourist taxis to existing numbers, the point being made by government was that supply was over-stripping demand and the resultant glut in services on offer was seeing everybody in the industry vying for smaller bits of the proverbial tourism pie. There's bitter irony here, that in a bad year the government should indirectly blame the services glut and over expansion in the sector for the problems of industry --- when it has no qualms about merrily dishing out fresh permissions and licenses without any concern for the region's carrying capacity. That the overload has continued to ridiculous proportions is palpable from the cut pricing on the ground. It's a time when larger outstation corporations and firms with deeper pockets and longer staying capacity, who perceive Goa as one of many investment destinations, are muscling in on the older existing local homespun industry that has for long buoyed the sector. If employment and welfare is the key concern of government (as it should be), then tourism administrators and government would afford more time and effort to organise and revamp local service providers, rather that bring in newer, bigger players. At the macro level, last year's slump of between 20-25 % has a number of external causes that are typical of the way tourism is structured, dependent on the vagaries of international events outside anybody's control. A tiny leisure destination like Goa can tank under the effects of European sanctions against Russia (the major charter market) and falling oil prices, leading to the latter's economic downturn. Hotels in Goa responded by dropping tariffs and offering packages to domestic visitors, to make up the losses. But increasingly, the industry is perceiving the need for a more collective agile response to crisis management --- one that government and its administrative bodies are incapable of helming. The industry is arguing for the setting up of a dedicated tourism board, that is independent of government, but has representation of government and industry stakeholders, with government fiscal backing. The idea was first suggested by the CII in 2008, but has never become a reality. They see it as a body that would advise government, aid in preparing Goa centric tourism policies and strategise for short and long term planning. >From all indications there is definitely a huge gap in the understanding and responses between the trade and government. While the tourism department concentrates on the tedious and time consuming processes of annual licensing, tariff collections and data collation, the Goa Tourism Development Corporation has its own hotels to manage and overhaul and events to promote. It's being argued, with some justification, that the processes of governance leave it with little bandwidth to grapple with and respond to the fast paced ground level changes that make and unmake destinations, the cut throat competition that is now underpinning the global tourism marketplace. The articulate former TTAG head Ralph de Souza says the global industry has changed drastically but Goa's responses have not kept pace. The days of mass tourism and assured large packages are definitely declining --- brought about by increased air connectivity, the opening up of newer destinations and increased flight costs. The bump in FIT numbers over bulk group bookings and the fact that bulk of the bookings are over the Internet, requires an altogether different response and marketing model. The entire ecosystem calls for detailed, user friendly, interactive websites and Apps and fleet footed reaction mechanisms to what the global market throws at you. In the competitive cut throat global marketplace, countries like Sri Lanka and Thailand are offering free landings as incentive, while Maldives offers dollar incentives per flight. Destinations in India are known to pay tour operators $ 15 a pax. Cambodia,Vietnam and Laos offer joint budget packages. Goa's failure to keep pace is seen as one of the reasons for its inability to hold onto its share in a buyers market. There could well be arguments to slip out of this paradigm and make a shift, but engaged as we are in the current global logic, industry is arguing for zippier response mechanisms to keep the industry buoyant. If numbers were bad last season, the projections are worse. A circular by the DGCA increasing landing fees saw Goa sans any bookings, as not a single charter flight wanted to confirm booking for the coming season, according to de Souza. Only a rollback changed the situation, with the bookings manifest likely to be clear by September. There is a cogent argument to leverage the 50-60 global cities now indirectly accessible via hubs in Doha that Qatar Airways, Air Arabia and Oman Air connect Goa to. TTAG sees a positive strategy in combining these destinations with the 117 e visa cleared countries, for a targeted promotion on in flight magazines. Goa's erstwhile mass promotion ad campaign that tangentially brought in the negative impact rural footfalls, must cede to more focused metro and business impacts. With 10,000 rooms in all of Kerala, its entry bar is high. At 37,000 rooms in the starred category, Goa has other challenges. That 13,000 (and growing) rooms exist in Goa, just in the unorganised category of second home villas/flats, rooms and homestays --- puts an altogether different spin on our tourism travails.(ends) -- Pamela D'Mello http://goadecode.wordpress.com http://pameladmello.wordpress.com
