Garbage, Rowdy Taxi-drivers could kill tourism in Goa: TTAG

Cheaper beach tourism destinations like Thailand or Sri Lanka could whisk away Goa's tourists if problems not attended to

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Accumulating and untreated garbage is going to kill Goa's golden goose President of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) Francis Braganza said. He also cautioned the state government to stop indulging in grandiose plans and expenses, without really addressing pressing issues of public sanitation before.

"If we do not resolve the garbage crises, we will be killing the golden goose and drive tourists away," Braganza said during an interaction between tourism industry stakeholders and the state government officials and the political executive.

In his presentation, Braganza also said that if the state government ignores the issue and blinks an eye, cheaper beach tourism destinations like Thailand or Sri Lanka would whisk away Goa's tourists.

The TTAG president also warned state Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar against spending wasting money on "expansive and expensive" projects without tackling urgent tourism-related issues first.

"We first need to clean up the mess on the ground before we build ivory towers. Projects like towers and ropeways are welcome but they will only show tourists all the filth below and not beautiful Goa," Braganza said.

Braganca also said in the presentation that rowdiness by tourist taxi operators was the "biggest issue" affecting Goa's survival as a tourist destination. "If not curbed now, it will be the biggest cause of the downfall of Goan tourism," he warned. 

Warning that "hooliganism" by tourist taxi operators will not be tolerated, chief minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday said "tourist taxi drivers who do not behave properly will be put behind bars".

Parrikar said that a solution will be worked out within five days and asked the tourism director to handle it "hotel by hotel" instead of considering the taxi issue as "one big problem".

Blaming the previous regime for the "situation", he said unruly taxi operators will have a negative impact on Goa's tourism growth. "This (rowdiness) is because of increased competition," he added.

He then assured the stakeholders that all their problems would be solved by the next season. To TTAG's concern of inadequate infrastructure development, he said the state is in the process of building infrastructure and bottlenecks are being identified.

He then charged that the 78 crore released by the Centre during the previous regime was not used for its intended purposes.

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