Tuesday, May 26, 2009

North Goa shacks witness mixed fortunes in 2009

Access to Goan cuisine on the comforts of the beach for foreign purses has been considered to be relatively cheaper on the various Goan beach shacks as compared to the starred resorts for such tourists visiting Goa.

However the owners of the beach shacks in North Goa are not too pleased with the outcome of the outgoing season of 2008-2009 due to their sales plummeting during the peak months of December 2008 and January 2009.

While some beach shacks  on the northern tip of Goa expressed satisfaction there were many who were quite disappointed with the slow business the last season in Goa. The Mumbai terrorist attacks coupled with the recession in the world markets has taken its toll on this business community catering to the foreign tourists in Goa. Some were quite bitter about the police crackdown on all beach activities in the peak season of December  January which they felt dashed many hopes of a revival in their fortunes because they felt that tourists come to Goa only for entertainment and if that goes missing such tourists would rather skip Goa and go elsewhere.

the bunkers erected on the beaches in North Goa was also pointed out to be a major deterrent for the tourist flow as the beaches looked like as if the government was expecting an invasion and the fear and hassle of such over reactions from the government instilled insecurity among many according to some shack owners in the north.

however the shack owners were thankful to the tourism ministry for granting them the shacks two months before the Mumbai attacks during which period they conceded that they could carry out some business which finally proved to be their saving grace for the season. However the season was a bag of mixed fortunes for the entire lot of beach shack owners in North Goa. there are over 300 shacks in Goa with over 200 of them in the north alone.

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