When any Mumbaikar wants to party and find a getaway from the city of dreams, more often than not, for many the obvious choice is the small Indian state of Goa.
Goa, for many, is the unofficial, official centre where individuals look for a euphoric outing. But, it may be losing its charm as the g-to destination for some, at least for foreign tourists.
The state of Goa welcomed as many as 1 million visitors in the previous cycle. In this, only 4 per cent of the travellers were foreign nationals.
Netizens on social media platform Reddit or Redditors, as they are called reacted to this and supplemented the argument that Goa is failing to attract tourists from outside the country.
'Rather Go To Thailand'
One user said, "Bound to happen. We used to frequent goa like 5 times a year from Bangalore. We stopped in 2021. I have been visiting goa since 2011, and it's not the same at all."
The user further added, "Everything is overly expensive and simply not worth it. I was in Thailand for 10 days and believe me when I say this, except for the flights, EVERYTHING.. EVERYTHING is cheaper and much better there."
Th user also touched upon hotel stay in the state and said, "In Goa, for a decent hotel / stay.. We have to spend about 7-8k a night. If you have that kind of budget, in Thailand, you'll get star hotels and resorts. We haven't been to goa in over a year now, and we don't plan to visit anytime soon."
Another user, agreeing with the previous Redditor said, "Exactly, when I compare to Andamans, because I'm from there, even we have very costly rates. But I get that because we have a distance issue, and everything from construction to food is at the least twist as costly to get here, so a bit justified."
"But Goa has better location advantage, better connectivity, etc, still their rates are too high compared to quality. Also the way they differentiate between local and foreign tourists, it's mind boggling. A tourist based economy should not have such discriminations."
Udupi Is Better Than Goa
Another frustrated user added, "Forget Thailand. Even Udupi - Manipal - Gokarna belt offers much more than Goa. The mafias of Goa can run their own scams and screw themselves."
Businesses Get Looted?
Another user added, "Ran a business in Goa, a long list of problems but a few that breaks anyone's heart are 1- insanely expensive air tickets 2- zero support from government, zero means zero 3- awful transportation 4- panchayat and government officials are on loot, running a business in Goa purely means paying to everyone 5- zero accountability of locals when it comes to price management."
"Every year hundreds of businessmen come to Goa open up a shop get looted on every front and then they leave. The landlord don't care as for them a new line of newbies are lined up 6- never ending blame game: locals, tourists, businessmen, gov officials...
The rate will keep declining unless Gov intervene to which we all know the answer :))
