Tourism's impact on Goa

GoanCanuck

You are incorrect in your analysis. A taxi driver in Mumbai handles 10 times as many passengers in a day and works 12 months as compared to a driver in Goa. In addition to that a taxi driver in Mumbai gets return traffic as well when he goes from one suburb to another suburb.

A cabbie in Goa on the other hand for one can only hope to work 8 months in a year maximum and even in the busy season he can not get return traffic. There is no money in the taxi business in Goa.

jcbrum

All the taxi driver's i know here in Goa,do very well for themselves.they nearly all own the own houses, have at least one car of their own,upto date mobile phones,Tv's etc.All this through the tourist industry.That's why everyone wants to be a taxi driver here.

John

Gametotravel

That should be more accurate picture! And they do not pay taxes too!

GoanCanuck

Did you ask them whether they owned the assets that you refer to before they became taxi drivers or whether they acquired those assets after they became taxi drivers. To suggest that you can buy a house anywhere in Goa just by driving a taxi is completely false. The up to date mobile phones that you mentioned have not been purchased by the cabbies. They are in fact gifts from European tourists coming on the charter flights.

The income of a taxi driver per month in Goa is on an average Rs 7,000/month plus tips which are only available during the tourist season. To get this income the cabbie has to work 7 days a week, 10-11 hours per day.

How do I know all this you may well ask. It just happens that I was along with another investor based in Canada contemplating starting a radio cab service for Goa. We examined the entire project in great detail before deciding not to go ahead because the rate of return on investment was too low. I had no problem finding drivers to work for me for 7,000/month and even less. Since you live close to Vasco you can go to the Vasco tourist taxi stand and because it is monsoon time ask the drivers parked there whether they get even one customer every day. Only then make any conclusions.

dumpy

Rickshaw drivers earn about 8000 Rps a week in Palolem, which goes down to about a 1000 in the down season.

Drivers in Goa do rather well for themselves. Personally I'm not knocking that, doesn't everyone want a better life for themselves.

I think tourists are sometimes a little unfair by looking at the lowest common denominator when working out what people in Indian should earn.

I often hear people talk a bout Goans being greedy based on experiences in other parts of India.
Their simply cashing in on the tourist bonanza.

What would you do?

jcbrum

Most of the taxi drivers i refer to i have known for over 12 years.So yes i know exactly how much they earn and that they have ALL got their assets through driving taxi's during the tourist season here.To say they earn 7000 per month is laughable.Some of the drivers i know make that in 3 to 4 days.One example from here to the night market in Apora they charge upto 1800 rps depending how many are in the vehicle.

The taxi drivers you refer to in Vasco,work mainly from the train station and cater for the local population and not so much the tourist trade.

John

crvlvr

A lot of tourist's perspective on Goans comes from Goans who make their buck off the tourist. Surely, such lot will be sad to see a decrease in tourism.

What about the millions of other Goans who make their living in other ways? I've talked to a few of them, and they cannot begin to tell how awful tourism has been to the economics, peace, standard of living, culture and adolescents in Goa.

GoanCanuck

I am talking about net income, not gross income. The rs 7000/month that I mentioned is the net income after deducting the cost of the vehicle loan, petrol, permit etc. You say you know some drivers for the last 12 years, well sorry to rain on your parade but I am from Goa originally and I know some guys in this line of work for the last 25 years.

The nite market is held once a week for approx. 5 months in a year. To conclude that they earn that same amount throughout the year is nonsense. How much do these guys earn say on a Saturday in the month of June? 1000, 500, 200 or zero? You do the calculations and then tell me.

skk

re: auto rickshaw wallah earnings.

The following numbers jive with me:
Venu Kumar (in picture above) rents his auto and cant afford to own own. Autos are priced at around Rs. 1,25,000 and another 25,000 to get it registered and ready to run. Venu drives his auto for 12 hours a day. Makes meter earnings of between Rs. 550 and Rs. 800 a day. He needs to pay Rs 150 to rent his auto a day and another Rs. 200 for the LPG gas that runs his auto. That makes it a running cost of Rs 350 a day - his break even point. Everything he makes over that figure is what he gets to keep (approximately 200 to 450 Rs).
...

With earnings of around Rs. 6,000 to Rs 9,000 a month (let us assume 7,500),...

http://bangaloreview.blogspot.com/20...aw-driver.html

The final comment from that blogger that day:

Oh boy! I was humbled and a whole lot wiser.
(Bolding in original)

Enough said.

-skk

GoanCanuck

Yes those numbers are accurate.

jcbrum

Where did i say they earn that ammount through out the year.

We can argue the facts all day long.I am telling you from personal experience, the taxi drivers i know, make an excellent living from the tourist trade.Also alot of them own more than 2 taxis and recruit other drivers.With the majority taking the monsoon as an extended holiday.

federica

The question of Goa is not tourism or no tourism, it's about how this tourism should be.

For that you need analyses of the advantages and disadvantages, and then you can decide about future political steps. Blindly supporting tourism to get an income is the same stupidity as blaming tourism for all bad things that happen.

navinkurian2002

I got a feeling that every town and every city in goa had their own union.traveling from terakol to palolem , I remember the driver telling me about different license number plates and he knew which area they belonged.The driver refused to ply by what was painted inside his cab(or his bosses cab) 15 Rs per KM. And ever extension had to be haggled.I found the drivers very selective in choosing routes and would refuse route which were short or out of the way point blank(maybe like you said not return customers).

The only place I found there was not haggling about the fare was when i got a taxi from the taxi union stand at colva (could not find it in calangute maybe i didn't look enough).Where they have a rate card but the driver still wanted 100 Rs more .

Getting Cabs outside your hotel at calangute is a pain as those cab drivers have a profit sharing agreement with the hotels and are territorial.I remember them asking the receptionist in konkani where these guys were from before thinking up a price.

In short the taxi service business so very very unregulated and this makes the tourist experience even more unpleasant.

Like Mumbai I do not see a solution , unless like Mumbai someone starts a private cab service like meru cabs.

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GoanCanuck

Very true. All the hotels have a system where the cabs parked outside the hotel are pre-selected by the management of the hotel. The better hotels are fairly strict and make the driver wear a proper uniform and maintain a certain level as far as behaviour is concerned. The 2 star and below hotels on the other hand are not bothered about anything other than getting the monthly commission from the cabbies.

Indic

I agree with most of what you have written on this thread but the whole situation is in desperate need of overhauling. The Indian tourist from big cities especially Delhi and Mumbai always find taxis in Goa to be very expensive. To some extent this can be explained by the fact that the number of trips the cabs make in a day in Goa is far less but then from the point of view of the big city customer what becomes a bigger problem is the adhocism in the rates, not going by meter and worst of all the constant feeling that you are being cheated because you are an "outsider". This leads to a situation that the tourist tries to avoid taxis, as much as he/SHE can Which in turn means lesser number of trips for the taxis than the potential - the result is that they need to jack up the prices (pun intended) even more. I know its a complicated situation but if only the taxis in Goa start going by the meter problem would be resolved to a large extent. But then we all know....