Tourism's impact on Goa

fredericknoronha

Goan cabbies have been behaving "irrational" (i.e. making losses while overcharging) since the 1960s, as far as I know. This predates tourism here...

Anyway, the issues related to tourism here are not restricted to the cabbies issue alone... FN

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GoanCanuck

There used to be a direct bus service during the 90's from the airport arrival hall to Panjim run by the public sector Kadamba Transport Corporation. I think it was only one trip a day though.

In the 1970's when Indian Airlines was the only airline serving the domestic routes, there used to be a free bus service run by Indian Airlines from the airport to Panjim.

Indic

Well you are right there but I would go a step further. Its been some time I am really distressed with what is happening in Goa in terms of economic development (or rather the lack of it). We, as in anyone concerned with the well being of the Goan Society, seriously need to discuss what is that we want to do in Goa. Politicians in goa as you rightly said have an extremely short term vision and, worse still, they distinguish themselves in handling economic issues in the most inept manner. But I am not bothered about them so much as about the attitude of the general public. What is that we really want to do to develop the state which sectors are the sectors of the future, what is the skill set that goans have, how can we build on that and enhance that?
Unfortunately I don't see the public discussing any of this. Its easy to be negative, we dont want SEZs, we dont want real estate, we dont want too much tourism fine, I am ok with that but what do we want? No body discusses that. I think two sectors in which goa can really go forward with proper planning is agriculture and marine economy and especially the latter, but that is an issue for another time...

kalbarri

one of the big problems with touristic places is the local heirachy (council) they start to ignore the needs or desires of the locals and probably, with fingers in potentially profitable pies, proceed to only cater to the tourists. we have a problem like this in popular tourist ares, in australia.
the locals just have to start meeting, planning and protesting/demanding what they want.

kalbarri

why?, do you consider backpacker tourism to not have any positive benefits to a country? the big bucks tourism is what seems to me to be the type of tourism that tends to change the beauty of an area and not necessarily adding more bucks to the locals as the high rise hotels are often created by "not locals"
therefore profits are taken out of local vicinity.
yoga centres are marvelous retreats for stressed out westerners so why are they not valid?

machadinha

Riddle me this: If someone wants to collect some articles on the negative effects of tourism on a given place (and thereby indicating s/he has a clear theme in mind), is that not a good and worthy attempt?

Others can compile yet other books again of course. In fact this happens all the time, and then such works will (hopefully) take into account and reflect on each other etc., ad infinitum.

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kalbarri

sorry, i thought it was okay for members to ask questions and make comments. take a look at what happened when i asked about where i could get some homeopathic medicine!

machadinha

Of course. So did I

(In fact I seem to remember to have jumped to your defense on the homeopathy issue too, even if it's not really my thing. We're not all just cruel -- just sometimes cruel )

kalbarri

sorry, i don't get it? is this directed at me querying why?

federica

It can have a positive impact, of course. Environmental conscious backpackers with a genuine interest in a country and it's people are mostly not "damaging" a place. That doesn't mean that backpacker tourism in general is harmless, often it is the first step into tourism, followed a few later by the mass.

If you take a look at tourism concept of the Maledives I can't agree. But islands are always something different.
In general promoting only high end tourism as "the solution" without any negative side affects seems very short sighted for me.

Again, depends on the yoga centre.

federica

Some links for more research:

Equitations:
http://www.equitabletourism.org

Tourism As An Instrument Of Poverty Alleviation?
http://www.dante-tourismus.org/news/engreview.html

An NGO from UK:
http://www.tourismconcern.org.uk/

Partly in German, but mostly in English:
http://http://www.ecotrans.org/

Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism:
http://www.ecotonline.org

Tourism Watch:
http://www.tourism-watch.de/home_gb/

A Dutch NGO:
http://www.retour.net/

Ghimire, Krishna: Emerging Mass Tourism in the South: Reflections on the social opportunities and costs of national and regional tourism in developing countries, Discussion Paper 85, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Genf 1997, 28 S., ISSN 1012-6511
free available at:
UNRISD, Palais des Nations, Genf, CH-1211 10, Tel. 022/7988400, Fax 7400791, E-mail: info@unrisd.org, Homepage: www.unrisd.org.

Frederick, I hope you can find something useful for your project!