Goa still uneasy over the impact of tourism

Sourced by local newspaper articles, discusses the impact on Goa of the increasing numbers of tourists. Increasing land prices, increasing levels of consumption, violation of building and land use regulations are all prevalent. Locals feel threatened and degraded by inappropriate behaviour of tourists. There has been an escalation in violence, child sex abuse and prostitution. Drug abuse and drug trafficking has increased. Local people feel exploited and few bene.t from the tourist trade. What can be done?

Ten years ago, in 1987, Goa made it to the national and international news, after incoming tourists from Germany were greeted with cow-dung and angry go-home posters. One decade later, tourism continues to have many different implications for India’s smallest state, even as the rest of the country has largely ignored the issue. Repeated statements by those interested in promoting tourism, and backers in the media, make it out that Goa is largely dependent on this sector and there’s no turning back now. But larger sections of the host population in Goa have their own concerns and problems in dealing with tourism, as ground-level realities show.

In coastal Goa, land values have suddenly skyrocketed due to tourism. Hills which were earlier green and untouched have today become closely coveted by realtors and land speculators. In March, chief minister Pratapsing Rane told the assembly that he would conduct an inquiry into the “conversion” of agricultural land in Calangute, which was being changed from agricultural purposes (Gomantak Times, 1997a).

Calangute’s village panchayat and its officials have been the target of many allegations of misappropriation and corruption. Villagers have charges at gram-sabha (village council meetings) too (Gomantak Times, 1997b). Much of the change in this sleepy village has been due to the booming tourism sector here.

Gross violations of building regulations continue to be reported (Herald, 1997a). Besides, environmental group Goa Foundation has itself kept .ghting a number of battles against large hotels which violated the building regulations. Local protests forced politicians to keep on the backburner proposals for golf-courses, offshore gambling and also a Japanese holiday village. But now there are hints from politicians that the same issues are being re-opened.

In turn, JGF, the citizens’ protest movement on tourism issues formed as a fallout of the 1987 protest-ever protests against German charter tourism in Goa, which completed a decade this year, charged the Goa government with pandering to big hotels. It demanded that the state government make public a “white paper” on the cost-bene.t analysis of tourism for Goa (Gomantak Times, 1997c).

“From the information I have gathered so far, there seems to be no proper, scientific and economic assessment undertaken during the past ten years”, said former dean of the Business School of the University of Antwerp at Belgium, Dr Guido de Brabander, speaking in Goa recently. He said he found no systematic analysis on what Goa envisaged for the future, or what was needed. “There has been no priorities chalked out, and much of the data is based on opinion”, he commented (Gomantak Times, 1997d).

Calangute, as press reports are now willing to concede, has changed from being a Queen of Goan Beaches into a “hellhole” for locals (Chandrapurkar, 1997). Rapid urbanisation and unplanned development had transformed this sleepy coastal village into a veritable concrete jungle, conceded the local press, which for a long time has fought shy of tackling anything even mildly critical of tourism here. Age-old storm water drains have been turned into a sewer there, it has been pointed out.

Even The Navhind Times, long considered a pro-establishment daily, has been blunt in its criticism of goings-on at Calangute and elsewhere in the North Goa coastal belt: “The state of confusion reigns all around, from the beach to the approach road. A day’s stay on the beach is enough to feel the chaos that prevails”, said a recent article on the front page of that paper (William, 1997a). Newspapers in Goa are today also willing to discuss other issues too: full-moon parties, drugs, the way police turn a blind-eye, and sex among foreign tourists (William, 1997b).

Police continued to deny that the so-called beach parties – where drug taking has been repeatedly con.rmed – are an open affair and that they turn their face to avoid taking action (Navhind Times, 1997a).

Impact being felt

Unlike earlier times, protests over the impact of tourism are being spread to wider sections among Goans. Both in terms of geographical spread and in other ways. Concern over tourism is no longer a middle-class issue of concern among mainly Catholic Goans. It has spread out to others too, who are asking questions.

Shigmo, an earlier rustic local religious festival, has been taken to the town with processions and street dances. Over the last decade or so, a new concept of – much like the carnival – has developed. Folk-art researchers say this is responsible for a great loss to the originality of the performances, earlier based on folk dances and music. There have also been complaints of commercialization eroding the Shigmo traditions (Phaldesai, 1997).

Elsewhere, residents of the beach villages of Candolim and Calangute villages were also voicing their complaints. This area of Goa was among the .rst to be involved with tourism, since the 1960s. Its locals have been quoted as saying:

Besides facing electricity problems, there is a severe water shortage. The water pipeline

that was originally meant for the villagers is now being utilised by the hotels. The trans

port too is insufficient to transport both locals and tourists (Misquita, 1996a).

In another incident, which says something about the attitudes of the local “host” population, ten tourists from Kerala were beaten up by a group of villagers in Nuvem village, after knocking down two pedestrians in an accident (Navhind Times, 1995). Last May, four tourists received what reports termed a “sound thrashing” in two different incidents for their “indecent and high handed behaviour”.

Some were ogling at young girls at a swimming pool, while another tourist allegedly exposed himself indecently to girls in Panaji’s Cortir locality (Herald, 1997b).

Citizens, meanwhile, have also demanded that the government make its plans for the Japanese village public. Plans released here by a citizens’ group say the Japanese “village” will take up 138 hectares of land, and displace some 519 persons in the northern Goa villages of Harmal, Keri and Palyem (Gomantak Times, 1995).

Herald, a mainstream local daily, itself re.ects the ambivalent position that Goa’s establishment takes towards tourism. It is often known to argue that tourism is now a fait accompli and that “all that we can do is to minimise the damage it can cause” (Narayan, 1997). But, recently, it also commented editorially: “Virtually the whole of the beachfront in Anjuna and some other beaches in Goa have been converted into foreign colonies” (Herald, 1997c).

Even one of Goa’s former top officials, ex-chief secretary Dr J.A. Almeida, argues that uncontrolled tourism is a “menace to Goa” and that the “present uncontrolled tourism has back.red on Goa and its people, who have to shoulder the burden of shortages of food items, transport and water” (Almeida, 1996).

In North Goa’s Morjim village, a Calcutta-based group, Excelsior Hotels, has been charged with using strong-armed tactics to displace locals at Temba Wadda, on land purchased from a landlord. Local gangsters were allegedly hired to oust tenants who had rights over the land, according to the citizens’ group JGF, which has been closely following this issue (Jagrut, Goenkaranchi Fauz, 1996).

In southernmost Goa’s Canacona taluka, villagers have been resisting the promotion of tourism. American Fullbright scholar, Karin Larsen, has highlighted the largely unnoticed way villagers are responding to the ingress of tourism in the area. Media columns have, including those in Goa, paid scant attention to these issues, unless there were some dramatic protests like road blockades of the national highway passing through this area. This is one area of Goa where villagers have put up campaigns against luxury and other resorts for a decade and more, sometimes halting major projects too (Larsen, 1997a,b,c,d,e).

In Dona Paula, a beach suburb not far from state-capital Panaji which has grown as a destination for domestic tourists, local residents protested at plans to have a hawking zone in the locality. Residents voiced fears about hawkers dumping waste into the sea and using nearby beaches as toilets. In Calangute, a former small beach-village tension mounted in August, as an upmarket restaurant group attempted to block access to the beach for one of their projects there, in Khobravaddo (Herald, 1997d).

In another controversial move of the Goa government, a 50-year lease was signed with the Tata-run Taj group (Navhind Times, 1997b). Under this, the Agauda plateau was handed over for what is officially called a “recreational park of international standards” but has also been likened to a Disneyland.

One continuing festering sore on the tourist front has been the controversy over the continuing of “beach shacks” along the Goan coastline. “Shacks” are temporary restaurants which serve local food to tourists. Because of their lower prices and tastier preparations, it seems tourists prefer patronising the shacks rather than starred hotels. In a strange response, the Goa government attempted to block the functioning of the shacks, by laying down conditions that make it almost impossible for them to operate. In its efforts to clamp down on the shacks, the state government decided to only allow those

which it approved – after a rather restrictive process – to operate as “legal”. This ironically seems to have led to a spurt in a number of shacks, as putting up one was no longer an economic decision, but a sort of lottery which everyone would like to win. Politicians also played favourites at election-time, and jumped into the fray. This led to some of Goa’s beaches getting uncharacteristically crowded in the last two years, leaving little open space on the beach.

The shacks issue has other complications too. Some locals charge the shack-owners with “racism”, in as much as they give shoddy treatment to locals and fawn over the foreign tourists with their higher purchasing power. A section of the local press highlighted reports that shack owners at Morjim in North Goa had blocked access to the beach for locals, reserving it “exclusively for foreigners” (de Souza, P., 1997).

Of late, workers are also willing to .ght for their rights, amidst repeated complaints that hotel staff in Goa continue to be poorly paid despite the high cost of living here. In August, workers of Paraiso de Praia hotel in Calangute went on strike for non-payment of their salaries for three months. Earlier, some 120 workers of the Taj’s Fort Aguada Beach Resort went on strike in March-April 1995. In March 1995, workers of the Ronil Beach Resort also went on a strike. Most hotel staff, particularly in the budget tourism category, are paid very low salaries and employed for as little as seven months in a year. Pro.ts are low, and hoteliers argue that they cannot raise wages if they are to survive. In March, there were reports that hoteliers had held a meeting to resolve not to hire out their rooms to charter operators below certain tariffs (William, 1997c).

Owing to what was, until recently, perceived as a major tourism boom, a number of realtors have also entered the market, only complicating issues. They have built up large apartment blocks, sold these to expatriates and others longing for a “home” in Goa, and taken these back on rent to be hired out to tourists. This has led to undercutting and cutthroat competition in an already depressed market. Hoteliers are quite upset by what they term “apartment blocks masquerading as hotels”. Because charter operators want cheap accommodation, there has been a mad rush towards these rent-back apartments.

repeatedly made the news here. Although the other fallouts of tourism can be as adverse, it is such issues which seem to strike a real chord of concern. The citizens’ group, Jagrut Goenkaranchi Fauz, launched its bacche bachao (save the child) campaign in April, to highlight the dangers of child sex abuse linked to tourism. Goa legislators united against party lines and sought to lash out against those raising what they saw as sensational issues. But not-for-pro.t groups here united and charged politicians with not “taking cognisance” of the problem and not planning appropriate strategies to combat it. Instead, the government “is exclusively engaged in a campaign of blanket denials coupled with anti-people measures like the barbaric eviction of prostitutes in the middle of the monsoons”, said campaign groups here (Navhind Times, 1997c).

In a knee-jerk response to charges of cases of child sex abuse, the Goa government conducted raids at the red light area of Baina. Apparently, the sex-workers were tipped off. Some 13 “suspected child-prostitutes” were taken into custody, but had to be released once it was realised that they were over 18. Goa’s government recently undertook a clampdown in Baina, the state’s only openly allowed red light quarter, which is a squalid district along the port town of Vasco. For a long time, the government has tolerated – and individual politicians have encouraged – this red light area. Low-budget domestic tourists visited this place, where the women, ironically, came from the very states the men came from, like Andhra Pradesh and other parts of South India.

Suddenly, the government announced its plans to clamp down on Baina, trying to appeal to middle-class morality and the Goan sense of a loss of their beach. Though it got local support from locals hoping to recover their beach from illegal squatters, many others questioned the sudden interest of the government. It is widely suspected that port expansion and real estate plans could have more to do with the clean-up plans, rather than sudden concerns over morality or fears about the spread of AIDS.

On the other hand, the strange case of a suspected paedophile, Kenneth John Clarke of Britain, came to a close when he was acquitted on charges of sexually abusing a young boy. Police .rst said Clarke was a paedophile, then told the press that he was being blackmailed, later went on to charge him, and this all ended in his acquittal (Herald, 1996; Navhind Times, 1997d). Goa has also seen one of the most shocking tourism-linked paedophile cases in India, where Freddy Peat, a foreigner posing as an Indian national, was convicted after sexually abusing boys in his “orphanage” where, according to an official version, he kept up to 150 boys over the years.

Strangely, reports have also surfaced of a new variety of sex-tourism – where Goans visit nearby Belgaum city in Karnataka, shopping for sex (Goa Post, 1997a). For long an under-reported subject – because of its very nature and also because of the excessive orientation of the press here towards official viewpoints – various aspects of the sex tourism of Goa are now coming out of the closet. Beaches like Colva are turned into sex paradises after sunset, according to some reports (Goa Post, 1997b).

Tourists coming to Goa have also been having problems of their own, giving a hint that the bubble may well be bursting for this tourist state. Drug arrests and occasional deaths of tourists have also been reported. Goa’s battle against drugs has also continued to be controversial. Kenyan national, Stephen Mwereiria, has complained to the National Human Rights Commission that officers of the Goa Police’s anti-narcotics squad have been trying to extort money from him and frame him on drugs-related charges (Herald, 1997e).

Fasting convict, Sunder Giri, in May 1997 charged that he was falsely implicated in a drugs case. Likewise, Italian tourist Ms Caterina Conforti, charged that police had stolen part of her money, planted drugs and implicated her (Goa Post, 1997c). In another case, Calangute police arrested seven security guards of the Ninja Services in May after they assaulted a party of tourists, including women. In Colva, police arrested .ve persons on a rioting case. All the accused were employees of a luxury hotel in Majorda.

Last March, a gang-rape of two young Swedish tourists sent shockwaves through the village of Anjuna, a former centre of hippy tourists in the 1960s and 1970s. Subsequently, police announced the decision to create a new police station in Anjuna. Both women tourists recently returned to Goa to stand in the witness box, and testify against the half-dozen migrant workers charged with their rape.

One British tourist, identi.ed as A. Harriss, has alleged a harrowing time at the hands of a local youth, who demanded a hundred rupees to be let through, on the pretext that they were celebrating a local feast. “After taking the cash, they molested me in the most humiliating manner. The physical abuse in.icted upon me are unprintable, as several hands grabbed me on every region of my body. I was pleading and crying, only to be called names”, she complained to the local press (Gomantak Times, 1997e).

One relative of a former Goan minister was charged with outraging the modesty of a foreign woman tourist, Estrelamarie Schmidt. A Danish woman, Annelene Bein Larsen, accused a local of evicting her from her rented premises.

To tackle the drug problem along the beach belt, Goa’s Inspector-General of Police, PSR Brar himself, led a rally to Anjuna, the former hippy capital, where participants sported shirts with the message “Say no to drugs”. Ironically, some news reports charged that the rallies were participated in by a number of small-time drug peddlers (Goa Post, 1997d).

For some reason, the issue of tourism in Goa has hardly been understood in the rest of the country. Few media articles have focused on the extent of the problem here, and exaggerations have not helped in putting the issue in proper context. To tackle the concerns raised locally, hotel groups and others have often .own in outside journalists to help give a positive assessment of the situation. Ironically, a recent World Bank-sponsored meeting for South Asian countries, held at a luxury resort in North Goa, itself spawned some critical writing in the national media about the impact of tourism on the environment (D’Monte, 1997).

tor, and also government officials, point to .gures whilst insisting that there is inadequate infrastructure for tourism in Goa. But, at the same time, hotels are facing low occupancy rates, and those housing charter tourists have complained of problems in receiving payments and the fact that charter companies keep bargaining for lower prices.

The over-concentration in certain areas has added to the problem. On a 15km stretch between Anjuna and Candolim, around 650 government-noti.ed establishments were situated. This worked out to 43 establishments per km, over-saturated by any standard (Misquita, 1996b). Reports from coastal areas, also say a number of foreigners are setting up shop in the north and south Goa beach belts. Some are involved in carpentry, running restaurants, beer shacks, fast food, travel and tours, excursions and adventure tourism (D’Silva, 1997).

Industry believes that Goan tourism has not yet reached its “saturation point”. But others view it differently. Former Goan chief secretary, Dr J.C. Almeida, points out that the number of tourists coming to Goa in a year almost equals the total population of Goa. “To accommodate such a population, do we have enough provisions for water, food, electricity and transport? We must only accommodate that number of tourists whom we can manage without creating hassles for our own people”, says he (Almeida, 1996). Goa has, meanwhile, been scouting for a suitable agency to formulate a tourism master plan for the state.

Efforts to privatise some of Goa’s old and historic forts also ran into trouble, as rival parties (one from Singapore, and the other an Indian luxury hotel chain) went to court alleging favouritism and political interference in the decision in July (Herald, 1997f). There were also insinuations made in court that officials had been in.uenced with foreign trips for themselves and their families.

This year, new charter .ights started coming in to Goa from Holland, with Aquasun International bringing in tourists. But over the years, the charter-bubble seems to be slowly bursting, even if efforts have been made to revive the same. Charters .rst started coming in from Germany in 1987. Since then, the German charter market has dried up. Later, Goa was promoted frantically in England, Scandinavia and other destinations.

Business circles here have many complaints about foreign charter companies – pro.ts are thin, bills are not paid regularly, they drive hard bargains. But the excessive and low-cost infrastructure created over the years means that some businessmen here have no option but to continue with the charters.

Falling costs are also a reality for visiting tourists, sometimes to the dismay of businessmen here. “Seven years back I paid £560 for a holiday. Today, I can come in for £299”, one expatriate Goan con.ded to this writer. He can use the cheap charter .ights as a foreign passport holder. Goa’s tourist arrivals have been growing in numbers. But, since 1993, the rate of growth has been reducing. Tourism Department officials dismiss this as a “temporary phenomena” (Prabhudesai, 1997).

Four domestic (Indian) tourists arrive in Goa for every one foreigner. But, given the global disparity in incomes, the foreign tourists account for the large bulk (80 per cent, by some estimates, though these may be only of recorded transactions) of tourist spendings in Goa. This explains the extra-preferential treatment of the foreigners, something that has outraged both domestic tourists and locals.

Re.ecting the crisis in Goan tourism, a number of luxury hotels here have been compelled to go in for tie-ups with larger groups, to face up to the competition. Due to the entry of global players such as Hyatt and Hilton, industry quarters say a price war is imminent. To attract visitors all year round, Leela Goa is offering 40-50 per cent off-season discounts (Rao, 1997). Hotel Leela Beach announced plans to retrench some of its staff after its recent tie-up with the international chain, Four Seasons.

Leela’s, which has had considerable clout with a number of Goan governments, has tied up with Canada’s Four Seasons group and will be using its brand name. Royal Goan Beach Club-Monteiro has announced plans to become affiliated with the “internationallyrenowned” RCI Group. Averina, one of the few luxury hotels owned by a Goan expatriate, has now been linked up with the Holiday Inn chain.

Goa’s politicians and officials have scoured large areas of the globe, in their bid to draw more tourists, ranging from West Asia to Southern Africa. Politicians like long-time tourism minister Dr Wilfred de Souza have also pinned their hopes on the completion of the Konkan Railway project, to bring in more tourists. But it’s a million dollar question as to whether such large projects will make the place more attractive, or ruin the charm of Goa. De Souza also advocated the idea of “environment-friendly” golf courses to attract the Japanese and others.

To build up new attractions for tourists, other options are also being explored. Private parties have begun taking “droves of visitors from abroad” to the interior of Goa, and close to the densely wooded Dudhsagar waterfalls on the boundary with Karnataka state. This involves a ride through one of the richest biodiversity areas in the world (Navhind Times, 1997e).

“Goa should not be sold in the name of tourism”, says Indian law minister and North Goa member of parliament, Ramakant Khalap. For a long time the Opposition in Goa, Mr Khalap’s party has been slow in voicing concerns over tourism issues. Now, though, it has raised its voice (Gomantak Times, 1997f).

Mr Khalap has charged that “excessive” development of tourism is being undertaken in Goa, and adds, in a recent interview:

Misconceptions about Goa have spread due to unplanned propaganda of Goan tourism.

Foreign companies are purchasing land on a large scale in Goa, and if this continues

unchecked, there will not be an inch of land left for Goans. Rich tourists have already

turned their back on Goa…We have had enough of tourism development in Goa.

Hardly 10 per cent of Goans have benefited from tourism development. Non-Goans have

eaten the cream in the tourism sector. I am of the opinion that Goa should turn to the development of other sectors and professionals.

He added that there were “dangers” in overselling tourism in Goa, as he put it. “Tourists visiting Goa have been complaining about insufficient water and power supply, besides the improper sewage and garbage treatment systems”, he said.

Politicians like Churchill Alemao, who themselves have a stake in tourist resorts, either on their own behalf or as fronts for other investors, have meanwhile continued to push strongly for tourism to spread to other areas in Goa (Herald, 1997g). Alemao has also pressed for Goa’s participation in tourism conventions in South-East Asia.

Goa’s Department of Tourism, in response to criticism about the fact that once pristine beaches were turning dirty, said it was in fact maintaining some of the “main” beaches of the state. It was cleaning pockets along the Calangute-Baga-Sinquerim stretch, but not the entire seven kilometre stretch. Similarly, some pockets in South Goa were being kept clean.

Beaches in Goa mostly remain without toilet facilities. “If ten thousand tourists spend a morning on this beach, where do they go to meet their toilet requirements?” asks a local shopkeeper from the Baga stretch of beach in North Goa. Instead of tackling the problem, the Goa Travel and Tourism Association has urged that a “strong lobby” is needed to counter any “adverse publicity” about Goa (Navhind Times, 1997f). But neighbouring regions like Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra are already talking about “learning from Goa’s mistakes” and avoiding the same mistakes that happened here (Navhind Times, 1997g).

Foreign tourists complain that they are “totally sick” of being referred to as “cheap charter tourists”. They point out that their spending helps the local economy. On the other hand, the spending of high spending tourists goes back to .ve-star hotel chains, controlled from outside this state. It is the lobby of government officials and policy planners patronised by officials and policy planners who are pressing for “high-spending tourism”, it is charged.

There are hints of local muscle power entering tourism, in the not-fast growing .ght over the cake which more people have to share. Earlier, there have been battles between “shacks” and luxury hotels, taxi-drivers and coach operators, and even luxury hotels in North and South Goa. Some in the tourism trade have also complained that local vigilante groups like the so-called Protectors have been harassing tourists and compelling them to eat at certain preferred restaurants (Herald, 1997h).

To complicate matters, malaria has spread, particularly in those areas which happen to be part of the Goa beach belt, and which have seen a great deal of real estate construction. Concerned at having to cope with malaria in its backyard, the Tata-controlled Taj group of hotels recently launched a drive to control the mosquito-spread ailment in the Candolim-Calangute belt (De Souza, 1997).

Tourists who were asked about it, feel overwhelmingly that the changes taking place on the beach belt – particularly places like Calangute-Baga-Candolim, where concrete structures have been burgeoning – has been overwhelmingly bad. Said one tourist, who preferred to write a signed article under the byline of “Concerned tourist”:

The number one priority is to stop all speculative apartment building along the coastal belt. The concrete jungle spread has got to be halted at once, otherwise the reason for people travelling over 5,000 miles to enjoy the natural beauty of Goa, will be lost forever (Herald, 1997i).

Another tourist said: We are trying to attract tourists with modern architecture, loud and cacophonous music and roaring traffic, without realising that a tourist comes to Goa to escape exactly the same things (William, 1997d).

1 Given the unbelievably skewed international economy, what are the fallouts of international tourism?

2 In the West, tourism is taken as a given, and a holiday is seen as a right. What is the situation for the bulk of inhabitants of planet earth? What would be the situation if most of the globe’s people could afford Western-style holidays?

3 Why is it that the voice of the “hosts” are seldom heard in the tourism debate, at an international or regional level?

References

Almeida, J.C. (1996), “Uncontrolled tourism: a menace to Goa”, Herald , 7 November. Chandrapurkar, J. (1997), “Calangute: tourists’ haven, locals’ hellhole”, Herald, 18 July.

De Souza, P. (1997), “Shack owners at Morjim beach block access to the locals”, Gomantak Times, 6 March.

De Souza, S. (1997), “Taj launches anti-malaria drive”, The Navhind Times, 18 June.

[ 105 ]

D’Monty, D. (1997) “Ecology threatened in tourist paradise”, The Navhind Times, 1 August.

D’Silva, J. (1997), “Many foreigners now setting ‘shop’ in State”, Herald , 22 August.

Goa Post (1997a), “Sex and more sex”, 15-21 August.

Goa Post (1997b), “Sex and fresh air on Colva beach” 30 May-5 June.

Goa Post (1997c), “Police force tourists to leave Goa”, 1-8 May.

Goa Post (1997d), “Police .lm petty pedlars leading anti-drug rally”, 7-13 March.

Gomantak Times (1995), “Japanese village to take up 138ha, displace 519”, 7 March.

Gomantak Times (1997a), “CM to probe conversion of land at Calangute”, 19 March.

Gomantak Times (1997b), “Calangute gram sabha adjourned after crowd protests. Rs 57 lakh misappropriation alleged”, 28 July.

Gomantak Times (1997c), “Stop pandering to big hotels, JGF tells government”, 4 March.

Gomantak Times (1997d), 23 August.

Gomantak Times (1997e), “These molesters were Goans”, 8 April.

Gomantak Times (1997f), “Hardly 10 per cent Goans have bene.ted from tourism”, 30 May.

Herald (1996), “Medical results quizzes police in sodomy case”, 20 October.

Herald (1997a), “Gross violation of coastal zone noti.cation at Benaulim Mathany”, 30 March.

Herald (1997b), “Tourists thrashed for indecent behaviour”, 10 May.

Herald (1997c), “Beaches being colonised”, 10 March.

Herald (1997d), “Tension mounts in Calangute as way to beach is blocked”, 6 August.

Herald (1997e), “Flat busted, drugs planted alleges Kenyan”, 26 May.

Herald (1997f), “Tenders for conversion of Reis Magos Fort stayed. Ramada Hotels allege favouritism”, 31 July.

Herald (1997g), “Churchill for coastal resorts in Pernem”, 21 July.

Herald (1997h), “Protectors harassing tour operators?” 5 March.

Herald (1997i), “Whither tourism in Goa?”, 21 June.

Jagrut Goenkaranchi Fauz (1996), press release, 22 May.

Larsen, K. (1997a), “David versus Goliath: Agonda’s struggle to preserve her identity”, Navhind Times, 22 January.

Larsen, K. (1997b), “Goa’s identity in southern beauty”, The Navhind Times, 4 January.

Larsen, K. (1997c), “Palolem – paradise about to plunge?”, The Navhind Times, 9 January.

Larsen, K. (1997d), “A lesson for Goans in fate of Asbury Park Beach”, The Navhind Times, 1 January.

Larsen, K. (1997e), “Galgibaga: poised for the future”, The Navhind Times, 10 January.

Misquita, M. (1996a), “How does charter tourism in.uence Goan society?” Gomantak Times, 7 November.

Misquita, M. (1996b), “Is Goa’s infrastructure satisfactory for tourism?”, Gomantak Times, 6 November.

Narayan, R. (1997) “Stray thoughts”, Herald, 5 October.

Navhind Times (The) (1995), “Irate villagers rough up tourists at Nuvem”, 3 January.

Navhind Times (The) (1997a), “Beach parties are not an open affair”, says Inspector General of Police”, 12 March.

Navhind Times (The) (1997b), “Taj group to construct park on Aguada plateau. 50-year lease signed”, 20 June.

Navhind Times (The) (1997c), “Rane’s stand on sexual child abuse criticised”, 2 August.

Navhind Times (The) (1997d), “UK national acquitted in sex case”, 31 August.

Navhind Times (The) (1997e), “Call of the wild draws foreign tourists”, 20 August.

Navhind Times (The) (1997f), “Project Goa on a global basis GTTA urges government”, 12 February.

Navhind Times (The) (1997g), “Sindhudurg collector learns from Goa’s mistakes”, 4 June.

Phaldesai, P.R. (1997), “Commercialisation eroding Shigmo traditions”, The Navhind Times, 17 March.

Prabhudesai, S. (1997), “Tourism industry dying a slow death”, 14 May.

Rao, R. (1997) “Leela spreading its wings nationally”, Herald , 28 July.

William, A. (1997a), “Garbage, vendors turn idyll into nightmare”, The Navhind Times, 6 March.

William, A. (1997b), “Of acid parties, ghagra choli and smoking grass”, The Navhind Times, 7 March.

William, A. (1997c), “Mushrooming hotels sowing seeds of an economic breakdown”, The Navhind Times, 8 March.

William, A. (1997d), “Burgeoning construction may be epitaph to queen of beaches”, The Navhind Times, 4 March.

Labels: goa. tourism, India, Russia

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