E-Paper
Idli sambhar at Goa beach shacks send wrong message, tourism declining: Goa MLA
A recent drive by the state’s tourism department found that nearly 110 of the 350-odd shacks on Goa’s beaches were illegally sub-let to others to run.
PANAJI: Goa’s tourism industry has itself to blame for the decline of foreign tourists in the state by failing to showcase Goa’s culture and cuisine and instead selling idli sambhar in beach shacks, Bharatiya Janata Party legislator and former minister Michael Lobo said on Thursday.
Addressing the media before meeting the chief minister to raise concerns of the state’s hotel industry, Lobo, who also owns a string of tourism properties including starred hotels, said he would underline that the state needs to sort out the major issues -- garbage collection, stray dogs, clashes between taxi operators -- on priority failing which Goa’s tourism sector will see “dark days ahead.”
“We (the stakeholders) first have to accept that we have erred. We continued to err; we started selling idli sambhar at the shacks. This needs to stop. If the shack owners begin to sublet the shacks, then what’s left. What are we going to tell the tourist? That we are going to serve you idli sambhar on the beach?” Lobo said adding that he wasn’t against idli sambhar per se, but that Goan cuisine needed to be promoted.
“The cuisine that needs to be served on the beach is not there -- that is promotion of Goa. Goan food, and other country food, seafood, continental. This is what the tourists are coming for. What’s left? Are we going to show the culture of Hyderabad on the beach? The culture of Maharashtra? of Karnataka?” he said.
“I have told the (tourism) department that whichever shacks are given to outsiders to run -- some to Bangloreans, Punekars, Delhiwallahs, Hyderabadis -- all those licences should be cancelled…. There is no compromise on our beach shack being sublet to a person from another state person. There’s no way it should be done,” he said.
To be sure, Goa’s tourism minister Rohan Khaunte declared in September 2023 that the government had made it “compulsory” for Goa’s beach shacks to serve local cuisine.
“People come to these shacks to eat Goan cuisine -- and many times we receive complaints from tourists that they go to the shacks and cannot get Goan food. So we have made it compulsory that every shack should offer Goa cuisine,” Khaunte had said.
“Shack operators being our main ambassadors and being the most traditional operators from the time the shacks have started -- they have assured us that they will do it (ensure that local cuisine is served),” he added.
A recent drive by the state’s tourism department found that nearly 110 of the 350-odd shacks on Goa’s beaches were illegally sub-let to others to run.
Lobo said that foreign tourists who have been coming to Goa for many years continue to come, but the state has failed to attract the younger generation of foreigners, who he said prefer other destinations.
“We have not solved the taxi clashes. Aggregators and local taxis continue to clash. We have to sit together and put these things in place. In other countries, they have solved this. Even in countries poorer than ours they have systems in place. Every second day there is a fight. I’ve also tried to solve this, but it is not being solved. Tourists have to go back with good memories.
“There are many reasons. Young foreign tourists don’t wish to come here. Foreign tourists have declined. Even in countries that are poorer than ours, they have systems for this -- garbage collection, taxi services. But we have remained backward. If we do not put these systems in place, we will see dark days in the tourism sector in the years to come,” he said.
