On Fri, 24 Dec 2004, Eddie Fernandes wrote:
No one has questioned the claim by India's Union Tourism Minister that British visit Goa with their chefs, cooks and butlers and enjoy a cheap holiday. In the UK, it is only the multi-millionaires who can afford to employ chefs and butlers and the amount they spend in renting a villa outstrips the expenditure by any other class of tourist.
The main provider of rental holiday accommodation has a website at http://www.lazydays.co.uk/ Check their rates. A villa in Nerul, for example, has a peak season rent of Rs 3 lakhs per week ( air fares are excluded)
On the other hand, many middle class Indian tourists visit Goa with their cooks/maids/ayahs.
Hi Eddie:
A politician's hyperbole does not negate the existance of an issue, which has been debated often on Goanet (and which expats tend to view defensively, IMHO).
Re the Rs 300,000 per week villa at Nerul at peak season, I wonder who's making the money. Let me know if home-owners (specially those expats who got pushed into going in for rent-backs) make anything of a fraction of this money.
Also, the actual impact of tourism -- millionaires, butlers, chefs, cooks or whoever -- on the local real estate reality has not been adequately looked at. I know quite a large section of people who have put in a life of hard work and who would probably never be able to afford a decent home in Goa, thanks to the real estate boom which in significant part is tourism-generated.
Are expat Goans willing to call a spade a spade, or just build arguments to be defensive over a situation which is to their advantage? Sorry for this bluntspeak. No offence meant. FN
