I've heard Churchill Alemao argue years back that 300,000 people earning a living from tourism in Goa. If you take Goa's total population, subtract the elderly and children and unemployed, you would find that there probably aren't so many people left to work... even assuming tourism could absorb so many!
The figure of 20 lakh (two million) tourists visiting Goa a year was first claimed by the controversial tourism former director N Suryanarayana. We know that there are no statistics kept of people entering Goa by road or rail, and neither do many medium and smaller-level hotels or guest houses report report occupancies.
Apart from Goans who have resided in Pakistan -- who get harassed quite a bit for no fault of their own -- how many of those visiting Goa would recall being asked to fill a form that could go into creating carefully-maintained statistics?
When we asked tourism officials as to how exactly they arrived at the figures of tourism arrivals some time back, they were hard-pressed to give an answer.
These are just guestimates (often, exaggerations) which after being repeated on many occasions, get life of their own. Earnings from tourism, in an economy which has so much under-reporting, untaxed incomes and a grey-market economy, is speculative at best or a gross exaggeration.
To talk about Goa's "foreign exchange" earnings is misleading too. Foreign exchange was a valuable commodity in the past; not any more, you can get it easily even for frivolour purposes like a holiday abroad. Besides, the "earnings" go not to the State but to private pockets. FN
On Tue, 28 Dec 2004, Philip Thomas wrote:
<Can someone tell us why the 500 crore INCREASE in foreign exchange THIS fiscal year? And how much has translated into increased state tax
receipts? This 500 crore (increase) is into Goa's local economy spent by tourists' consumers at the retail level. And of course this does not
include the tourist expenditures by Indians / non-foreigners who visit
Goa. They are reported / estimated to be 60% of Goa's tourists. We are
told this year, IFFI and SFX exposition cost the Goa government 125
crore (75 + 50). By my calculations, and I hope the accountants come to
the same conclusions, that is some pretty good 'return on investment'
for native Goans. Please educate me otherwise. I am all ears.> [Gilbert
Lawrence, Dec 27]
Not so fast! The Seminar issue is dated NOVEMBER 2004. Hence the material predates IFFI/SFX. The estimate of a Rs 500 cr increase in tourist FX earnings over the "average" figure of previous years (not the actuals for 2003-04) may be based on projected increases in tourist arrivals in Goa based perhaps on international trends etc. It would be premature to ascribe the increase in FX earnings to IFFI/SFX and conclude about good ROI from it.
