I agree that important all-India and international festivals cannot wait for the completion of much needed development and infrastructure and Goa being fortunate to get them must not be foolish enough to turn them down.
Inconvenience to local residents must be borne stoically. The benefits are far too great. Gusto has mentioned some of the benefits: facelifts, direct and indirect revenues, raising of profile of the state's ability to host such events and international exposure that may result ultimately in the much sought after golden fleece - the better class of tourists. To quieten skeptics, there is nothing better than being able to quantify the indirect revenue accruing to local businesses and ultimately the state's economy. This can be quite considerable. In the case of Toronto's equivalent international film festival called TIFF nobody protests the huge traffic snarls downtown with all the stars at the venues and at the high end shops, since Torontonians know the financial effect boils down to ultimately lower increases in municipal house taxes and all other fees and levies that contribute to municipal budget because of events such as these. While I don't know how much TIFF nets the city, I do know that a similar one week Caribana (Caribbean) festival in summer gets us over a billion dollars from visiting American and European black and other tourists. Ditto the famous Gay Parade. Notoriety and other negatives are quietly swallowed because of this. Stephen Dias must realize that even for Government, money makes the mare go round. Roland. Sent from Samsung Mobile -------- Original message -------- From: augusto pinto <[email protected]> Date: 24-11-2013 2:05 PM (GMT-05:00) To: goanet <[email protected]>,Jose Colaco <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Goanet] Criticize IFFI and ThinkFest if You Must but Please Be Sensible. And besides, every time IFFI is held, I notice that Panjim and its surroundings are given a face-lift and this includes its roads. Isn't this one of the boons of IFFI for residents in and around the capital city? This is besides the indirect revenue earned by the State and its people through the increased tourist inflows? Let us not unnecessarily condemn a revenue generating festival with the fact that more money needs to be put into development of infrastructure. Augusto Pinto
