ABEL BARRETTO
CANACONA: It’s the same coastal Canacona, but not as you would know it in normal times as hundreds of the tables laid on the beaches of Canacona by restaurateurs lay in wait for the guests with a hope that they will be occupied and get their cash registers fat.
This hope has belied the tourism stakeholders since last year when the tourism season which started late ended abruptly due to uncertainty over the Covid-19 pandemic that struck the world by surprise in the end of 2019.
Canacona, home to some of the nicest beaches with white sands and blue waters, it was natural for the tourists to get attracted since nineties and in course of time a decade later the entire belt of Canacona from Polem uptown Cabo de Rama has become a huge village for these tourists both foreign and local.
When this correspondent visited the more famous beaches of Patnem, Palolem and Agonda on a couple of occasions it was observed that there were a handful of local (desi) tourists sitting with beer cans on the sand and some in the shallow waters at the beach.
The Desi ones are not the greatly liked by the restaurant owners as generally once they arrive they start bargaining expecting all tourism facilities to be sold at the lowest rates.
It is observed that only accommodation is their worry in case they stay here for more than a day and drinks from wholesale liquor stores are already purchased by the tourists, so that they can easily be in the waters and drink to their content instead of the shack facility on the beaches.
As per people running small restaurant in coastal areas, restaurant owners and dhabhas informed that local tourists prefer the normal food thali to the other Indian, Chinese and Continental food that is usually served at the beach shacks.
All these has led to empty chairs and tables which the staff of each beach front restaurants line up on the beach each morning to be shifted to safety during night time.
The candle lit tables lie in wait for the guests to arrive and for some business at the counters.
This year it is going to be loss for all of us and this is the straight second season we have lost and difficult to visualise what is in store for the next season” said a stakeholder in grief.
Socky Da’ Silva sensing opportunity quit his well paid job on the ship some two decades ago to start his Hotel “My Soul Mate” in Palolem.
First time in the last twenty years he has experienced very low occupancy which otherwise was many times overbooked.
Socky explaining the current position of the tourism industry in Canacona says that it is nothing but Covid-19 induced ‘S’ curve, “this is an excellent opportunity for everyone to understand the mistakes they made in the past, rectify them and plan well for the future” Socky said.
“The local public departments like PWD, Water Supply and Electricity Department have to sit together with the members of local elected body and find out the shortcomings and work on them as fast as possible”.
“It is hoped that the each inhabitant of the world will get the Covid-19 jab and then the whole tourism industry will see a boom once again, its important to get ready with all the infrastructure required in place” informed Anil Bhagat a widely travelled senior citizen from Canacona.
