Panaji, May 3 (Inditop) Irrespective of global recession, job losses and wage cuts, for thousands of vacation-going Russians this season, the sun has continued to shine in Goa.
Even as the coastal state with its palm-fringed coastline and sun-soaked beaches saw a drop in the number of tourists from other European countries, which form the bulk of its foreign tourist numbers, it was the ‘Russians are coming’ buzz, which kept tourism alive and kicking in the coastal tourism pockets. From the nearly 200,000 foreigners who visit Goa each tourist season from October to March, Russians rank second in the list of arrivals.
Tourism department statistics show that nearly 25,000 Russians (both chartered and independently travelling tourists) visited Goa during the tourist season here, which coincides with the harsh sub-zero Russian winter temperatures back home.
While there were more than 35,000 British tourists visiting India during the last tourist season, the Germans were a poor third with only about 5,000 tourists visiting Goa.
So how did a tourist state, which was once a rage with the hippies who rejected capitalism and other isms in the 1960s to scour the globe for utopian havens like Goa, attract the high-spending tourists from Russia?
According to Goa Tourism Development Corporation vice chairman Lyndon Monteiro, the connect came as a result of a lot of hard work. “The first conscious move to attract Russian tourists was made by the Goa government in 2002, when a Goan delegation consisting of political leaders and industry stakeholders met their Russian counterparts and formally pitched Goa as a tourism destination to them,” Lyndon told Inditop.
The move came at a time when a lull had set in Goa’s tourism scene after peaking in the millennium year. With the scourge of terrorism and a global fiscal downturn, afflicting tourism in Goa yet again this year, a high-profile tourism department team visited Moscow late last year to make sure that the steady flow of tourists from Russia did not go down.
“Russians did not let us down during our toughest year. If you notice, despite the global adversities, the number of Russians coming to India has in fact only marginally dipped,” Lyndon said, adding that people from all over Russia and not just Moscow were visiting Goa.
Superintendent of Police Tony Fernandes confirmed this. “Not just Moscow alone. This year we have tourists coming in from other provinces like St Petersburg, Leningrad, Yekaterinburg,” he told Inditop.
The official said that the visa relaxation given to Russian tourists could have also supplemented numbers this year. “Russians arriving in India for tourism were allowed entry on the basis of Temporary Landing Permits (TLP) for a period of 14 days. The Indian embassy is in Moscow, and so tourists from other areas would have had a problem processing their visas,” Tony said.
The bulk arrival of Russians however had resulted in a temporary scare in the Goan coastal community initially, especially the beach areas such as Morjim and Arambol, where several Russians have set up eateries and other commercial ventures.
The few crimes registered against Russians involving charges like vandalism, dressing vulgarly and other offences like setting up of fake companies and forgery had triggered echoes of the Russian mafia in the media and political circles. Dan Sorokin, a Russian entrepreneur, was assaulted by a few rave party organisers last year. He was accused of being a part of the Russian mafia by the local media, a charge which he had to deny by addressing a press conference.
“Do you even know what the Russian mafia is? I am in Goa because I love Goa. The media should exercise restraint before calling every Russian a mafia man,” Sorokin said.
The tourism department however feels that such incidents were isolated cases and that the growing number of Russians coming to Goa was proof that they loved the place.
“Nothing travels faster in tourism than mouth to mouth publicity. If Goa did not treat Russians well, then the numbers would not have increased over the years. The incidents you mention are isolated,” Lyndon said.
