Panaji, Mar 12 (IANS): Masks appear to be slowly competing for attention with ice-cold mojitos on the sunny beaches of Goa over the last few days.
Goa, one of India's best known beach tourism destinations, is facing a tourist slowdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, which is slowing down tourist footfalls at the fag end of the conventional tourism season, which begins in October and ends in March.
"The drop is as much as 70 per cent," Secretary of the Goa chapter of the Travel Agents Association of India Valigno Dias told IANS.
Panic, fearmongering and the omnipresent trend of wearing masks to beat COVID-19, he says, are the key reasons for the relative quiet on Goa's beaches, which at this time of the year continue to throb with crowds and activity.
"Wearing of masks should be dissuaded. It contributes to panic, especially among the tourists who come visiting for leisure," Dias said.
Last year, more than seven million tourists visited the coastal state, but this year, the global coronavirus scare has whittled away further at Goa's tourist arrivals which were already dipping due to poor infrastructure, high prices and an increasingly hostile atmosphere for incoming budget tourists.
While the state Tourism Department is unwilling to comment on the challenges which have arisen from the tourism scare and the dent it has created vis a vis tourist arrivals, on the beaches the tension is palpable.
"Business is down by half due to cancellations on account of the (coronavirus) issue," according to the general secretary of the All Goa Shack Owners Association Manuel Cardoso.
Those tourists who still prefer to hit the beach in face of the scare are either youngsters, who seem to be pleasantly surprised by the dipping fares of hotel rates and taxi rides triggered by the downturn, or those who are prudent and cannot do without their masks during a walk along the sand.
"We had planned a holiday in advance, that is the only reason why we decided to go ahead with it. The masks should help us see through the vacation," says Anil Mishra, a consultant from Delhi who is in Goa on a vacation from the national capital.
The backbone of the hospitality industry, European charter tourists, whose arrival every year helps beef up occupancies in Goa's starred hotels, also appears to have given way in 2020, thanks to COVID-19.
And there's not much hope on the charter tourism front, on the immediate horizon, according Ernst Dias, Chief Operating Officer at Sita Travels, which handles a large chunk of Goa's charter tourism traffic.
"Even though it was the ending phase of the season, we still had a whole month of the season left. This will mean that around 8,000-10,000 tourists who would have come to Goa from the UK and Russia will not be arriving. It will have a big impact on Goa," Dias maintains.
Apart from tourism, Goa's other calling card 'football' has also taken a hit of sorts due to the global viral scare, with the Indian Super League deciding to host the high profile tourney's final match on March 14, behind closed doors.
"Football Sports Development Limited, owing to current preventive measures against COVID-19, has decided to hold the season's final behind closed doors," ISL said in a statement issued on Thursday.
The final was expected to see the venue Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium full to capacity with 18,000 odd tourists, which could have provided a fillip of sorts to an already sagging tourism season.
Currently, three persons have been quarantined in isolation wards set up by the state government, while 19 suspects are kept under home observation by the state Directorate of Health Services. While not a single case of coronavirus has been detected in Goa over the last few weeks, in all 18 persons have been discharged from quarantine facilities after their results tested negative.