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In India's holiday capital, demonetisation crashed the party for the tourism and travel industry, rocking the coastal state's gravy-boat.
Goa's tourism season begins in October as the winter sets in and winds up in March, with the advent of summer. Coming on 8 November, demonetisation landed a sucker-punch bang in the middle of the lucrative season, creating problems for travellers and other stakeholders.
He said major negative signs emerged when booking cancellations by foreigners and domestic tourists started happening.
Goa receives more than six million tourists every year with half a million visitors hailing from European countries, who visit Goa to escape the harsh winter back home.
John D'Souza, head of operations for inbound travel for Eastbound Group, said that soon after the prime minister's announcement, the situation turned desperate.
The Goa Tourism department, however, does not agree with omnipresent tales of woe, insisting that demonetisation barely caused "initial hiccups" as tourism inflow stabilised within one month.
"It was only in the first month of the introduction of demonetisation that the industry witnessed some cuts in travel plans from domestic and international tourists, but within a month the scenario was back to normal and we did not see any huge drop in footfall," D'Souza said.
Other stakeholders, of course, disagree.
Sheldon Remedios of Groove Events, one of the popular event management companies in Goa said:
He said that convincing clients to go cashless was "very difficult". Now, the introduction of Goods and Services Tax was also not a healthy prospect, he said adding that "the forthcoming season also looks quite dull for us."
"They did not like standing in queue for hours for a couple of thousand rupees each day. They said they were here for a holiday, not to stand in queues for hours begging for their own money. It had scarred people. So those who were annoyed will not come back. Not this season at least," Fernandes said.
Several of her prospective clients who had pre-booked dental appointments before arriving in Goa on a holiday, had cancelled their arrival plans after hearing about the demonetisation decision, she said.
But has demonetisation spread the practice of digital transactions in the tourism hub?
Despite demonetisation and the subsequent emphasis on cashless transactions, only five percent of the transactions were carried out by cashless means, D'Souza of Eastbound Group said. "Ninety-five percent of the transactions are still in cash," he added.
(This article has been published in arrangement with IANS. The author Mayabhushan Nagvenkar can be reached at mayabhushan.n@ians.in.)
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