CALANGUTE: Adventure is the new buzzword for the well-heeled domestic tourists down in Candolim which, with its half-a-dozen, high-end five-star resorts besides other luxury resorts, is considered to be a hub for the rich Indian and foreign charter tourists.
While earlier it would mostly be the foreign charter tourists who would go on ‘day trips’ or ‘excursions’ as they are known, now it’s the rich domestic tourists who are going scuba diving, snorkeling and on other boat trips for the adrenalin rush, stakeholders said, happy with the unexpected business.
“The taste of the rich Indian tourists is changing. Before they would only come to eat good food, drink and party at the nightspots because they come only for around three days. Now they’re becoming adventurous and they’ve taken to watersports in a big way and they keep one day aside for adventure,” a watersports operator in Candolim, John Rodrigues, said.
“A lot of rich Indians are coming to Candolim because they can’t go abroad and they want to have fun,” he said.
Day trips to Dudhsagar waterfall with a lunch halt at a spice plantation in the hinterland are also very popular, stakeholders said.
Day trips also mean good business for taxi and other vehicle owners.
“In the last two years, there were no foreign charter tourists and hardly any domestic tourists. It was a big loss for us. Now that is changing and many domestic tourists are coming even though there are still no charter tourists. A lot of them are going for waterfall and spice trips,” vice-president of the North Goa Tourist Taxi Owners’ Association, Ravindra Vengurlekar, said.
“It’s been a good season so far for watersports,” Rodrigues said, with domestic tourists flocking for all kinds of boat trips, besides excursions to Grande Island for scuba diving and snorkeling. However, backwaters trips like crocodile spotting and fishing are yet to pick up with domestic tourists.
“They are not much into nature,” tourism stakeholders said.
