Everyone loves Goa. Or at least, they used to. Once the crown jewel of India’s coastline — a place where the world came to breathe, escape, and fall in love — goa is now suffocating under the weight of greed, mismanagement, and political indifference.
Under chief minister Pramod Sawant, goa has turned into what many foreign tourists now call “Delhi by the Sea” — a chaotic, overpriced, overbuilt carnival where peace is lost and the air smells more of exhaust than of salt.
The numbers tell the story: Foreign tourist arrivals have collapsed from 9 lakh in the 1980s to barely 1.35 lakh in 2022. The beaches are more crowded but less clean, the charm more commercial than cultural.
The tragedy? Goa isn’t dying of age — it’s dying of arrogance.
🏝️ Two Goas, One Wreck
There are now two Goas — divided not by geography, but by experience.
The first is the goa of instagram and weekend weddings — crowded, loud, and full of selfies and casino lights. It’s the goa of rented Thars, neon signs, and drunken reels.
The second — the real goa — is vanishing. It was once the home of global wanderers, artists, backpackers, and dreamers who came for what goa promised best: freedom, anonymity, and the art of doing nothing.
That goa was music floating over moonlit beaches, strangers becoming friends under palm trees, and a kind of spiritual liberation no brochure could capture.
Now? That goa lives only in memory — fading, like an old postcard from a time when paradise still meant peace.
✈️ When the Charter Flights Stopped Coming
In the 1980s, nearly 9 lakh foreign tourists arrived in goa every year. Charter flights from the UK, Germany, Israel, and russia filled the small Dabolim airport. The world came for yoga, trance, and sun — and left with something deeper.
By 2022, that number had fallen to just 1.35 lakh.
The decline isn’t just statistical — it’s symbolic. goa, once Asia’s best-kept secret, now feels like a poor imitation of itself.
In december 2023, Dabolim handled just 38 charter flights — a near-50% drop from the previous year. The British and Russian tourists, once Goa’s lifeblood, are now flocking to Thailand, Egypt, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam, where the beer is cheaper, the roads cleaner, and the service smoother.
It’s not that goa stopped being beautiful — it’s that it stopped being functional.
💸 What Went Wrong: The Anatomy of Decay
Goa’s problems are no mystery. The world moved forward — goa stayed stuck in a bureaucratic time warp.
Infrastructure collapsed under overdevelopment.
Taxi mafias turned transport into extortion.
Prices soared, but quality nosedived.
Late-night bans and police crackdowns drove away the very crowd that made goa famous.
E-visa confusion, poor connectivity, and filthy beaches sealed the coffin.
Meanwhile, countries like Thailand and Vietnam opened their arms with visa waivers, slick marketing, and hospitality training. goa was still stuck arguing about noise limits at midnight.
The state government’s excuse?
“We’re focusing on quality over quantity.”
But the world isn’t fooled. goa didn’t shift from mass tourism to meaningful tourism. It simply shifted from thriving to surviving.
🧳 Goa vs The World: A Brutal Reality Check
Bali (Indonesia): 5.2 million foreign tourists in 2024
Antalya (Turkey): 4.6 million
Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt): 1.2 million
Goa (India): 4.68 lakh foreign “visitors” — and many of them weren’t even tourists.
The contrast is humiliating. Once, goa stood shoulder to shoulder with the best. Now, it’s not even in the race.
When a week in goa costs 1,000 GBP, and a week in Phuket or Da Nang costs 600, the choice is obvious — especially when the latter offers WiFi on surfboards while goa still struggles with power cuts and potholes.
⚠️ From Trance to Trouble: The Crime and Chaos Factor
Once, goa was carefree. Now, it’s careless.
Crimes against tourists — from harassment to scams — have tainted its name globally. Western embassies have quietly warned travellers. Late-night music bans and moral policing have further driven away the free-spirited crowd.
The over-commercialisation post-pandemic — coupled with an influx of aggressive domestic settlers and casino culture — has stripped goa of its serenity.
As one long-time british resident lamented:
“Over-commercialisation and the delhi crowds have destroyed what made goa special. Bali reminds me of what goa once was.”
🧠 Leadership Without Vision: The Sawant Syndrome
chief minister Pramod Sawant’s governance has been marked more by slogans than solutions.
Under his watch, goa has become a victim of short-term greed over long-term planning. Infrastructure projects drag endlessly. Taxi cartels go unchecked. Tourism policy changes with every season.
Sawant’s goa is loud, lawless, and directionless — a tourism economy built on nostalgia, not strategy.
The result? The global traveller who once adored goa now avoids it — and the local Goan who once lived off tourism now struggles to survive it.
🌅 Can goa Find Its Soul Again?
Despite everything, the sea still whispers its secrets. The sunsets are still hypnotic. The Goan heart still beats beneath the noise.
There’s hope — fragile, but real. The new Manohar international Airport is a start. The push for heritage tourism and eco-friendly stays shows promise. The idea of a “Goa Beyond Beaches” campaign could work — if the government listens, learns, and lets locals lead.
But to truly rise again, goa must stop pretending to be India’s Las Vegas and return to being India’s escape from itself.
It must remember what made the world fall in love with it — not its casinos, not its chaos, but its calm.
💀 Final Word: paradise Doesn’t Need Permission to Heal
goa doesn’t need saving. It needs remembering.
It doesn’t need louder beaches — it needs cleaner ones.
It doesn’t need rebranding — it needs rebirth.
As the poet Shelley said, “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”
Let’s hope Goa’s spring is still waiting — somewhere between the tides, the trance, and the truth.
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