Describing the newly-minted Goa Tourism Policy 2020 as a ‘mirage. which will not benefit either the state or its people, a church body has blamed that the document is not only short on data and fact, but also bats for privatisation of public resources.

One of the key thrusts of Goa Tourism Policy 2020, was to make the coastal state one of the safest destinations in the country, to counter a nagging perception that tourists, especially foreigners, were unsafe.

In a letter to the state’s Tourism Ministry, Fr. Freddy Braganca, Executive Director of the Centre for Responsible Tourism, said that the policy which was cleared by the cabinet last month, ignored serious issues like environment degradation, sex tourism, easy availability of drugs, trafficking in women and children. “The stated vision statement of having a high-spending tourists around the year’ exhibits bankruptcy in thought. One wonders what is the concept and quantification of a high spender. Vague terms like world class need to be qualified.

The vision needs to envisage a just and equitable tourism with ‘people’ as the focus,” Fr. Braganca said in his letter to the Ministry, which also demands putting the policy on hold and restarting a consultation process with industry stakeholders.

“In the absence of a comprehensive development programme for people, very serious issues of environmental degradation, violation of Coastal Zone Regulations, cultural decay, sex tourism, easy availability of narcotics, child labour, child and women trafficking, alienation of communities from their lands have not been addressed,” the letter said.

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