Shack owners in Goa finally breathe in relief, the Goa Tourism Department earlier this week gave the green signal to open up shacks in Northern Goa from November 2020.
The tourism department has started demarcating the northern Goa beach belt which includes Anjuna, Calangute, and Candolim beaches. Department Director Menino D’Souza has announced that the tourism department is in the process of demarcating the land and will complete the same in 10 to 15 days.
Since the shack owners had to close down about 2 months early in the start of the pandemic, they had applied to the tourism department to waive off their license fees which had delayed this tourism season, which usually starts in October.
Now the owners can start up their businesses again as the Government has Shack operators are now heavily relying on the domestic tourists as charter flights are un operational currently, hence curbing the arrival of international visitors.
Taken the losses faced by the operators into account the state tourism department had granted them a 50% waiver in their license fees. The shack owners are also hopeful that the festive season might bring in more business for them.
While the Northern Coastal belt is gearing up for the business, the southern belt, it seems, would have to wait as the tourism department is short of manpower.
Shack operators are now heavily relying on domestic tourists as charter flights are un-operational currently, hence curbing the arrival of international visitors.
As per the new relaxed rules, prior testing for COVID is no longer necessary, the people can arrive and leave Goa as they please as long as they follow precautions such as social distancing and wearing masks.
The shack culture of Goa is a huge attraction to foreign tourists and the Northern coastal belt and beach shacks alone rack up about 7.8 million tourists every year.
