Creole of another kind

 

Promoting Goa Differently

The naked torsos vroom past us, left and right, fuelled by the freedom of this holiday destination, forgetting the decorum of the road that they follow in their own countries. Mobile canvases of a prickly artistry, modified bodies pierced with weird patterns, they flaunt the art of the fig leaf -- right out there on the open roads, not on the beaches. Post-sunset, the boom boom of trance (music???) heralds the return of the “Season” as they call it, the cue for transport fares and everything from bottled water to fish to do the high jump.

Nearer home, the gardener complains. Her eleven-year old son has started coming home at 2 a.m. every night. When asked what he has been doing until so late, the brat shuts her up with a “Why do you want to know?” and a 500 rupee note stuffed into her fist. She knows something not quite right is going on, but she doesn’t even want to think of it.

We walk past a string of hole-in-the-wall restaurants and rented premises. Unwashed skin, dreadlocks and olfactory messages of something being smoked propel us to hurry along and not spend too much time there.

News item: “Another prostitution racket busted.”

News item: The State’s Chief Executive promises more and better infrastructure to promote tourism. Good.

Good?

Yes, good. With reservations.

Goa is a veritable tourist mine, like the other mines of the State, so merrily ravished by environmental rapists. Look at what is happening in the terrestrial mining field. Then look in the other direction at what is happening to our tourism. One is a metaphor for the other. At least, where I live in Anjuna, from the nature of tourists we see here and in the whole of the North, it is little short of an alien invasion. The South has somehow managed to attract a better class of tourists and this bodes well for the future. The South is a much later tourist destination and it seems to have evolved into a better one.

What is it that differentiates the South from the North? Apart from the reasons of history – the early hippie patronage of the North with all its attendant culture, which the South managed to escape – it is quite simply, in my opinion, a matter of pricing. The cheap, casual homestays of Anjuna, Chapora and other villages attract a certain kind of tourist to this part of Goa, while the South, with its new hotels and resorts has managed to filter out the tourist who fouls up the image of Goa without contributing much to its economy.

My memory does a little jog. A little more than a decade ago, the tourism ministry of Goa approached our advertising agency in Mumbai to design a campaign to attract tourists. The agency came up with an advertising campaign together with a strategic plan that called for a modification of the product offered. The product as seen and promoted until then was that of a destination soaked in susegado, sun and sand. Predictably it attracted beach bums. This was unfair to Goa, to its image and its economy, we thought. The recommendation was to move away from this positioning to one that presented the unique culture of Goa.

Here was a culture quite different from any in the country, or for that matter, any, anywhere else in the world; a fusion of Iberian and native, a fascinating blend that could appeal to the Western tourist. Beaches could be found anywhere else in the world, but what Goa had to offer was different, unique – a sort of spiced up Europe: native, earthy rhythms set to the triadic harmonies of Western music, reminiscent to the European ear of Vivaldi, Guerrero, Bochherini and Scarlatti; the delectable fusion of native spices with European viands; the art and architecture of public buildings and homes that adapted Portuguese design to the local environment; the exquisite art of the churches and the temples that abound in the State. All these tied up with the easy, friendly attitude of the Goan people added up to an offering that we believed would be exclusive to Goa and attractive to our target audience. This was a Creole of another kind; a different blend of native and the Romance cultures. An experience quite different from any other.

We need the economic goodies of tourism, but not at the expense of our image. We need to re-look at our promotional strategies. With responsibility and imagination. Before the implementation of plans or the setting up of infrastructure and facilities, we ought to spend time in redesigning the product. Its shape, identity, character and personality.Are we projecting Goa as a great host? An entertainer? An impresario?

We have to re-think our target audience. Will it still be the beach bum looking for a patch of beach and the freedom to do what he cannot in his own country? Or is it perhaps a more mature audience with more money to spare, one that has the curiosity and appetite for culture? The answers to these and other questions should be able to take Goa from being a tourist product like any other to being a brand with a difference. It will mean getting all the participants in the industry to be aware of and to conform to the image designed for Goa’s tourism. Surely, it cannot be done in a hurry. It has to evolve. But then, it all depends on the powers that be and the decisions they take.

An edited version of this article appeared in Goa's Navhind Times