Taste With Vir: Was the boom in Goa too good to last and is a bust on its way?
Goa: holiday paradise? Gourmet destination? The success story of Indian tourism?
Ah yes. Perhaps it is time to recalibrate some of the conclusions we came to about the hotel/restaurant scene in Goa over the last few years. The first of these is that familiar view that Goa is now the restaurant capital of India. The second is the idea that the old notion of Goa as a seasonal tourism destination is dead. It now gets tourists all around the year.
I have just come back from Goa, from my second trip there in the space of a few months. And I think that perhaps we were too hasty in jumping to those conclusions.
Let’s start with the good news, however. The best thing to happen in Goa in a long time is the opening of the new airport in North Goa, run by GMR who do such a good job of managing Delhi airport. The old airport was too small to handle Goa’s needs. And when the Airports Authority built a new terminal building there some years ago it was so hideous and badly designed that you wondered who had got rich on the project.
The roads (at least the ones connecting the major hubs) are also better than they used to be. And with the old and the new airports both still in operation you can choose your flight so that it lands near the part of Goa you want to visit.
Now, for the misconceptions. It seems probable, in retrospect, that we came to those happy conclusions about Goa at an atypical........
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