I'm NOT Goin' to Goa

I don't know how many times I said that exact phrase when talking about my Indian itinerary. Goa is infamous as the destination for world-weary hippies looking for a beautiful place to relax and European couples looking for a cheap place to drink and get a tan. Despite belonging to the same category, I generally don't like tourists. It is easy to get arrogant and righteous when observing groups of sunburned sixty-somethings who have over-indulged in the cheap booze, but i have no right to be indignant. I may think of myself as a traveler rather than a tourist, but it is all a matter of perspective. My perspective. To the people in Goa who rely on tourism for their livelihood, I am just as much a tourist as any drunken pensioner from Europe, just another person who has come for the cheap food and beautiful beaches.

Tourism may be considered a legitimate route to economic development, but it irreversibly, and in my mind adversely, affects the local culture. Instead of relying on the land or the sea for their income, most people in Goa must now rely on the fickle demands of foreign tourists. Communities full of people who can only make money by pleasing tourists. The rich folks fly in and immediately stash their money in locked hotel safes and hidden money belts. All tourists everywhere, especially myself, have a disproportionate fear, almost a phobia, of the dreaded “Rip Off”. Not too many people stop to think about who is really getting ripped off every day. The tourists pamper themselves in one of the world's most beautiful settings for ridiculously cheap. while the locals make a meager living serving them, too busy to be able to enjoy their ancestral setting. You decide who is getting the short end of the stick. (No points for guessing my answer.)

Tourism's effect on the locals is evident every time I walk to town. I am staying in a lesser-developed section of Goa, but the road to the nearest village is lined with stalls selling the usual array of souvenirs. The necklaces, postcards, t-shirts, and trinkets are the same in nearly every stall. There is little or no product differentiation because in order to be competitively priced they must buy from a large wholesaler, which has a limited selection of merchandise. Since everyone is essentially selling the same thing, the only way to stand out is to catch the attention of the passing tourists, to hook their interest in whatever way possible. The hooks range from the simple and ubiquitous, “Hello, my friend!”, to the more sophisticated (and usually accurate) comments on nationality, “Hello! America, yes?” (I occasionally get mistaken for a German or Australian, but without me saying a word they usually know I'm American. Is it my clothes, my hair, or my shoes, or something more subtle? I don't really know how they do it, but I know it involves practicing day after day.) If the comment elicits any reaction, especially a verbal response, it is successful and is immediately followed by a heartfelt plea to, “just look here, no buying”. The hook which catches me without fail is the compliment. Hearing a stranger say “nice beard my friend!”, or “you look like a real Indian!” instinctively makes me smile and at least say “thanks” in return, not because I'm overly polite, but because I'm a sucker for a compliment.

The most creative hook I have come across was even more clever than a compliment or educated guess on nationality. “Please come look at my shitty shop. Just another shitty shop full of shit for you to buy”. When I was certain I had heard him correctly, I had to turn to smile. “Yes my friend, do you want to see my shit? You have never seen such shit for such good prices!” This guy would be a marketing executive had he been born in the West. He realizes that it doesn't matter what you say, as long as people stop and listen. Being a connoisseur of hawkers' hooks, I had to buy some postcards from this supreme souvenir slinger.

Like it or not, the tourism industry is not going to disappear anytime soon. People will always choose to go where their hard-won Dollars, Pounds, or Euros will go the farthest; it's simple economics. The problem is that this process always results in a unequal balance of power. The tourists, by voting with their money, have control over the services, food, accommodation, and entertainment in the area. The local residents are not helpless victims, they are just at the losing end of an economic exchange. If the people of Goa became organized and decided to guarantee everyone working in the tourist industry a minimum wage and guaranteed time off, prices for tourist services would inevitably rise. For every Rupee increase in the cost of a Goa vacation, Goa would get less tourists and the locals are aware of this economic fact. It is just as easy for potential tourists to book a vacation to Mexico, Thailand, Bali, or Vietnam – exotic, warm, beautiful, and cheap. Poor people in Thailand are competing with poor people in Indians; there is always another “undiscovered gem” on the tourist map, so if you want to be attract tourists, you better be cheap.

Tourism in the developing world is a one way street. We can go to their home and pay for their servitude, but 99% of them will never be able to even dream of a luxurious vacation in the West. Of course not, neither can most of the Western tourists who come to Goa, that is why many people are here. This all became embarrassingly apparent on a bus ride in which I was talking to a friendly engineer going to visit his home village. He was very curious and asked about all the details of my trip; how long in each country, average costs for hotels, food, and transportation, and how much I had saved before leaving. He then asked me about equivalent traveling costs in the United States and Europe. Being an engineer, doing the math in his head was not a problem. When he was finished with his mental spreadsheet, he looked at me and said, “It is impossible for me to visit your country in this way. I am an engineer, but I will never be able to afford a trip for that length of time in such an expensive place.” He said it as a matter of fact, without a hint of resentment or anger. It is just the current global situation and we too often take it for granted.

This whole rant on tourism is a result of two and a half months of constantly and consciously taking advantage of this economic inequity. I need a holiday from being a tourist so I'm excited to start volunteering tomorrow - whether or not I'm able to really help their organization, at least I'll no longer feel like a neo-colonial voyeur. My next posting should be from Sadhana Village in Pune, hopefully on a much lighter note :-)