Goa struggling to cope with Russian tourist influx

Russian airlines offering flights to Goa will have to increase their capacities dramatically this year to be able to handle the ever-growing tourist traffic. This fall, 1,400-1,500 Russian visitors are expected to fly to Goa's resorts every week, as compared with last year's average of 800-900.

To meet the demand, KrasAir's Boeing 757 will take Russian holidaymakers to Goa once every ten days and TransAero will schedule three Boeing 747 flights per week.

The number of Russians choosing the former Portuguese colony as their holiday destination during the high season, which in Goa is between November and March, has now reached 30,000, and is expected to increase to 50,000 in 2007-2008.

Travel agents say the popularity of Indian coastal resorts has been growing fast in recent years. In the late 1990s, trips to Goa were a market niche catered to in Russia by just a handful of small agencies, says Tatyana Melnichenko, director for tourism at the Russian Deo Travel group.

It was not until the turn of the century that group tours became available. Demand for Goa among Russian tourists has been mounting steadily since 1999, when the first charter flights to the Indian coast were launched.

Many larger companies traditionally specializing in the Mediterranean have now also set their sights on the Indian subcontinent. Extensive budgets enable such agencies to arrange trips at lower prices, thereby attracting more customers than their smaller competitors do.

However, despite the steep demand and supply curves for Goa, observers are cautiously optimistic about the resort's further rise, and point to the shortage of accommodation as the main obstacle.

There are simply not enough hotels to cope with the current inflow of Russian tourists, and getting new projects up and running can take quite a while, Melnichenko says. She believes most of the hotels now appearing in Goa's resorts have only 10-20 rooms, meaning that their impact on the market situation will be negligible.

Goa is becoming an increasingly popular destination for holidaymakers from all over the world. The number of tourists from Europe, as well as from other parts of India, grows with every passing year, putting further strain on Goa's already overstretched infrastructure.

However, both Russian and Indian companies remain eager to develop tourism in Goa.

"Demand is increasing rapidly," says Raj Kumar Goyal, chief executive of the Indian Cosmo Travels Ltd., which has an office in Russia.

"Russian tourists are very interested in beaches and few of them are interested in Indian culture, dances, heritage, or mountains. At the same time, the majority of Russian tourists who visit, for example, Taj Mahal, take a daytrip there while on vacation in Goa. Therefore Goa is a perfect place for Russians to spend their holidays."

RIA Novosti