Is Goa paying the price for the greed of a few big players?

Abhishek Mukherjee

May 15, 2025 - 17:46

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<p>A representative image of Goa's vibrant nightlife.</p> — A representative image of Goa's vibrant nightlife.

Goa’s Tourism has a new enemy nowadays which the government and the tourism industry is constantly in conflict with—social media, and influencers, who have been giving the state administration sleepless nights and making them and their PR machinery go into overdrive to fight the image loss that happens because of what they allege as ‘defamatory’ reports by a few during every holiday season in the state.

After a social media post went viral during the recent festival season showing declining tourist numbers in India’s premier beach destination—which saw the government and tourism department lodge a police complaint against—a similar issue has cropped up again during the just concluded Christmas and the New Year season when some social media posts reported Goa’s hotels going empty.

Recognising the damage these posts are creating for Goa, a state for which tourism is a significant revenue source, Pramod Sawant, the chief minister of the state has to come out with a statement against what he termed as “wrong message” and clarified that “all the hotels here are full”. The tourism minister of the state, Rohan Khaunte was unsparing in his criticism against those he alleged were “paid social media influencers” focussed on “defaming” the state and its tourism.

While the state administration is going all out against the “defaming” social media campaign, some elements of the private tourism industry also joined the bandwagon against “Goa bashing” on social media.