GOA, India (AP) – The golden rays of the sun fall on the sandy beaches of Goa every night, magical as always, but strangely silent and lonely. This holiday season, few visitors are enjoying the famous sunset at the Indian party venue.
The implied fear of the coronavirus is sucking blood from Goa’s vibrant beach huts and noisy bars.
A Portuguese colony until 1961, this western Indian state generally comes to life in December and January, its tourism-driven economy booming with foreign travelers and charter flights bringing hordes of tourists.
In the past decade, Goa has transformed itself from a seasonal mecca for hippie backpackers and wealthy tourists into a second residential destination for the Indian middle class. Construction was on the rise, raising concerns about the impact on fragile environments. Apartments overlooking the sea, in front of the river or surrounded by forests have been in high demand.
The ensuing pandemic and travel restrictions changed everything, possibly forever.
Along popular beaches in northern Goa, from Candolim to Calangute and Morjim, many cafés, tattoo parlors and bars with lounge chairs have closed permanently. Nightlife in popular party centers is over.
Seema Rajgarh, 37, is a lone figure on Utorda’s almost deserted beach in southern Goa, her blue sari against the expanse of the Arabian Sea as she sells jewelry made of beads and stones. None of the few domestic tourists are interested in buying them.
On good days during the holiday season, the mother of three girls, the youngest under the age of two, said she earned 2,000 rupees ($ 27).
Now, times are bleak.
“Some days, I only earn 200 rupees ($ 2.7), which is not enough to buy milk and food for my children,” she said.
Rajgarh’s husband, a cook, lost his job during the national blockade imposed in March to stem the spread of coronavirus infections. He remains unemployed.
School fees for children are late. The rent is three months late.
“This virus has devastated our lives,” said Rajgarh.
In 2019, more than 8 million tourists visited Goa, including more than 930,000 foreign tourists. About 800 charter flights arrived from Russia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Japan, among other countries, according to the state’s tourism department.
In August, only 1.1 million had visited, including just over 280,000 foreign tourists.
An official report on the impact of COVID-19 in Goa, released in December, estimated a loss of almost $ 1 billion for the tourism industry due to the April-May blockade. Potential job losses are expected to be in the range of 35% to 58%. More than one in three of Goa’s 1.6 million inhabitants work in tourism.
Goa was responsible for more than 51,000 of the more than 10 million reported cases of coronavirus in India, with 749 deaths. The persistent consequences of the abrupt interruption of economic activity have tempted many business owners to give up.
Sitting at home last summer during the blockade, designer Suman Bhat, whose luxury brand “Lola by SumanB” with its draped silhouettes is popular with Bollywood celebrities, struggled to decide whether to close the brand’s store in Panjim, capital of Goa, or expected the drop in sales.
Bhat managed to keep his workers, but he had to give up his beloved retail space, moving to a less expensive location in August.
“It was a difficult goodbye for me. You invest a lot of money in the business to create a customer experience – and that is completely taken from you. There is no way anyone can see, touch and feel your product anymore, ”she said.
Bhat says his employees are exhausted by new hygiene, testing and worrying routines. As the end of the pandemic is not yet in sight, the future remains uncertain.
“Can my clothes be used for the night when there is no night to go? Is it fair to ask people to pay that kind of money when everyone is trying to save? She asked herself.
“Everyone is exhausted. You don’t know when a worker will say he has a fever. What do you do? Turn everything off? Tell everyone to get tested, sanitize and spray everything? You are in problem solving mode all the time, ”she said.
Months after the blockade began to ease, Goa is showing signs of life. Arrivals of domestic tourists increased during the holiday season. Casinos have reopened and visitors no longer need to submit negative coronavirus test reports, unlike most other Indian states.
But things have hardly returned to normal.
Yoga teacher Sharanya Narayanan is struggling to understand what has been lost.
Narayanan, 34, came from Mumbai to Goa in 2008 to perform aerial acrobatics at a club and stayed to make it his home.
She was teaching at several locations, but had to switch to virtual classes during the block. When wellness centers were able to reopen in August, only one of their jobs came back – their own private class.
“The pandemic has changed everyone’s life – including mine,” she said.
“I miss the feeling of anonymity that I previously enjoyed in Goa. That every time I didn’t have the same set of people to meet, it was always changing, evolving, so I was able to recreate myself without feeling stagnant, ”she said. “It is the transitory nature of things that is so attractive in Goa.”