IS THIS WHAT LIBERAL TOURISM MEANS?
Alexandre Moniz Barbosa
This year itself, two articles on Goa tourism – one on an international website the other on a national portal – had some ugly truths served rather harshly about the State as a tourism destination. These are truths that we in Goa would be happy to ignore but when confronted with it at the international level have to wake up to the reality that surrounds us. The articles described Goa as ‘hedonistic’, an adjective that is definitely not a pleasant one to be used to illustrate what we want the world to believe is a paradise and an unrivalled tourism destination.
Let’s begin with the dictionary meaning of hedonistic. The Cambridge dictionary gives this meaning of the word: ‘living and behaving in ways that mean you have as much pleasure as possible, according to the belief that the most important thing in life is to enjoy yourself’. Essentially it means partying…