St Petersburg to Panaji: Ukraine crisis throws its shadow on Goa

Remember the Boney M song lsquoRasputinrsquo It ends with the sigh ldquooh those Russiansrdquo Well those Russians are now swarming all over the beaches in Goa with nearly half of all the foreigners visiting the sunny state coming from Russia or other countries of the former Soviet Union like Ukraine Belarus etc Everywhere you go beach shacks restaurants and hotels in the touristy areas you find menus and shop signs in two languages English and RussianRussian charter tourists on the beach at CandolimLingoThatrsquos because most of the Russians donrsquot know a word of English and apparently because of some fierce nationalistic pride refuse to also learn it This often leads to some strange situations On a recent river rafting trip this writer had to of all things learn Russian because all the others on the rafting boat were RussiansFrom left Ekaterina Belyakova of Tara Travels Jolina Kokhta of Surya Travels Anastasia Gritsay editor of Krasta Goa and Vikram Verma legal counsel for the Russian Consulate during the lsquoPeace JamrsquoSince the majority were Russians who did not understand a word of English the guide who travels in the boat and shouts out rafting instructions row in front row backwards etc had to shout out the instructions in Russian Forward rowing Vpiriot pronounced piriot Backward nasad Hold on dershez Over left na lieva Over right na pravaA typical scene outside a restaurant in Goa with signboards in Russian offering tandoori chicken king prawns etcCentresAll the tribal lamani women who sell trinkets on the beaches now speak fluent Russian as do many vegetable vendors in the local markets in the beach belt The Russian government has also set up a Russian Information Centre RIC with two offices in Goa one in the north in Candolim and another in south Goa at Benaulim two areas which are major hubs for Russian charter touristsThe Russian Information Centre in CandolimThe RIC operates a 24hour helpline for Russians and also publishes a bimonthly magazine in Russian Krasta Goa Colours of Goa which is probably the first Russian magazine in India It is distributed free at hotels restaurants etc and is sort of a travel magazineA boat operatorrsquos outlet with allRussian informationMoscowldquoRussians like Indian culture and love Goa Theyrsquore fascinated by Indian mythologies like the Mahabharat and Ramayanardquo explains Ekaterina Belyakova the head of RIC and a partner in Tara Travels one of the biggest Russianlinked charter tour operators in GoaWhile typically the Russian charter tourists spend between a week to a fortnight in Goa there are others who come and stay for extended periods of a few months while around 500 Russians are permanent residents in GoaMost of the longstaying Russians stay in Morjim in north Goa leading to the village now being dubbed lsquoLittle Moscowrsquo or lsquoLittle Russiarsquo with most of the shop signs in Russian and even Russianrun restaurants and hotelsWhile the svelte young Russian women in bikinis make a pretty sight the aggressive behaviour of some of the Russian men has created a lot of resentment against them which has also been exacerbated because of the language barrierProblemsLast year a local taxi driver was beaten to death in a brawl with a Russian in Morjim In February this year a waiter in a beach shack at Calangute had his face slashed with a knife by an infuriated Russian tourist In recent months Russians have been at the receiving end too with taxi drivers targeting Russians working as tour guidesOnly Goans can register as tourist guides with the Tourism Department But since Russians only speak Russian and none of the Goan tourist guides speak Russian many of the larger tour operators who take the Russian tourists sightseeing employ Russian lsquotranslatorsrsquo for the convenience of the Russian touristsDeportationMost of these Russian translators however come on tourist visas which do not permit them to work in Goa Consequently taxi operators not always the best of friends with the Russian tourists in recent months detained a number of tour buses which were ferrying Russian tourists along with the translators and handed the translators over to the police This season alone has seen 12 Russians including Russianspeaking persons being deported for acting as tourist guides and for acting as marketing persons selling sightseeing tripsSafetyThe Russian tourists in the buses were also heckled abused and some were even manhandled leading to an uproar back home in the Russian media that Russian tourists were not welcome in Goa according to Ekaterina Belyakova The latest incidents happened in FebruaryAlarmed at the situation Russian charter tourist operators went into damage control mode ldquoWhen a Russian tourist lands in Goa the first thing they ask our representatives is whether it is safe to be in Goa because they have read and heard back home that Goans donrsquot like Russian touristsrdquo says Ekaterina who herself is married to an IndianWorkAcknowledging that there are Russians working here without work visas Belyakova says ldquoThere are cases when Russian people staying in Goa for several months on tourist visas start working The Russian consulate as well as our centre is trying our best to inform Russian tourists that this is against regulationsRecently we issued a set of instructions for Russian tourists covering these issues as well We are informing people that they can work in Goa only if they obtain business or employment visa and work only with companies that have registered business and all licences in placerdquoTranslatorsShe along with other Russians and Goans with stakes in the travel and tourism industry are hopeful that the Goa government will step in to provide a solution to the language problem by allowing Russians on business or work visas to work as translators accompanying Russian tourists The reason more than 200000 Russians will be visiting Goa this season and that figure could go up to a million in a few years if the Goa government resolves this issue she saysNumbersThe increase in numbers has been meteoric According to figures provided by Ralph De Souza spokesperson Travel and Tourism Association of Goa TTAG the apex tourism industry body in Goa 59803 Russian including from former Soviet Republics charter tourists visited Goa during the 200910 season That rose to 88954 in 201011 96032 in 201112 and 152061 in 201213 The tourist season in Goa lasts from November to May peaking in DecemberAround 50000 Russians visited Goa during December last Goa receives nearly three million tourists every year out of which around five lakh are foreign tourists with Russians the biggest group Most of these come as charter tourists while around 3040000 are freeofitinerary travellers FIT Itrsquos these FIT Russians who stay for extended periods around the party hotspots of Anjuna and Morjim the latter being dubbed Little MoscowDiscordFollowing the recent trouble the RIC even organised a lsquoPeace Jamrsquo musical event at a pub in Calangute to bring down the levels of discord Says Ekaterina ldquoThe developments in the Goa tourism industry with conflicts between taxi drivers tour operators and incidents involving foreign tourists had quite a negative impact on the atmosphere We would like to preserve the atmosphere of freedom peace and positiveness This is one of the main treasures of GoardquoDropHowever some local tourism industry sources say the number of Russians visiting Goa has tapered off since the incidents in February and Russian tourist arrivals could be hit in the next season Initially tourism stakeholders said this was because of the February incidents but there are also rumours that the ongoing crisis in Ukraine could also affect the inflow of the Russian and Russianspeaking tourists from the former Soviet UnionAsked to clarify the situation Gleb Syshchenko head of sales at Tara tour operator said ldquoDespite the unstable situation in Ukraine the tourist inflow from Ukraine to Goa has not decreased We have noticed a slight increase in budget segment though as people prefer budget trips to more expensive ones right nowTara is among the few operators in Goa that are receiving Ukrainian tourists There are about seven flights coming from Ukraine weekly Air Arabia flights and several charter flights coming from Kiev Odessa and Kharkov As of now we did not notice any cancellations Although Ukrainian tour operators started revising their packages for coming summer months it wonrsquot affect Goa in this seasonrdquo he saysDisappointingBut Russian consul general in Mumbai Alexey A Novikov says the recent incidents could be the reason ldquoThe tourist influx might be affected by incidents provoked by the socalled lsquotaxi driversrsquo against Russian tour operators and even against Russian and Ukrainian tourists such incidents having lately become disappointingly frequentWe share a common approach to the issue with the Goa government as Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar appreciates the contribution of Russian tourism to the Goan exchequer But if incidents of this kind are repeated we can exercise our generallyacknowledged right to recommend to our citizens alteration of their tourist routes The Consulate General of Russia in Mumbai never refuses assistance to any Russianspeaking tourists Ukrainians Belorussians Kazakhs and othersrdquoBlacklistJolina Kokhta of Surya Travels another large Russian charter operator says they have already blacklisted a few resorts in south Goa where local taxi operators have been creating problems According to her Russian tour operators and other services like translators are needed because otherwise the Russian tourists will stop coming According to the Russian tour operators in places like Egypt or Turkey the hotels have staff who speak Russian which is not the case in GoaCancellationFebruaryrsquos incidents involving taxi drivers had come close on the heels of an IndoRussian music festival in Goa featuring leading bands and musicians from India and Russia being cancelled at the last minute causing the organisers to lose Rs 22croresIn Morjim too some beachside shacks and restaurants which had become party hotspots with Russians had their licences cancelled recently because of latenight parties Restaurants have to stop playing loud music at 10 pm unless they have special permissions which come with higher feesSays Seby Fernandes a Goan hotelier ldquoThese young Russian tourists are different from say the British charter crowd which is mostly of retired people The government should do something about these sound restrictions because otherwise they will stop comingrdquo It is an ominous prediction by a savvy hotelier which must resonate through the state of sand sea sorpotel fun feni and for now Russians