11/08/2019 16:50

Taxis against buses

[IMG=18437-4034] As BANKO discovered, the start of a season on the Indian resort of Goa was marked by demonstrations of local taxi-drivers against guides of travel firms providing their service, for example, for a group pf Russian holiday-makers. Based on evidence, some taxi-drivers impeded the path of excursion buses, threw stones in windows and beat up guides and drivers. ‘People were scared to work. Several of our tourists went into hysterics and asked to be moved into different hotels’, said Victoria Kizimova, head of the representative office of UTE Megapolus group. The problem influenced the neighbouring state Karnataka too where, because of a demonstration, an excursion bus containing tourists of ‘Goa Tour’ company was stuck in traffic for 6 hours. These events do not reflect well on the image of the destination, suggest experts. As a BANKO correspondent discovered, the reason for the taxi-drivers’ demonstrations was unfair competition practiced by travel guides. In an Indian state there are official taxi-drivers’ days – Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. On these days busses carrying tourists to and from airports can drive on the territory of hotels. All other transportation including excursions can only be made by taxi-drivers. This rule, mostly concerning hotels in the Southern part of the resort, judging by incidents, was broken. According to one of the versions, the conflict was provoked by the politics of new operators on the destination, for example, by ‘Sunrise tour’, a Turkish company. The schedule of its excursions allegedly did not consider the local specific characteristics, and its guides tried to earn extra money by taking holiday-makings on shopping trips on ‘taxi’ days. ‘The situation was worsened by new operators who did not know the distinctive feature of the state’s legislation’, says Elena Malyisheva, director of tourism in ‘Goa tour’. However, Dmitry Mazurov, general director of ‘Sunrise tour’ does not agree with these statements. ‘It is a system problem. We also plan our schedule of excursions taking into account taxi-drivers’ days. Guides do not act on their initiative, but follow the instructions of the head office. All companies have a shopping program as the receiving company in any country receives money from excursions and shopping’, he said. In the end, after recent negotiations between representatives of travel office of Goa, police and receiving tour operators the dispute was settled. Taxi-drivers calmed down but specialists warn this may only be temporary. ‘The problem will remain’, concludes Tatiana Melnichenko, director of tourism in ‘DEO’.