The numbers are unequivocal: foreign tourist arrivals in Goa have plummeted by 40 per cent year-on-year, with the state’s once-thriving beach economy now gasping for breath. As a climate correspondent who has watched the slow unravelling of coastal ecosystems globally, this decline is not a surprise. It is a direct consequence of environmental degradation, infrastructure strain, and a failure to transition sustainably.
Goa’s beaches are eroding at an alarming rate, with sea-level rise accelerating at 3.4 millimeters annually in the Arabian Sea. The state’s groundwater has been contaminated by untreated sewage and saltwater intrusion, leading to recurrent outbreaks of waterborne diseases. Tourists, particularly from Europe and the UK, have voted with their feet. They seek destinations where the biosphere is intact, not collapsing.
The energy transition has bypassed Goa’s tourism sector. Hotels rely on diesel generators during peak summer months, when grid failures are common. Air conditioning units, many decades old, leak refrigerants that are potent greenhouse gases. The heat index in coastal areas has risen by 2.1°C since 2000, making afternoons unbearable for sunbathing. Climate refugees in the making: the tourists themselves.
But the deeper issue is systemic. Goa’s economy is over 60 per cent dependent on tourism, a single point of failure in a climate-constrained world. The state government has proposed a ‘Green Tourism Policy’, but it lacks teeth. There are no mandatory carbon audits for hotels, no enforcement of coastal regulation zones, and no incentives for renewable energy adoption. Meanwhile, neighbouring Kerala has embraced agro-tourism and mangrove restoration, attracting a more resilient, low-impact visitor.
Technological solutions exist. Floating solar panels on the Mandovi River could offset 80 per cent of the tourism sector’s electricity demand. Desalination plants powered by offshore wind could secure water supplies. But these require capital and political will, both in short supply. The Indian government’s ‘Aatmanirbhar’ push has prioritised manufacturing over climate adaptation.
The collapse is not isolated. In the Mediterranean, Spanish and Greek resorts are facing similar declines. Mallorca has now capped tourist numbers and invested heavily in public transport and wastewater treatment. Goa’s window for such measures is closing. The monsoon season, once a reprieve, now brings cyclones and floods that damage coastal infrastructure.
Let’s be precise: Goa will not return to its 2019 tourist numbers unless it addresses the physical reality of a warming planet. The sun-soaked idyll sold by travel brochures is a mirage. The data shows rising insurance costs for beachfront properties, increasing flight cancellation risks due to extreme weather, and a growing awareness among travellers that ‘paradise’ is a fragile construct.
What Goa needs is not a marketing campaign, but a managed retreat from vulnerable coastlines, a rapid shift to renewable microgrids, and a diversification of its economy into climate-resilient sectors like agroforestry and marine conservation. The alternative is a ghost tourism economy, much like the abandoned resorts of the Maldives that were built on vanishing islands.
This is not a crisis. It is a slow-motion consequence of decades of ignoring the biosphere. The question is whether Goa will learn from other failing coastal systems, or become another data point in the study of civilisational shortsightedness.
