Fewer international tourists are visiting Goa and, with the promised embarrassment of riches not coming through, the local population is gradually turning hostile to tourism.

According to authorities in the travel trade in the state, the 1998-99 season threatens to be the worst in the memory of Goa. The season beginning in October saw international tourist arrivals drop by a whopping 65 per cent compared to last year. From nearly 7,000 tourists in October 1997, arrivals dropped to just 2,375 this year. Also, the number of charter flights fell from 21 to just eight.

While the state Government attributes this fall to a shake-out among European charter airlines, the travel trade points to a deeper malaise in the system. ``Goa as a destination was discovered by the hippies in the 1960s withlittle help from the authorities,'' says Jitendra Deshprabhu, a travel operator who heads the committee on tourism of the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI). The chamber's warnings to upgrade infrastructure have fallen on deaf ears, with the state and central governments content with living off the pickings of the industry.

Goa's travel trade alleges that the state and central governments, which earn Rs 100 crore and Rs 500 crore respectively from the business, plough back only Rs 3.5 crore. ``The sales tax collected from starred hotels in Goa alone amounts to Rs 12-14 crore annually,'' says Deshprabhu. Thanks to the government apathy, basic infrastructure, including supply of power and water and the condition of motorable roads, remains poor, he explains.

The GCCI contrasts Goa with Hawaii, which also began as a low-cost destination catering to charter tourists but gradually upgraded its infrastructure to attract upper-class, high-spending visitors.

Today, Goa's tourism industry is findingstrange allies in the state's non-governmental organisations, who are traditional opponents of charter tourism. They routinely tell the Government that budget tourists are a drain on the state's resources. ``Backpacker tourists usurp infrastructure worth tens of thousands of pounds created by the Government and pay US $ 50 or 70 pounds in return,'' an office-bearer of the Travel & Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) points out.

Statistics show that a typical backpacker flies in from Europe in the October-March season, paying 500 pounds per head on an average. While this amount does not even cover the cost of a Mumbai-London round ticket on a scheduled flight, it fetches two-way transport, board and lodging for a budget tourist to cover a two-week holiday.

Critics of charter tourism point out that very little of even the payment made by a backpacker trickles into the Indian economy. ``The backpacker pays the entire amount to an operator in his hometown abroad. The operator in turn ties up with a handlingagent and hotel owners in Goa, who are paid the barest fees possible,'' says Rolland Martins of the Jagrut Goenkaranchi Fauz (JGF), which has been campaigning against charter tourism since it first began in Goa.

With wafer-thin margins, tour operators are thinking up ways and means to keep tourists' funds with themselves. ``The tour operators provide transportation to tourists throughout their stay. They also encourage tourists to eat in their own establishments,'' says Martins. With little tourism money trickling into the hands of locals, several instances of confrontation between angry residents and tour operators have been reported.

On more than one occasion, to-urist taxi owners encouraged by local politicians have attacked coaches owned by tour operators which ferry tourists. An uneasy compromise was reached last month in front of police officials when coach operators and taxi drivers agreed to a quota of the ``spoils''.

Local panchayats are taking on the big hotels supported by the Government bygranting permission to villagers to put up shacks on popular beaches, which offer freshly made food at rates much cheaper than five-star hotels. ``We have taken 90 per cent of the business from restaurants of big hotels,'' claims John Lobo of the Calangute panchayat, which has threatened to put up shacks illegally on the beach.

With the tourism pie suddenly shrinking, charter tourism is drawing flak from all quarters. ``It is time we stopped relying on budget tourists,'' Goa's Minister for Tourism Carmo Pegado told a conference on tourism last month. Even tourism promotion officials in the state admit that Goa is not attractive as a repeat destination.

Right now, the United Kingdom, which accounts for 60 per cent of foreign tourist arrivals in Goa, is the backbone of the industry. ``Goa's economy will collapse the day British tourists decide to stay away,'' says Deshprabhu. U.D. Kamat, tourism, director, says they are trying to target Germany and the Scandinavian countries.

Meanwhile, a master plan fortourism continues to be on the drawing boards as the state and central governments are yet to get their act together. The travel trade has suggested a number of measures to upgrade tourism in Goa. These include efforts to move away from beach tourism by setting up adventure sports facilities. It has also suggested that entertainment tourism be promoted in Goa.

Undaunted by the drawbacks, the state Government insists it can attract three lakh tourists during the current year against 2.7 lakh tourists last year. However, not many are willing to believe that in Goa.