THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:Santha, a bespectacled old lady who earns a living by selling evening tabloids to the tourists who visit Eve’s Beach in Kovalam, wears a sad look on her face. On any normal day in any other season, she could’ve easily sold around 150 pieces and gone home with a radiating smile before the sun sets in. There was no need to walk that long and toil hard.
But, things have been not going smoothly for the last few days. The popular tourist destination of Kovalam is now witnessing a sort of ‘identity crisis’- something it never encountered during its journey from anonymity to a top tourist hotspot.From a sleepy coastal hamlet inhabited by fishermen to an enchanting beach, the progress was rapid. But, the beach, now it seems to have fallen from grace.
People like Santha have been a witness to the evolution. “The foreigners first came in numbers. And then our people,” she says as she struggles to find customers. With visitors dwindling, she has to walk more to convince the remaining tourists to buy from her. “This was not the scenario before. I could sell about 200 pieces. Since Ockhi we have been enduring a lean patch. After the flood and consequent rat fever, the footfall has been hit further,” she adds.
Somaraj aka Chanthu, a former CPM branch secretary and an entrepreneur, threw up a lot of reasons for the slump. “Inflation, rain, rat fever, all are affecting the business,” he said. Chanthu has been running hotels on lease for the last 43 years. “This situation is new for me,” he said. The floods have affected the number of domestic tourists, while the reports of rat fever have perturbed foreigners, he said.
Depending on desi tourists
The Police Department, meanwhile, seems to have learned enough lessons from the fallout of Latvian’s murder. Now, the entire beach is under CCTV surveillance and the illegal touts, guides, and pedlars are consciously being kept away. Though people like Chanthu and Aji differ on the issues that plague the tourism sector, they all bear the same premonition about Kovalam’s fate. Aji says business has been going further south every year and within three to four years, foreigners’ interest in Kovalam will die down. “Even now we are banking on desi tourists than foreigners to stay afloat. It will only grow up. Even the foreigners who are coming are not ready to spend much money here,” Aji feels. Chanthu too averred that Kovalam is fast losing the charm that it once had among foreign visitors. “Now, they have got a lot of tourist options. This season our business has dipped to just 10 per cent. Homestays are mostly being used by employees of the hotels and not tourists. And, people are laid off in massive numbers.”
The rape and murder incident
One bright aspect of the recent calamities is that the old, painful episode of the rape and murder of the Latvian tourist has been pushed to the background.
With the international media closely pursuing the case, it was thought that the incident would dissuade foreign tourists. But it hasn’t. Or not to the level people like Chanthu feared.“The foreigners are not overly bothered about that incident. They are sensible enough to understand that it was a one-off incident and could’ve happened anywhere in the world,” Chanthu reasoned.
He relies on feedback from his customers, who have been staying at his place for a long time. Monica from Bavaria in Germany has been around for the last four years at Chanthu’s place. A retired bank employee, she now spends more time in Kerala than in her country. Monica says the Latvian’s murder won’t and shouldn’t discourage foreigners from hitting the Kovalam beach.
“These things happen in Europe as well. In fact, I’m more bothered about the waste piling up here,” she retorted.But many like to differ with Chanthu and Monica. Aji, who runs Indian Gifts and Spices close to the Lighthouse beach, said Latvian tourist’s murder didn’t affect tourists last season as it happened towards the last lap of the season.
“This time we are keeping our fingers crossed. Outwardly it might appear the foreigners are not much bothered about the incident. But we will get to know about it by October. That’s when they arrive in big numbers,” Aji said.