North Goa: Beach shacks likely to open from November

The tourism department has started the demarcation of beach shacks along the North Goa coast, and the process will likely be completed in the next 10-15 days. This was recently announced by Tourism Director Menino D’Souza.

Reportedly, the tourism department is now working along Goa's North coastal belt, which includes Candolim, Calangute, and Anjuna. This process of area allotment for the beach shacks, has come as a major relief to many business owners, who have been waiting to resume operations soon. However, in the wake of COVID pandemic this year, the previous schedule set for October has been delayed.
However, the said process of demarcation of beach shacks in South Goa is yet to start as the tourism department is short of manpower to get started with it. Reportedly, many tourism department officials have taken up COVID related duties at the South Goa Collectorate building, which will be taking some time.
With the work in progress, the beach shack owners are hoping to get their business operation with shacks up and running by November first week. They are hoping that the upcoming festive season might likely help them boost their sales. As of now, the state is registering incoming domestic tourists; foreign arrivals have not started yet, and charter flights are yet to be functional.
There are shack operators that rely exclusively on charter tourists; however, this season will likely be different as the holiday season will begin without any charter arrival.

With COVID-19 still not gone and losses suffered by operators due to the pandemic, the government has announced to reduce the licence fee for shacks by 50 per cent.