fizzy I notice that you don't answer my question re bringing home rupees , and I can guess why

The point I was making there is that there are rules and laws, most of which are obeyed by most visitors and we all like to think of ourselves as law abiding citizens/ visitors but in fact we choose which laws to obey and which to ignore.

Definately not a critisiscm of anyone, I happily admit to being one of those who do pick and choose and like 99.99% I am not guilty of what I deem to be criminal or harmful actions.
Just a normal tourist, in fact!

Hands up, caught in the act !
I will be taking them back though .

Oh and point taken too !!!

No, you are right, I didn't del ...... but I did ask "do you"?

Most of us do and yes we know we shouldn't but this is one of the barmy rules/laws of the land! We aren't going to be able to spend rupees in the UK are we - we can however exchange them for pounds with someone going to Goa or save them to pay the next taxi trip from Dabolim which is of course what most people do - so I guess we are all breaking the law!

Thanks Davewales, I don't disagree with all that you say either but think we all got a bit carried away from the topic, me included

Still don't know what a "genuine" tourist is - do you and I still feel that a stereotype is being attached to us which is not deserved.

Right, I'll go back in my box again now
Fizz

Agree Fizzy - we're dancing on a pinhead trying to define a "holidaymaker" - why? We all spend money.

The fact is the tourism minister is rude, ill-informed and underachieving.

underachieving... don't know about that, he's achieved a long thread on here!

Fizzy,, of course i do !

This thread has made great reading,and Fizzy some great postings !!

Hi Debs, Yes I love a good debate me - even if I don't have all the answers

del... Certainly has been a long thread - and for all of it - it won't change a blooming thing

Back to my box Fizz

it won't change a blooming thing

Oh yes it does, I can now count several currency smugglers amongst my friends!

well I won't tell if you don't
Fizz

Dave Wales wrote -
The Goan tourism minister, who as a person I know nothing about ( but from previous comments, some obviously feel they do ).
Over the years this man has held many Ministerial posts and has brought disresptect to most of them. If you care to google his name you will find out what kind of man he is.

I have said this many times on this forum, we are not guests, we are paying customers. There is a major difference.

And one of the other major differences is that the supplier can decide that they don't want your custom anymore. Rightly or wrongly (and they do appear to be going about this the wrong way - I'm not condoning the rash words of the Minister that could turn out to be very counter-productive) any supplier of goods or services has the right to say 'No, we are no longer wanting to provide that service'. Just because we are a 'paying customer' doesn't give us the right to demand and receive whatever we want. In the end we are guests in the sense that any clountry can decide to withdraw the invitation to visit - whether a 'traveller', a 'tourist' ('genuine' or not!) or a longstay visitor.

I've browsed this forum for a while because a friend is a big Goa fan and keeps trying to encourage me to try it for a holiday but I'm still not sure. This is not because of the dirt, or the poor sanitation, or the beach sellers or the low standards of accommodation etc - all of these have never put me off other destinations. No, the thing that I have found most off-putting - and I do fully realise that this doesn't apply to the majority of you who post here and that perhaps I am putting too much emphasis on it - are the attitudes of some of the other visitors that I might encounter. And I'm not talking about just the Russians who seem to get a very bad press here but anybody who thinks that just because visitors spend money, the locals should be grateful and put up with them doing whatever they want and disprespecting local customs, traditions and laws.

SM

but anybody who thinks that just because visitors spend money, the locals should be grateful and put up with them doing whatever they want and disprespecting local customs, traditions and laws.

All I can say, SMa, is that for the vast majority of us, you've got it wrong!

I think sometimes a lot of us forget that the vast majority of the Indian people we will come into daily contact with during our hols (shack workers,sellers,taxi drivers,bar staff waiters ect) will be from outside of Goa. I wonder has anyone actually bothered to ask the locals what their prefrences are regarding tourism or which set of tourists they prefer, I personally have not heard complaints aimed at UK tourists..quite the opposite ....Keith

I do see your point SMa. I have to say that I have cringed many, many times at how some of us behave in, what is after all a very conservative country re mode of dress etc. I have been in a thread on another forum, where someone argues that if it's ok for men to walk around and go to a shop or a restaurant (shack) on the beach in swimwear, why can't women? And they see at as their right to dress as they please (or offend) as it is 2010.
Seeing girls/women walking through a town like Mapusa or Panjim in bikini top and short shorts is sooo embarrassing.Indian women are dressed so well.
This is totally ignoring the country's culture. Whether we agree or not, it is not our place to try to drag them kicking and screaming into our more liberated way's, when they are in their own country.
Indian men go swimming and frolicking in their underpants, women go in the sea fully clothed. That is their perogative, whether we view it as strange or not is not the issue.
Back to the topic though, what the minister see's as genuine tourists is still a mystery to me.

He would do better to ensure the police keep the standards of behaviour up, by them warning tourists of inappropriate behaviour, smoking where there are signs prohibiting it, drug taking, drunkenness, and/or dress code, instead of just chasing 'bungs' to turn a blind eye to everything that is wrong.

I will now wait for the flak from 'liberated' 21st century women, who think they can behave just as they want in India and will continue to do so.

It seems to be a peculiarly British thing that we must respect local customs when we visit other countries (and I certainly don't disagree with that) but we are "discriminating" when we expect people visiting us to conform to our ways. Can anybody explain?

Whoops.......

a very valid point Roma
chilly

That, I'm afraid is down to the political correctness (PC) lobby in the UK. We are all afraid to voice concerns in case we are dubbed racist, ageist, sexist, homophobic, islamaphobic.
In our multi-cultural society we value diversity and feel rightly, that it benefits us all.
That still doesn't mean we should flout local traditions/laws when abroad though. India still has a caste system, which would be illegal in the UK.Their Human Rights reputation is appalling.

We are not the 'policemen of the world' though, and must accept that ' it is vot it is'.
We can't inflict our values on every country we visit 'because we want to'.
If we don't like it, then we should stick to Europe for our holidays.

Just because we are a 'paying customer' doesn't give us the right to demand and receive whatever we want

Only partly true.
As a paying customer of course you can demand a standard of service or goods, wether you receive it or not leaves you with the following decision.
Do I continue to patronise this establishment or do I choose to go elswhere.
This applies wether it be a supermarket or a holiday destination.

If the owner does not want to facilitate your requests/ demands, that is also a reasonable response and unless you want to accept that which is on offer you should seek pastures anew.

but anybody who thinks that just because visitors spend money, the locals should be grateful and put up with them doing whatever they want and disprespecting local customs, traditions and laws

I think that here you are reading between the lines and possibly drawing the wrong conclusion.
I imagine that some of my posts will lead you to the conclusion that this is what I am like, but you would be wrong. Whilst I disagree with some of traditions, finding them strange, I fall in with the local customs wherever it is reasonable and practical for me to do so. (and like most, I ignore the ones I can't see a reason for, common sense is a valuable commodity in this)
At a guess I would say that 99% of visitors behave with respect to local customs even if they don't understand them and the remaining 1% only fail owing to ignorance.

And I'm not talking about just the Russians who seem to get a very bad press here

This honestly baffles me, almost all the Russians I have met have been friendly and happy. I have had quite a few pleasant encounters with them (language permitting). Of course they do like a drink!!

Finally, if it is only because you fear you will meet the people I MAY come across as, that prevents you from going to Goa, don't let it.
The Brits in particular are good holidaymakers there, enjoying whats on offer and laughing off the problems that arise with a true Dunkerque spirit, and so I hope, am I