“The business in Goa wasn’t as great as the revenge tourism years of 2022-2023, but for the last two weeks, most five star properties have reported 90-95% occupancy rates,” said Jack Sukhija, president Travel & Tourism Association of Goa. “The mid-scale hotels have reported occupancies of 65-70%,” he said.
Sukhija, also a partner at WelcomHeritage Panjim Inn, said the property saw a 10% y-o-y growth in revenue in December with occupancies rising 5-7%.
“Goa wasn’t fully booked like previous years, but most hotels saw a flat to moderate growth. Occupancies for some have declined marginally. I would say we are in the grip of a fever, but the situation is not as dire as being portrayed online,” he added.
While occupancies matched 2023 levels, room rates were comparatively higher for December 31 2024, said Ranjit Phillipose, senior vice president, operations, Goa, at Tata Group’s Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL). The company has 35 properties across segments in Goa.“Around December 15, when we looked at advance bookings for the last 10 days of December, we were seeing occupancies of 45-50% based on business on the books. But, by the time we finished the month, all Taj hotels were clocking occupancies of 95-97% with some being sold out,” said Phillipose.“The luxury market in Goa across brands clocked occupancies of 90% and above on December 31. There is so much information floating around that is not true. Our food and beverage sales were better than last year,” he added.
While Radisson Hotel Group clocked higher occupancies in December last week in markets such as Mumbai, Hyderabad, Agra, and Shimla, it remained flat in Goa, said Nikhil Sharma, the chain’s managing director and area senior VP for South Asia.
Raj Chopra, owner of JW Marriott Goa said while business grew 17% over 2023, that was not the case for others. “Business was down 5-7% for a lot of hotels in Goa in the last week of December,” he added.
At Lemon Tree Hotels, occupancies grew about 4-5% on December 31 compared to a year ago though rates remained flat, said Vilas Pawar, the CEO of managed and franchise division at the chain.
Sukhija said room tariffs corrected towards December-end but noted that long-haul tourists are starting to consider other international destinations over Goa.
“Goa has become a two-to-three day destination and people are looking at other options in Southeast Asia. There are long term challenges,” he said.
“For the New Year’s Eve period, people are not willing to pay unrealistic rates and hoteliers and airlines should be more reasonable on what they put out. Improving transport options is something that the government should seriously look at,” Sukhija explained.
