If it’s New Year, it must be Goa

Glitterati head for year-end parties, but there are no rooms or flights available

MUMBAI: Where will you get to see a tycoon slumming it out in bermudas and Gucci sandals? A high society matron getting a faux tattoo? Or a captain of industry sauntering in a straw hat? Where else but Goa, the playground of the rich and powerful during this time of the year.

But the bigger question is: how are you going to get there? And if you do, where are you going to stay? The glitterati and the hoi polloi, the famous and the nameless, the influentials and the insignificants — all of them are asking the same questions. Because flights are full, rooms are not to be found, and those who left it too late are desperately seeking both.

“You need to book at least six months in advance,” says restaurateur and impresario AD Singh, who suddenly decided just a few days ago, that he’d like to bring in the New Year in Goa. “I made reservations just the other day and I’m waiting for a confirmation. It’s fingers crossed for me.”

Budget hotels are packed, but the bigger and more expensive resorts are even more so. Getting a room at a five-star resort, whether at the Leela, the Taj or the Marriott, between December 20 and January 6 is virtually impossible, unless of course, you have the contacts.  

“Very senior hotel officials can give you one, if they so decide, but you have to be really well connected,” Singh adds. 

These are places where the glitterati books itself in, unless of course they have their own places. Within Goa, the chasm between the North, which is the party hub, and the more sedate South, is wide. The North is the place where shindigs - thrown by the likes of Raj Salgaonkar and Vijay Mallya - see Bollywood A-listers rub shoulders with businessmen, politicians and socialites. Even though most can afford to let their hair down in Phuket or Ibiza, or sail their yachts to remote islands, few want to miss the chance to be seen with the people who matter.

After an eight-year gap, Queenie and Raja Dhody have decided to descend on Goa this year. “We made our reservations at least six months ago. It’s next to impossible to get a last-minute booking at the Taj” says Raja. And it doesn’t come cheap either — room rates at the Taj Group’s hotels, for instance, have increased by 10 to 15 per cent since December 2006. Airline tickets are almost sold out.

While Ajoy Misra, senior vice-president, sales and marketing, Taj Group, agrees that, “We have a fairly elaborate guest history during the Christmas and New Year season,” he says rooms are not reserved. “Instead, we take a proactive approach and ask our regulars if they wish to reserve rooms in advance.”

But despite the rush, there is a subtle change in the air. Some ‘regulars’ are slowly weaning themselves off the Goa scene. Kailash and Arti Surendranath, who until recently visited Goa religiously at the year-end with a group of close friends, have decided to move on. “All good things must end,” says Kailash. “It was almost like a party at the resort; everyone knew everyone. It was not about networking, it was about having fun. The faces are changing, and we won’t be going back this year.”

But the not-so-blue seas and the beaches are yet to jade most world-weary jetsetters. Right now, stragglers are finding it tough to locate even a humble shack; forget plane tickets, even the trains are packed with tourists sitting on their backpacks between the aisles.