In 2008, the Philosophy Department of Rachol Seminary, Goa, organized a three-day seminar on âimpact assessment of tourismâ for their second-year students. To understand tourism impacts better, some of the seminarians undertook a field research. At that time, Israeli tourists were a prominent foreign tourist group in Goa and there were growing tensions between Israeli tourists and local people. The Rachol seminarians were keen to study these tensions, activities and behaviour of Israeli tourists and their social, economic, environmental and cultural impacts. Another aim was to enable the students to make links between touristic happenings and their theological studies. The methodology adopted for the study was one of seeing, observing, discussions (Israeli tourists, local population, traders, government officials) and photo documentation. This publication of the preliminary study conducted by the seminarians retains the style of personal observations, personal narrative, unaltered repetitions, much of the writing unedited without insistence on footnotes and references. The study was as much as an immersion experience as it was a research study. This work, the first of its kind to be undertaken by a group of seminarians, has been supported by Caritas-Goa, Centre for Responsible Tourism, Council for Social Justice and Peace, EQUATIONS and Rachol Seminary. At the time of publishing this study, other tourist groups defined by nationality, are making also headlines due to conflict and tension between expectations and needs of tourists vis-Ã -vis local communities.
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