Some tourists shunning India's Goa over protests: official, hotelier

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2007

PANAJI, India (AFP) — Tourists are cancelling holidays to the Indian beach resort of Goa over fears of violent protests against government plans to build more industrial parks here, an official and a hotelier said.

Opposition political parties and environmental groups have set a Friday deadline for visitors to leave the former Portuguese enclave on the Arabian Sea.

"No one wants to harm the tourists but we cannot assure our agitation would be peaceful," said Siddhanath Buyao, secretary of Goa's Movement Against SEZ, which opposes the parks known as Special Economic Zones.

"We are requesting them to leave Goa by December 28 as the protest may turn ugly in the days to come," Buyao warned in the local capital Panaji.

According to official figures, half...