If you had a budget of Rs 50,000 to R1 lakh for a seaside holiday for two, would you rather go to Goa or to an international destination such as Thailand, Sri Lanka or Vietnam for the same cost?

For the value-minded Indian tourist, this is a big question. It’s also the question at the heart of the slugfest taking place for the last few weeks on social media, where photos and videos of “deserted” beaches and shacks in the sunshine state have gone viral. Some of these images were reportedly taken between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, during the state’s peak tourist season. The posts claimed “Goa tourism is dead”, blaming the reported fall in tourist footfall on exorbitant costs and the infamous taxi mafia. Quite a few Goan citizens have countered that the posts are merely fake news. The Goan government even filed a police complaint against an X user who had highlighted some statistics to indicate that tourism footfall was plummeting.