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Kathmandu Thursday June 07, 2001 Jestha 25, 2058.
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Tourism braces for bleaker
days ahead
By Bhaskar Sharma
KATHMANDU, June 6 - With the United States and
Britain issuing travel warnings to its citizens, while Japan and Australia advising theirs
to stay inside away from street protests in Kathmandu, Nepal’s tourism sector seems
bracing for more turbulent days ahead.
The advice of the USA, Britain, Japan and
Australia, among other countries, as per international media, follows the latest street
demonstrations in the Capital, and other parts of Nepal, that sparked off as a result of
the shooting incident in the Narayanhiti Royal Palace last Friday.
The Friday night Royal massacre had led to the
death of His Late Majesty King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev and Her Late Royal Highness
Queen Aishwarya Rajya Laxmi Shah, among other senior members of the Royal Family.
The violent public furore after the killings
prompted the government to clamp curfew in the capital valley for two days further
damaging the already tainted image of the Nepali tourism industry.
Even the domestic tourism entrepreneurs concede
that the industry’s future now hangs in limbo, despite the latest three-month
promotional canvassing with the slogan "Nepal Festival of Life."
"It is quite normal that the public reacted
violently over the death of the beloved King, among other members of the Royal Family.
However, there is a need for public calmness. The furore is having a detrimental effect on
the Nepali tourism sector," says Narendra Bajracharya, president of Hotel Association
of Nepal (HAN).
The 15 million rupees promotional campaign
launched on May 1, though targeting only the Indian visitors to lure them back again into
the Himalayan Kingdom, now seems going down in drains.
The anti-Hrithik Roshan demonstrations in Nepal
over the alleged derogatory remarks by the Indian cine heart-throb on Nepal last December
had prompted the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) to launch such a face-saving campaign.
Though the latest tension is coming back to
normalcy slowly, NTB officials are skeptical that its promotional campaign will go
smoothly in the next two months. "The unfortunate, tragic and unexpected incidents
lately has impacted the country’s economy, including the tourism industry and the
latest campaign of the NTB," says Tek Bahadur Dangi, Marketing Director of NTB.
The sailing for the tourism industry has been
rough ever since the Indian Airlines flight 814 that took off from the Tribhuwan
International Airport (TIA) at Christmas eve in December 1999 was hijacked, following
which India suspended flights to Nepal for five months.
The series of turbulence in the industry
continued with the ten per cent service charge issue, which hotel employees wanted to be
implemented. The resulting mayhem even led to a one-day closure of the hotels last
December. Then, the next damaging incident was the anti-Hrithik demonstrations.
In addition, frequent bandhs and chakka jams,
not just by the Maoists but also by the leftist parties demanding resignation of the Prime
Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, has all the way proved detrimental to the tourism
industry.
Tourist inflow since December 1999 has slumped
considerably. As per the NTB statistics, air tourist arrivals, which constitute over 85
per cent of total tourist inflow, declined by over 11 per cent in 2000 as compared to that
of 1999. The flow of Indian tourists in the same period slumped by over 30 per cent.
The government, NTB and tourism entrepreneurs
have at last, as a measure to facilitate the stay of tourists in Nepal, have set up an
emergency cell at the TIA. The cell, which operationalized from today, would ensure that
tourists are not stranded during times of bandhs, chakka jams and other untoward incidents
in the future.
It is not just the tourism entrepreneurs who are
facing the heat of such incidents. A single day of closure, according to the apex body of
the business community, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI),
result in losses of over Rs 700 million, out of which the tourism sector loses 7 per cent.
Says Pradeep Kumar Shrestha, the President of
FNCCI, "Any kind of bandh affect normal life, not just economically, but socially and
politically too. There is a need for public restraint in the present context and it is of
utmost importance that the broad based implications are understood."
The tourism industry alone earns almost 15 per
cent of the total foreign exchange and contributes around 4 per cent to the country’s
total Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
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