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Kathmandu Thursday September 27, 2001 Ashwin 11, 2058.
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Lakeside entrepreneurs wake up to domestic
tourists
By Satyendra Timilsina
POKHARA, Sept 26 – If anything has changed on the
streets of Lakeside in Pokhara in the past two years, then it is the attitude of the
locals towards domestic tourists.
And the credit for the shift in attitude goes to the series
of turbulence in the tourism industry in the past year and a half that began with the
hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight from the Tribhuvan International Airport.
Devoid of ample foreign tourists lately, the tourism business
in Pokhara has continued to sustain itself primarily from domestic tourists, whom most
entrepreneurs here once disregarded.
Nepalis have now become the major customers for the hotels,
bars and cafes that were once thronged only by the foreigners.
"These days the inflow of tourists from abroad is at its
lowest. Our dependence on Nepalis has increased for sustenance," says Sunder
Shrestha, the regional president of Hotel Association, Nepal (HAN). "We have realised
the significance of our saying Atithi Deva Bhawa (Guest is God). Guests, may it be Nepalis
or foreigners should get the same respect."
For the local tourism entrepreneurs here, their changed
attitude may be forced upon by circumstances, but for those who receive a warm and
hospitable welcome with a smile, the change is most welcome.
Says Dil Kaji Shakya of Bedhasingh in Kathmandu, "In
contrast to my Pokhara visit some two year ago, the experience that I gained this time was
really interesting." Hoteliers who used to look upon a Nepali guest with scorn has
now changed for the better."
The changed circumstances are only natural since Pokhara,
this city of Phewa Lake and Mt. Machhapuchre has over 300 hotels with than 8500 rooms
– almost all of them aimed at attracting dollar-paying foreign tourists. In the boom
years of the mid to late 1990s, most of the hotels did good business. But since the Indian
Airlines hijacking, the rising Maoist violence and the royal masacre in June, revenues
plummetted as more and more tourists stayed away.
The harsh economic reality forced local entrepreunneurs to
turn to the once-reviled domestic tourist, thousands of whom flock to Pokhara from all
over the country each year. Today, most of the hotel and restaurant businesses are
sustained by them. So is the case with boats that dot the scenic Phewa Lake.
"We were hostile towards domestic tourists, but from now
we have resolved to entertain them," says Hari Shyam Shrestha, a hotel manager.
Entrepreunneurs say, part of the problem was the low training
of hotel staff. According to Sunder Shrestha, the local HAN chief, many hotel staff were
simply unprofessional in attitude and did not know how to deal with local tourists. But
now such staff are being trained in proper hospitality, he added. Also, hoteliers are
beginning to introduce new packages aimed at local tourists.
But not every tourism-dependant business here is having an
attitude change. Some still hold out against domestic tourists, mainly for fear of
diluting their reputation among high paying foreign tourists.
"We are happy to have low room occupancy rather than
entertain Nepali tourists," said one of the hotel entrepreneur at Lakeside seeking
anonymity. "Most Nepali youths bring women from outside, drink more than their limit
and quarrel."
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