Swadeshi Cable receives ISO

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu : The Swadeshi Cable Industries (P) Ltd., the first indigenous cable industry of Nepal, has received the certificate of International Standard ISO 9002:1994 for its qualify products and management.

According to a press release issued by the company, the cable industry has been given the certificate by the International Certification Service (Asia) Pvt. Ltd., which has been certified by JAS-ANZ.

The company produces electrical wires and cable, telephone cable and other various types of cable. Established in 1977, the company has also been awarded with the letter of appreciation by the Bureau of Standard. The company has also met all the standards set by the ISO 9002.

About 60 per cent of the electric and other cables used in Nepal are the products of the company, the company claimed.

Nepal to open new peaks, areas for tourists

BY B. M. DAHAL

At a time when the number of visitors coming to Nepal is going down, the government is planning to open up several virgin peaks of above 6,000 meters and new areas to add extra attractions to the country’s tourism industry.

It can be expected to be helpful to boost up the tourism industry by bringing in more visitors. Around 45 per cent of the total number of visitors visiting the Himalayan Kingdom repeat their visits and definitely they want to have a novel experience in every second visit.

"The government is doing necessary homework to open up about 45 new peaks and some restricted areas for mountaineers and trekkers keeping in view the Destination Nepal Year and the Golden Jubilee Celebration of the Conquest of Mt. Sagarmatha," says Shankar Prasad Koirala, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA).

"The process regarding the opening of the new peaks is on the move. They will be made public soon," Koirala says.

He, however, did not specify peaks and the areas to be opened for visitors.

Other high level sources at the MoCTCA say that the Ministry has been working with the experts at the Department of Mines and Geology to identify and make the profile of the peaks to be opened up for climbing.

"The new peaks will be opened on the basis of their accessibility," the sources say.

The national tourism event— Destination Nepal Year— which was earlier scheduled to be organized in 2002 had set an ambitious objective of bringing in about one million tourists. But due to unstable political situation and lack of proper planning, the event has been downsized - rescheduled from 1st June of 2002 to 31st of May 2003 – to coincide with the Golden Jubilee Celebration of the Conquest of Mt. Everest. The world’s highest peak— Mt. Everest (8,848 meters)— was first successfully climbed by Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Edmund Hillary on 29 May, 1953. The major credit of promoting Nepal’s mountain tourism as well as the overall tourism development certainly goes to that event, as Nepal got a lot of promotion in the international arena after the conquest of Everest.

He further says that MoCTCA itself has decided to take initiatives to do something for the promotion and development of tourism industry considering the downward trend of tourist arrivals in the country.

"We are launching some programmes on our own to give a boost to the country’s tourism industry. The ministry has taken the present declining trend of tourism seriously," he says.

Nepal holds very good prospects for the development of mountain tourism, as there are 1,310 peaks above 6000 meters in the kingdom. There are also eight peaks above 8,000 meters in Nepal out of a total of 14 ones in the world. Until now, Nepal has opened only 160 peaks for climbing.

Therefore, the opening of the new mountain peaks will not only be helpful in diversifying the tourism to various parts of the mountain region of the country but also attract more mountaineers.

The growing pressure of trekkers and mountaineers in the Khumbu and the Annapurna regions is also expected to be lessened after opening the new peaks and areas. The government’s responsibility will not be fulfilled only by opening new peaks and areas. It has to make constant efforts to build up necessary infrastructures such as road, communication, among others, to the areas. Besides, it has to encourage the private sector investors to invest resources for the development of tourism in such areas. Education and awareness programmes have also to be conducted in the areas to generate awareness among the local people about the importance of tourism.

Once they are trained and educated, they can play an important role for the sustainable development of tourism there by keeping the areas neat and clean and attractive.

How much do tourists actually spend?

BY NAVIN SINGH KHADKA

Almost half-a-decade has passed since a private organization made a "correction" on an official data showing how much do tourists spend on average while in the country. But, the officialdom is yet to rectify the figure.

In 1997, Marketing and Research Group (MARG) Private Limited came out with a finding that an average spending of a tourist in a day was US$ 90 and not below US$ 45 as suggested by the officialdom.

Why the difference? During its research here, MARG also included the amount tourists spend on shopping while the official figure-compilation process ignores that. And so, the average spending of a tourist, according to the official records, is still not what MARG had revealed five years ago.

The officialdom has a ready-made excuse: There is no mechanism to record how much tourists actually spend on shopping therefore it cannot include the figure on the average spending of tourists. Even as it does not have to include shopping tourism, Nepal Rastra Bank takes excessive lengthy time to compile the figures of tourists’ spending. For instance, the Central Bank has not yet brought out the figure of last year’s gross foreign exchange earning — recorded at around US$ 170 million in 1999.

If that is the case now, guess what would happen if the Bank has to include shopping tourism while recording the tourist’s average spending.

That, however, does not mean shopping tourism is negligible. Many third country tourists (those other than Indians) do pay shopkeepers in foreign currencies whether they buy local handicrafts or imported goods. Which means, shopping tourism is also important to calculate the total foreign exchange earnings of the tourism industry.

The central bank, citing the fiscal regulations, may argue that the foreign currencies, earned by the shopkeepers catering to tourists, ultimately reach the bank. But, not always. Buying and selling of foreign currencies, mainly US Dollars, Pounds and Traveller Cheques, in black market is a bitter fact that prevents significant chunk of money from reaching the bank. That is how the national record does not reflect the actual foreign currency-earning scenario.

There is one more "vital" segment of the tourism earning, the official record does not show: Indian tourists’ spending in the country. Agreed that Indians are allowed to pay their bills in Nepalese Rupees and Indian Currencies. But since the money they spend is not recorded by the officialdom, a major segment of the tourism earning remains unknown. Indians account to one third of the total tourist arrivals — recorded at a little less than 500,000 last year.

And since no one knows how much does the tourism industry earn out of the Indian tourists, knowing about their average spending is just impossible.

Under all these circumstances, comes a billion-dollar question: How can the tourism industry value its market then? How can it know what nationalities have more spending capacity? And, above all, where should the focus of the national travel trade’s marketing be?

Only harping at increasing the number of tourist arrivals may not be the remedy for the already limping travel trade. If, say for instance, "tight-fisted" tourists throng the country as destination, the result is certain to be more counter-productive.Mass tourism, especially when tourists have less average spending capacity, could result into losses including the ecological and cultural damages.

To prevent such dire consequences, proper planning and prioritizing good markets must be done, tourism experts say. Here in comes the role of properly maintained official data. Will the officialdom now listen to what MARG discovered almost half a decade ago about the average spending of tourists?

A visit to Mustang

By Sameer Aryal

I was at the Pokhara airport quite tired of the plane’s journey. I sat down on a chair and I looked around. The sun was pouring down its energy on the earth and the airport seemed to be quite busy as well. Then, I began remembering what I had done in the past five days.

I had come from Kathmandu with the plan of visiting Mustang. My mother was running a health camp in Mustang and I was going there as a tourist.

The flight to Mustang was a pleasent one. As soon as I came out of the plane I sensed the freshness in the air of Mustang. We had landed at Jomsom Airport.

I gave a look around the airport. On one side of the airport there is a mountain, which seemed to start right from it. We went to the quarters and had our meals.

As we all know, Mustang is famous for the Muktinath temple. So, we decided to go to Muktinath with some local people. They prepared for our journey instantly. I had not thought that the trip to Muktinath would have been possible on the very day we reached Mustang. Any way after, after the horses were ready, we mounted on them and started for the trip to Muktinath.

We had heard that every afternoon terrible wind would blow in Mustang, so we had brought all the necessary things to tackle the problem. We passed many places and finally reached Muktinath.

Muktinath is at a height of 13,000 feet whereas Jomsom was only 9,000 feet about sea level. While going up I had headache and nausea too. But we reached there without much problems.

I was mystified at the mesmerizing beauty of the place. They were completely different from the noisy cities. There are 108 spouts that are considered sacred. Taking shower in all the 108 spouts is considered is considered a holy task. But the water of the spouts was so cold that, forget about taking a shower, washing the hands was a difficult thing.

Then, we went inside the famous Muktinath temple and prayed to Lord Muktinath. After that, we took some photograph of that lovely place as a token of our memorable visit.

Then when we were returning suddenly the weather changed. The wind started blowing like hurricane. It was so strong that I thought I would fall off the horse. I gripped the horse very tightly and faced the wind. Many small pebbles were uplifted by the wind.

It seemed that they were coming to hit us. The wind blew for sometime and subsided and we made our journey back quite safely. The journey to Muktinath was quite interesting and I enjoyed it a lot.

The second day of our stay was not so interesting. On the third day we visited the Marpha village. We had seen only a few bushes on our way to Muktinath but when we came to Marpha, things were very different - there was greenery all around . As we neared Marpha we saw many apples and apricot trees and when we reached there, we could see the whole forests of those fruits. The environment was very clean and pleasant in addition to those lovely apple and apricot forests. Truly, Marpha was a place to be visited at least once in the lifetime.

On the fourth day, we visited the 5-star hotel of Mustand known as the Jomsom Mountain Resort. In fact, Jomsom is not what people think it to be. It has got several good things. There is even a five star hotel in Jomson sounds quite surprising. After the five star hotel, we visited the eco-museum. That night we had a party in our quarters that was really enjoyable.

The party continued till late night although we had to catch a flight the following morning. We slept late but woke up early in the morning.

We heard that the plane would be delayed and we waited for some time. Finally, the plane came and took us to the Pakhara airport.

I had expected Mustang to be a very remote place but it came out so different from expectation. I still remember the fresh morning air and the whirly tornado like wind, but I enjoyed every part of the trip and wish to go there whenever I got a chance.

Sharing the Load
Making trekking more equitable and sustainable for porters

Dr. Jim Duff and Rejane Belanger

IPPG (International Porter Protection Group) was started in 1997 in response to another unnecessary death of a trekking porter. It is a grassroots organization, whose aim is to help the trekking porter by raising awareness of their vulnerability, especially in bad weather, at high altitude and in remote areas. IPPG focuses on provision of protective clothing, shelter and medical care appropriate to the season and weather, the area and the altitude where the trekking porter is working.

IPPG suggests the following guidelines:

1. That adequate clothing be available for protection in bad weather and at altitude.

This should include adequate footwear, hat, gloves, windproof jacket and trousers, sunglasses, and access to a blanket and pad above the snowline.

2. That leaders and trekkers provide the same standard of medical care for porters, as they would expect for themselves.

3. That porters not be paid off because of illness without the leader or trekkers being informed.

4. That sick porters never be sent down alone, but with someone who speaks their

language and understands the problem.

5. That sufficient funds be provided to sick porters to cover the cost of their rescue and treatment.

Though mainly active in Nepal, where there are an estimated 100,000 porters who carry loads for western trekkers, IPPG is also concerned for porters who carry for tourists any where in the world. IPPG works with the trekking industry, individual trekkers, government bodies, NGOs, and the international media to promote the safety and well being of trekking porters. IPPG also supports such groups as the Manang Rescue Fund (MRF) and Nepal Himalayan Guide Association who work in the field of porter safety. It also has plans to raise money for a Porter Relief Fund to help injured porters and/or their dependents.

One of IPPG’s initiatives is the Porter Clothing Bank. It was started in 2000 by Ben Ayers, a young American, to provide much needed gear for porters. The banks are situated in Kathmandu and Lukla (airport for the Everest region) and have warm and wind shell clothing as well as boots. The gear is free as long as it is returned promptly and in good order, though there is a deposit system in place. This initiative is a joint project of the IPPG and the HEC (Himalayan Explorers Club). Porters can draw clothing from the Bank individually and so can trekkers who may have hired porters. In line with IPPG’s policy of encouraging the trekking industry, trekking companies are encouraged to use the bank to make up any shortfall in clothing for their porters. Eventually it is hoped that a bank will be started in the Annapurna region. Donations are needed to keep this initiative up and running.

Stemming the tourist tide

As one of the world’s largest economic activities, second only to trade in armaments and perhaps oil, the debate on tourism’s future growth and sustainability is fierce.

By Paul Gonsalves

That tourism impacts society and the earth is common sense: the question is, can the benefits outweight the costs? Arguments about developement (not just tourism) often state that nothing comes without a price. However, are we selling our souls for a mess of pottage? Do ends always justify means?

The impact of tourism in southern countries is different from that in the developed world: differences in economic levels, cultural patterns, legal systems, and public awareness being some. Many poorer countries see tourism as the only way to earn valuable foreign exchange to import consumer products and industrial technologies, often ignoring social and ecological considerations.

Nevertheless, given that a major part of the investments in and profits from tourism take place in the North, the role of multinational corporations cannot be ignored. Contrary to what the proponents of the industry would have us believe, the jury is no longer out. The facts have been presented and examined, the arguments heard, the verdict returned: Guilty, as charged.

Let’s examine some of the evidence, starting with societies and culture.

Tourists and tourism are symbols of modern Western values, which are seen as better, and have a demonstration effect. These include the disintegration of traditional value systems and the breakdown of family and social structures. Personal achievement is seen as more important than personal relationships. Agriculture, fishing and animal husbandry are seen as lower status than service sector work, and movement away from these brings about a dependency on import of basic goods.

The relative wealth of the tourists also leads to increases in personal crimes, the prostitution of women and children, the narcotics trade and indeed drug addiction. The large number of outsiders (tourists and migrant workers) results in a loss of identity and in distrust, suspicion and conflict between Us and Them alienation and anomie. Traditional social sanctions and controls cease to operate.

In short, culture and society are on sale for profit without concern about its long-term impacts. Money becomes the key to a good life, to hell with faith, hope and charity.

Let’s go on to nature and ecology. Today, the tourist industry maintains that ‘tourism is essential to conservation’, its promotion all-important, its growth unquestionable. The World Travel and Tourism Council, for example, exists to ‘eliminate barriers to growth of the industry’.

This ignores the reality that people and nature have lived in harmony for centuries, based on principles of nurturing and compassion. These fundamental ethics have been subsumed, ever since the industrial era began, by a relationship between man and nature rooted in the rhetoric of consumption, resource management and profit. It ignores the fact that the future of humanity and the earth are intimately bound up: one cannot survive without the other.

Although the tourism industry wears an eco-friendly face, and pays lip-service to environmental concerns and good practice, it has on the contrary served the cause of environmental destruction, particularly in the developing world.

In Hawaii, traditional burial grounds, have been razed to make way for new resorts. In Bali, devout Hindus are horrified that their temples are overshadowed by monstrous, ugly marinas and condominium-style hotels. In Goa, farmers and fisherfolk have been forced off their lands, forced to seek new livelihoods which they are illequipped to handle.

In Costa Rica and Belize, coral reefs have been blasted to allow for carefree, unfettered watersports. In Phuket, Thailand, the yacht club has constructed over a public road, effectively denying local people access to their homes beyond.

The world over, golf courses-all the rage today-take land away from local communities, consume enormous amounts of scare freshwater, leaving in their wake hazardous chemical effluents. It is estimated that the water needed to water a single new golfcourse can supply a village of 5,000.

The bottom line here is that tourism brings with it a form of urbanisation, in conflict with nature and the human habitat. It is not just destination areas (or host communities) which are affected by the untrammelled growth of the industry. Concerns about the destruction of the ozone layer, for example, cannot be separated from the inexorable demand for long-haul aircraft which pollute the skies in ways which are not even beginning to be understood.

Environment is not just about trees and animals, it is about the liveability of the human habitat. We need look no further than London’s West End in the summer months to see the truth.

It all boils down to a question of numbers. Good practice is not good enough. there must be, as the Club of Rome said, limits to growth. Regulate, rather than throw wide the floodgates. That is the key to the future.

(Dr. Paul Gonsalves is the acting Director of the Ecumenical Coalition on Third World Tourism. He has expressed his view on People & the Planet)

Nepal participates at Edmonton Heritage Festival

By A Staff Reporter

Nepalese Canadian Society, an organization of Nepalese living in Canada organised Nepal’s participation in Edmonton Heritage Festival, the world’s largest multi-cultural festival participated by more than 50 ethnic cultural organizations from different countries from August 4 - 6.

The Nepalese participation included movie presentation on Mount Everest and more, drawings and paintings of cultural items such as Pashupatinath, Swyambhunath; telling stories of Kumari, Gurkhas; display of Nepalese musical instruments, posters, and playing uniquely Nepali games such as baghchal and gotichal; display of Nepali costumes and those of different ethnic groups; and distribution of promotional materials on Nepal’s geography, history, culture and tradition, trekking and others.

According to the Nepalese Canadian Society, Nepal’s participation was supported by Nepal Tourism Board and the Royal Nepalese Embassy in Washington.

The Edmonton Heritage Festival is being organized since the last 26 years and this year the Board estimated about 350,000 visitors at the Festival.