2002 For Tourism

Nepal’s tourism is not doing too well, on account of a series of events that have scared off tourists. Tourism is a sensitive business, and it takes very little for potential visitors to avoid a destination when there are scores of alternatives. The negative publicity over past some years because of some domestic events have affected the country’s tourism. It is reported that there has been a 15 per cent decline on tourists inflow in the last eleven months. Given the kind of national and international events that have all the potentials to discourage vacationers from flying, it is a surprise that there has been only a 15 per cent decline. It could have been worse. The September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States had put a dampener on world tourism in general and thereby affecting arrivals in Nepal too.

It is against this background that this news is good: next year, starting in less than one month, is being celebrated in two ways internationally and that they have the potentials of having salubrious effects on the country’s tourism. The first celebration is that of mountains, the year being killed as International Year of the Mountains. The second celebration is that of eco-tourism, with United Nations having declared 2002 as Eco-Tourism Year. It is patently clear how the year promises to have implications on tourism in Nepal, whose mountains are famous all over the world and which is interspersed with national parks and wildlife reserves. More than 30 per cent of the annual inbound tourists in recent years have been either trekkers or mountaineers. Similarly, there are 16 different projected areas covering around 20 per cent of the nation’s area. Celebration of International Year of the Mountains is bound to give Nepal some publicity mileage while Nepal’s eco-tourism success will not go ignored either. If Nepalese tourism officials and travel trade entrepreneurs play it right, the twin events can be roped in for giving a much-needed shot-in-the-arm to the country’s tourism. With Nepal’s own Destination Nepal Campaign set to be launched in the middle of next year, the themes of mountains and eco-tourism would fit in nicely. Needless to say, preparations are crucial. Both the government and the private sector must begin to strategise how best to benefit from the international events by incorporating it in the Destination Nepal Campaign.

Promote Printers

THE country has come a long way ever since the first printing press was installed about a hundred years ago. Since then the printing sector has grown up by leaps and bounds providing employment to a reasonably large number of people. A total of fifteen billion rupees has been invested in the printing industry and twenty thousand people have been directly employed while fifty thousand others are indirectly employed in the printing industry. Going by the recent media reports, it is quite disheartening to note that the printing job has seen only quantitative growth. The country today has close to three hundred private and 20 government and semi-government offset press. But only thirty of them can print quality materials. A large chunk of money that goes into printing is being drained to countries abroad, as the quality of printing in Nepal is not up to the mark. Official statistics reveal that four billion rupees worth of job work in the printing industry is carried out every year. Of this amount, materials worth three billion rupees are printed outside the country including the bank notes. Despite the huge investments made in the sector, those affiliated with the sector are not satisfied with the way things are moving. The disgruntled printers are of the view that Nepal can bring in a lot more printing jobs. For this, they say, the government should create a congenial atmosphere for the printing industry. The improvement, they claim, should come in the form of reviewing the tax policy and a change in the overall printing policy. It is quite obvious that the printing technology has been changing rapidly. The recent developments reveal that more scientific and technically viable methods of printing have been put into practice. Unless and until the government assists the printers to obtain these machines by providing them soft loans they will not be able to withstand the cutthroat competition. The task of attracting more printing jobs from within the country and the region all rests on the performance of the Nepalese printers. Hence a joint partnership could only change the sliding state of the printing industry in Nepal.