Tourism Industry
Needs Some Urgent Measures

By A. R. Shakya

DUE to the aftermath of September 11 terrorist attacks on Pentagon, America’s military headquarters in Washington, and the World Trade Center in New York, and the retaliatory action on Afghanistan by the United States of America, tourism industry is globally suffering. And many countries in the world are striving to do something to lessen the repercussion in their respective tourism industries.

Since Nepal has also been terribly hit in this peak season of tourist business, the private entrepreneurs in the tourism industry of the country have asked the government for taking some immediate measures to rescue the industry from sinking. In this regards, they have suggested for temporary, mid-term and long-term measures.

Not just the international cause, but various internal factors are equally responsible too for the decline in the tourism industry of the country. Comparing the statistics for the first ten months, the tourists’ inflow declined by 13.8 per cent as compared to the corresponding period of last year. The tourism arrivals for the first ten months of 2000 were 299,829, but decreased to 258,605 this year. It can be predicted that this year’s tourism arrivals would be around 300,000 only.

Therefore, it seems urgent to take the following measures for the relief of the tourism industry, so that the coming spring season (Feb-Mar) would not be as disappointing as this autumn.

At the moment, it would be better to change our marketing strategy focusing mostly on India, China and other Asian countries. China and India should be granted top priority, as these neighbouring nations have huge tourism potentiality. Nepal Tourism Board should carry on the promotional works in these countries aggressively and effectively.

Today the tourism entrepreneurs face a technical problem to bring Indian visitors to Nepal. The Indian visitors must have passports to visit Nepal, rather than just identity cards of any kind, including citizenship certificates, school identity cards etc.

This too has a technical problem. "The Children under 18 years old cannot have passports. So, the parents cannot bring their kids into Nepal" says Joy Dewan, President of Nepal Associations for Travel Agents.

Despite all 16 International airlines flying to Nepal fully loaded with passengers, the room occupancy rates in bigger hotels are still very low. From this, it is clear that rooms’ supply exceeds the air seat availability in the country. So, the government needs to implement such a policy that the operating airlines would be encouraged to increase the flight frequencies, and other new foreign airlines also would be attracted to fly to Nepal. In this regard, not only Chinese cities should be brought close to Kathmandu by adding a series of flights between the two countries, but the flights should be economical too. For this, the incentive such as cutting down the price of landing and parking charges of the International airlines need to be appropriate.

As a temporary measure, the government can waive visa fee by 50 per cent to the potential tourists at this critical moment. This can definitely encourage potential tourists to visit Nepal. In this regard, it would be appropriate to provide Chinese visitors the same facilities as to Indian visitors. So, Visa fee should be waived for Chinese tourists as well.

We should offer at least 50 per cent discount in entry fee to monumental zones, national parks and wildlife reserve etc. So that, more tourists can be attracted from such a move. In this regard, it is appreciable the initiative taken by Bhaktapur Durbar Square decreasing the entry fee to only Rs 50 for Chinese visitors. Other monumental zones should follow the same policy for Chinese tourists.

Many tourism entrepreneurs comment that our royalty on Mt.Everest for the expedition team is very high and should be reduced. But, when contacted a high ranking official in the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation in this regard, he says, "it is not true and we should not decrease the royalty on Mt Everest."

Many tourism experts consider that the environment officer escorting the groups in the restricted trekking areas should be scrapped. This is not just unnecessary, but cost burden, too.

"Many trekkers cancel their trips to Nepal because of the extra cost burden of the environment officer, who escorts trekking groups in the restricted areas," says Mr. Phurbu Gyaltsen Sherpa, General Secretary of Trekking Agents Association of Nepal.

When a senior government officer in the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation is contacted in this regards, he says, "the government is gradually opening the restricted areas indicating the scrapping of the environment officers"

It is true that the overall cost of our holiday packages are comparatively high. So, the joint efforts of the government and private sectors should be such that we could offer competitive rates in the international market.

It is obvious that the measures to be taken are already late, and the experts say that the government has not shown the interest for solving the problem. In fact, as many of the veteran tourism experts suggested it, both the government and private sector need to launch joint efforts for the upliftment of the tourism industry.

Deepawali: Festival Of Light

By Dhurba K. Deep

ONE of the fascinating festivals next to Bada Dashain is Deepawali which means the festival of lights. Also known as Tihar, it is celebrated every year throughout the Kingdom with great pomp and grandeur. The celebration of this festival begins on the 13th day of dark fortnight of Kartic month (Oct./Nov.) and continues for five days. It is because of this unbroken chain of celebration some people even call this festival Panchak meaning five-day event.

One of the most colorful features of this festival is the decoration of the Nepalese doorways and windows with bright marigolds and lovely little oil lamps every evening during the entire period of the celebration.

The making of oil lamps during the entire festive evenings has a tremendous spiritual significance. It represents the devotee’s aspiration for inner illumination whereas darkness represents total ignorance. The illumination as a whole indicates one’s intention to conquer Avidya (dense darkness) and symbolises one’s dedication to fight away the (devil’s) darkness and to attain divine vision.

The first day of this festival is marked with the worship of a crow that is believed to be the messenger of Yamaraj, the god of death. The second day is the dog’s day. The dog according to a traditional belief represents Bhairawa, the god of protection and awareness. The third is a very special day to worship Laxmi, the goddess of wealth and abundance. The fourth day is to worship one’s own soul, very symbolic of self review and respect. The fifth day is the brother’s day. Sisters on this day worship their brothers with ceremonial red tika (the symbol of affection and blessing) and garlands of colorful flowers. Immediately after this, they treat their beloved brothers with all the best dishes they have prepared for this occasion. In return brothers give their beloved sisters some nice gifts as a token of their goodwill and affection.

The time traditionally set for the celebration of this multifarious festivity is autumn, the brightest blue time of the year. The monsoon is gone already. It is just the perfect time to enjoy everything enjoyable on earth. The Nepalese autumn is wonderful in many ways. The sky is all blue. Everything looks very nice and new. Marigolds and lalupate (poinsettia) flowers are in their best bloom. It is like another spring emerging from autumn. This is very unique indeed.

There is a legend related to this festival.

Once there broke out a war between demons and gods. Narkasura, the chief of demons fought and until he finally won the war. Puffed with the pride of his victory he declared himself the lord of all three worlds. Soon he started taking innocent wives of the defeated gods for his pleasure causing a big shock to their helpless husbands.

It was his command and wish that everything enjoyable on earth including the finest wine and women be immediately offered at his service. It is said that his most aggressive soldiers were able to kidnap altogether 16,000 women of incomparable beauty and flaming youth for his pleasure. They were all kept under his cruel control. Four giant sentinels with five heads were stationed at four diferent directions of his palace. They were the most fierce looking guards always frightening people to death. They were known as Mura, Hayagriva, Nishumbha and Panchajannya respectively. When Lord Kirishna came to know all about this he felt very sorry for the innocent people suffering for nothing. Then he immediately thought of a plan to do away with Narkasura for which he had to use his wit very cleverly. Eventually succeeded to put him to death to every body’s great relief.

The demon, Narkasura whom Lord Krishna killed was none other than the most dreaded figure of tyranny. It is said that the mention of his name alone was enough to scare many innocent people to death. People were so afraid of him that they didn’t even dare to light up their houses in the evening for the fear that he might get them for his immediate meal if their houses were lit up. According to this legend, the celebration of this festival came into practice from the day Lord Krishna killed Narkasura.

According to some scholars – the above mentioned four sentinels are symbolic of the four great enemies of mankind such as Kama (lust). Krodha (anger), Lobha (greed) and Moha(attachment). And the five headed guards symbolise the five basic senses of human beings. The main point underlying this story is that man can never reach self-realisation if he does not bother to control his enemies (human demerits) mentioned above, so to say, to control all five senses that are so restless by nature. Human mind without self-restraint is like the five-headed demon Mura whose destruction in the long run is a must.