Assist Tourism
TOURISM, already not in the pinkest of health following a series of national
events that portrayed the country in poor light in the international media, is facing
harder times. The direct fallout of the terrorist attacks on the United States recently
and the build up towards an imminent war in Afghanistan that borders South Asia, has meant
that people are generally averse to flying to any holiday destination. Before the US
incident, it looked like Nepal’s tourism may begin to look up somewhat. With hopes in
their heart, tourism entrepreneurs were looking forward to an upturn in tourist arrivals
from this autumn, which is traditionally the best tourist season in Nepal. But those hopes
have been dashed, with the number of visitors to this country not likely to reach anywhere
appreciable these months. While tourists were staying away from Nepal because of real or
imagined fears and uncertainty following the Royal Palace incident in June and the
aftermath including a heightened sense of insecurity in the country, the reason for them
not coming to Nepal is purely the international with people in the West choosing to stay
home. These are desperate times for Nepalese tourism.
A gathering of travel trade captains on Monday
emphasised that something drastic needed to be done to keep Nepal’s tourism floating.
Projections of gloom marked the views of the tourism entrepreneurs. Without certain
short-term interventions, pending long-term measures, Nepal’s tourism was going to go
further downhill. Hotels and restaurants catering to tourists could close. And many travel
trade businesses could go out of business if the slump continued. Undeniably, if the
government and the Nepal Tourism Board, the apex semi-government body in charge of tourism
promotion, did not gear up to minimise the negative impact with some solid package to
revive Nepal’s tourism industry, we might see the country’s tourism down in the
dumps for a considerable length of time. Some of the suggestions from the travel trade
people are worth considering. The recommendations include waiving of visa fees, bringing
down parking rates, landing and other fees of foreign airlines by 50 per cent, offering 50
per cent discount to foreigners coming to Nepal for making documentaries and feature
films, cutting down entrance fees on tourists in Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur durbar
squares and national parks and wildlife reserves and so on. The government’s plan to
declare open 50 more peaks and lifting trekking restrictions from six districts will no
doubt help matters. But clearly, given the seriousness of the crisis, a comprehensive
promotional package that ensures immediate returns should be worked out and implemented
without delay.
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