Pulling Tourists

THE declining number of tourists has for some time been sending alarm bells ringing. Starting with Indian Airlines plane hijacking over two years ago, the series of events over the time since then has earned for Nepal a lot of negative publicity internationally. Then terrorist incident in the United States on September 11 last year and its aftermath too had some impact on it. In more recent times since November last year, Maoists’ destructive activities have prompted further harmful media hype against Nepal as a tourist destination. In these times of instantaneous global communications, even small incidents get unreasonably amplified and potential tourists to Nepal who would depend on these communication channels for information would hesitate to make the country their holiday destination, however unfounded the information may be. In order to wage a battle against this negative publicity, the government last year decided that it would launch a Destination Nepal Campaign (DNC). The Campaign is now being put together, albeit not as speedily as the situation would demand—the past three months have witnessed a 50 per cent decrease in the number of tourists compared to the corresponding period last year. Finally, the government Tuesday formally announced programmes for DNC 2002-2003 that had the main objective, according to Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Bal Bahadur K.C., of minimising the negative impact of the present situation on the tourism industry and to stop the decline in tourist arrivals.

The campaign’s main feature is the celebration of the golden jubilee of the first ascent on Mt. Sagarmatha with plans to honour Sagarmatha summiteers and famous foreigners who have contributed to Nepal’s mountain tourism, and to establish a training institution for mountain tourism and mountaineering. Travel trade people and those in the media are also to be invited for familiarisation visit to Nepal. The 22.5 million-rupee Campaign must be launched without delay. For whatever Nepal may be going through now, it still has a lot to offer to tourists who are shying away from Nepal basically because international media have portrayed it in only a negative way. Fighting such an image demands concerted efforts from everybody in the business. If the tourism entrepreneurs and the government work together on it, some of the damage on tourism thanks to negative publicity, could certainly be mitigated. The campaign to pull tourists must be given a continuity for, as suggested, five years as tourism promotion needs, and will need, all the attention the government and tourism entrepreneurs can give it.

Right To Education

CHILDREN’S right to education is universally acknowledged and over the years special attention has been given to this aspect. It is estimated that there are about eight million children between the ages of 5 and 14. This suggests that the country has to meet the educational demands of such a huge number of children. Besides making provisions that all children have access to education, their all round physical and mental development are also equally important. With the high fertility rate and the low economic status of the majority of the people, the objectives formulated as a part of annual or five yearly development plans have not fully materialised. This is a matter of concern as the fact remains that the children of today will have to bear the responsibility of working for the prosperity of the nation in the future. Any inadequacy in providing inputs, including education, can have severe repercussions later from the viewpoint of national interest. This does make the present education status of the children an issue of great concern. It is not that the government is not aware to the problem but there are certain hurdles like the paucity of funds and timely policies and programmes that have to be overcome before a hundred per cent result can be achieved.

At a function organised the other day, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba was presented with a copy of the public opinion collected in the course of ‘Let’s Work Together for Children" worldwide public opinion collection campaign. Herein, it may be worth noting that a total of 225,000 Nepalese, out of over 50 million people worldwide, have expressed their opinion regarding the rights and welfare of opinion of children. Speaking at the programme, Prime Minister Deuba said that the government was totally committed to protecting children’s rights to education, health care and the right to life. This provides assurance to the millions of children in the country who can now hope of a better future. As the children are the assets of the country, it is imperative that they be equipped to face the challenges that come in life for the individual as well as the nation. For this to be achieved, education is the tool. Though the investments in the education sector have been encouraging, it is not enough. The government and the private sector must work unitedly so that the status of children can undergo radical changes for the welfare of all.