Go West
THOUGH many parts of Nepal, from east to the
west, are theoretically considered as having a lot of tourism potentials, the
country’s tourism is glaringly lopsided geographically. Lack of strategic focus on
regional balance in tourism has resulted in certain parts of Nepal receiving
disproportionately more tourists than some other parts. Glaring is the difference in terms
of visitor counts between the western region and the rest—the eastern and central
regions. The number of visitors to the western parts is miniscule compared to those who go
to the eastern region. This remains true of all kinds of tourism including adventure
tourism. As heard at a seminar on eco-tourism the other day, of the 98 climbing teams
Nepal saw in 1999, 79 went to the east, while only two teams visited the western region.
Trekking fared no better in terms of regional spread. Of the 107,960 trekkers who came to
Nepal in 1999, around 72 per cent went to the central region and 25 per cent to the
eastern region while only, again, a miniscule 1.2 per cent went to the west. These figures
represent a conspicuous imbalance. It is not as if the mid-western and western regions of
the country do not have mountains and trekking routes that are would-be attractions for
adventure-seeking tourists. What it means is that Nepal’s nature-based tourism has
not really taken regional balance as a leitmotiv, even though the total number of
mountains the government has allowed for expeditions has now reached over 400, about a
hundred of which were opened for expedition only recently. Perhaps as a reflection of the
continuing regional imbalance in this context, of the recently opened peaks, 66 are
located in the eastern region which is already crowded as far as the number of climbing
teams go. Twenty-six of these new peaks are in central region while only 11 are in the
western region.
Regional balance is essential not only
because it is in the fitness of things and people in western region should also be allowed
to taste the fruits of tourism industry, but also because many of Nepal’s traditional
mountaineering and trekking areas are getting visitors beyond their carrying capacity.
Annapurna conservation area is one such instance. The most visited trekking area,
Annapurna area recorded some 70,000 trekkers in 2001. Some of the trekking routes in this
large 7,629-square kilometre vastness are saturated. As a consequence environmental
problems like depleting forests because of rising demand for fuel-wood and timber, and
pollution are surfacing. The above reality points to the necessity of promoting the
western and far-western region as potential adventure-tourism sites. Nepal’s tourism
planners must work out scheme to do away with regional imbalance in tourism starting with
nature-based tourism.
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