Tourism

If it has been easy to usher in tourists from all around the world, it can equally be risky once they are shooed away. The abundant varieties of natural and man-made sites across the Kingdom have always been welcome banners for the visitors. Further assuring them the pleasant trips are, what they say, the peace-loving locals.

Having learnt about such a Nepal from word of mouth, many visitors arrive here. Which means they already have a picture of a tranquil holiday destination even before they land here. What happens if these tourists’ security all of a sudden comes under threat? If this has not been anybody’s guess, it has already become nightmare for many travel traders.

Increasing incidents of looting tourists and in some cases wounding them, if not killing them, have made many tourism entrepreneurs suffer sleepless nights. Especially for those, whose business areas have witnessed such incidents.

Take the recent case of looting of tourists in Manaslu. After a group of Spanish trekkers was robbed of their money and valuables in this western region, tourism traders have had a frustrating time. They complain of having received business cancellations from their international tour operators. What is making them more hopeless is that many foreign embassies have warned their citizens from visiting certain areas.

"With the growing threat for tourists, we may end up losing our bread and butter," says Kishore Raj Pandey, a senior tourism entrepreneur, who has been a member of Nepal Tourism Board. "In certain areas the situation is really serious." One of such areas has been Gorkha where Pandey has a hotel. "Due to such incidents, the hotel is not doing good business there."

Few months ago, yet another group of trekkers was robbed near Charikot – to the east of Kathmandu. The news sent shock-waves to both the business and tourist communities.

The Ghorepani trekking route in the Annapurna Region has been yet another notorious area. No experienced trekking agent advises its client to trek the route alone or in a small group. The Ghorepani pass has been black listed even by the locals where they say robbers await tourists passing by. If they find them alone or travelling in small groups, they even do not hesitate to stab them to rob their goods.

"This area has every year witnessed one or the other incident," said Kalyan Hirachan, a senior tourism entrepreneur at Kalapani in the Annapurna trekking region. "That is one reason why tourists trekking alone or in small groups choose to trek through Beni and avoid the trail of Ghorepani."

Forget about professional robbers. Even local trekking agents and service providers in some areas have been involved in looting their clients. One such incident took place last year near Baglung where a caravan of mules carrying the goods of visiting tourists suddenly disappeared. The tourists and their guide were shocked to find the mules the following day but without their goods.

Himalayan Journeys issued a press release in the capital after the incident took place. It suspected the local person who had offered the mule service to the tourists to be behind the incident. Tourism experts say such criminals are taking undue advantage of the Maoist movement in certain parts of the country. "The actual Maoists may not be involved in such activities but there may be criminals who are taking undue advantage of the situation."

And it is not just in the remote areas where tourist security has come under threat. Even in urban areas including Kathmandu, tourist security, at times, has become questionable. Remember the "murder" of a young Italian at Thamel some four years ago? The tourist died in a row with local people in a pub at Thamel.

After the incident, the parents of the murdered Italian resorted to pamphleteering, labeling the capital as an unsafe area for tourists. No doubt, these parents must still be making adverse publicity about Nepal abroad.

Hardly two years after the murder case, yet another tourist died a suspicious death in a hotel at Thamel. Those who witnessed the body claimed that the tourist was throttled to death. Others claimed that he had suffocated to death since he used a high dose of drug.

Whatever the reason be, the incident once again raised eyebrows on tourist security. What backs the doubt over the security of the visitors is the gross indifference of the concerned authority. The provision of tourist police is a striking example. The Tourist Information Center in the heart of Kathmandu houses a room meant for a dozen of tourist police. No one, however, knows how these cops work. Nor has anyone heard about them being in "action" despite the omnipresent tourist-harassment cases in the capital city. Ditto has been the case in Pokhara. The tourist police booth at Lake Side – the most famous tourist hub in the lake city – bears a deserted look.

Of course, the booth reads a big slogan – Your Security is Our Motto. Ironically enough, the booth, with no tourist police in it, remains empty all the time. Local people say that police personnel used to be deployed at the booth during the Visit Nepal Year in 1998. "The booth was a show piece for the Visit Nepal Year. Now that the VNY hangover is gone, no one cares about the police booth," said Ganesh Gurung a veteran hotelier at Lake Side.

If this is the case in the center and urban areas, what may be the tourist-security arrangements in the remote areas? Even if it is impossible to police such far-off areas, there have been certain pro-visions that can help to maintain tourist security. One such arrangement has been the appointment of environment officer. These government officials are required to accompany trekking groups in certain areas.

But in practice, the environment officers relax at their homes, pocketing their fee, and the trekkers are free to reach wherever they wish to. Same has been the case with liaison officers. These officers are supposed to accompany mountaineers till their base camps. But in most of the cases, they don’t even leave the capital, while in the records they are shown as the accompanying officials.

Such neg-ligence has also attributed to the deteriorating tourist security, informed observers say. "The environment and liaison officers can at least take the clients through safe trails. And when people see these officers, they cannot even dare to harass the visiting tourists," they point out.

With such unheeded suggestions, tourist security has become a forgotten chapter in the tourism industry. And that has stemmed this fear: The visitors can become endangered species even if it has been easy to usher them in for all these years.

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Tourist Security Under Threat

By Navin Singh Khadka