Mr. Joy from Zenith

It is interesting to note that Dewan had first entered into tourism business when the sector was in tight government control. And now he wants the same reintroduced.

After receiving Diploma in two subjects - tourism management and hotel management - from Belair Education Centre, London, this commerce graduate from North Bengal University of India was naturally to go into tourism industry, though his father was in the British Army. Of the two options - airlines and hotels - he preferred airlines, and took up agency business. It was not that easy to enter airlines sector in mid-eighties when the government was following a policy of regulation. So he took an indirect route.

And regulation was there also in travel agency business. The government was not issuing new licenses, and Dewan had to pay Rs. 250,000 to buy the license from people who were already squatting on it. Anyway, Zenith Travels came into being and Dewan entered into airline business indirectly, by selling RNAC tickets. Then he applied for GSA of Dragon Air which had just started its service.

And, the luck too was in Dewan’s favour. Dragon Air started two flights a week into Kathmandu and the sales were good, recalls Dewan. But after two years, Dragon Air stopped flying into Nepal because the returns were not sufficient. "Though the sales were not bad, there were problems in repatriation of the revenue in dollars", he explains.

Then, Dewan had to struggle for a couple of years for survival. And it was harder this time than earlier. The company had already employed a quite big staff to cater to Dragon Air’s account. With that airline’s withdrawal of flights, Zenith remained only as an off-line GSA, simply not in a position to earn enough to sustain the staff size. He had to borrow heavily to keep the ball rolling. But soon the banks were after him pressing for repayment.

Then in 1993, Dewan acquired off-line GSA for Air Lanka too which helped to sustain the manpower. Later, in 1996, he also acquired off-line GSA for Sahara Airlines of India.

But the most important account for Zenith Travels these days has been the GSA for Qatar Airways which operates regular flights in and out of Nepal up to London via Dubai. This middle east connection has made it possible to have two-way traffic because of a steady flow of Nepalis who go to work there.

All these have made Dewan a staunch advocate for encouraging foreign airlines. He argues that in view of Nepali private sector’s limited capacity to do international marketing and withdrawal of RNAC flights from European sectors, the cheapest way for Nepal for international marketing is to piggyback on foreign airlines that promote Nepal as important destination.

However, it is not that Dewan is concentrated only in selling airline tickets. He is also in trekking and rafting since 1991 and 1995 respectively. But, the most important diversification of his business is the distributorship of BMW vehicles that he does through Ideal Automobile Nepal Ltd. of which Dewan is the MD.