The Most Bothered

Suman Pandey, the incumbent president of the Trekking Agents Association of Nepal (TAAN), attributes his success to his obstinacy. “If I feel that I’ve to get something done, I don’t rest until I’ve got that done. I’m not the least bothered type. I’m the most bothered one”.

And this obstinacy seems to have paid. Starting in this field of adventure travel business as the manager for the company that he established for his elder brother some 14 years ago, Pandey for the last six years owns his own company and is elected the president of the umbrella association that represents over 350 trekking agents of Nepal.

Coming from a family where the tradition had been to join the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA), Pandey was being groomed for a military career. So he studied in the school run by RNA and completed Intermediate in Science. First, he wanted to be medical doctor and therefore took Biology, but later changed the idea and took Maths as well so as to pursue Engineering. And was in fact selected for the scholarship from RNA for engineering study abroad, but that had to be dropped, because of the Nepal-India tension of late 1980s. Meanwhile, his mixing up with foreigners in Sanepa (the locality where Pandeys had their family home and which has perhaps the heaviest concentration of expatriates in the valley) led him to trekking. “Being an adventurous type, I found trekking interesting”, recalls Pandey about his early days and initiation into trekking.

As the two brothers could not go along comfortably after the demise of their father some six years ago, young Pandey had to leave his elder brother’s firm. But as he had no other resources but reputation established in the tourism market, he had no other alternative but to pursue the career where he had some expertise. And that was trekking business only.

“Thus, I was rather forced into it”, he says. But there are no regrets for that because success has always come to his side.

And the second factor Pandey attributes for his success to is his luck. “I believe in god, and I think I’m lucky, though I never leave anything to chance and take every care to ensure that each of my plan succeeds”.

In trekking business, according to Pandey, you may not need a penny to invest if you have the skills. But if you don’t have the skills, you cannot transact even a hundred rupees despite an investment of a billion. This peculiarity of the business helped Pandey to start his company Explore Himalaya Travel and Adventure though he was practically without any capital when he left his brother’s business. But by now, the company is already in shape. “Capital is no longer a big constraint for me”. That is how Pandey summaries the situation now.

Perhaps the more interesting aspect of Pandey’s personality is his optimism. The tourism business is about 50%  down this year compared to the same period last year. Still, Pandey is not perturbed. “Tourism is so much dependent on the vagaries of so many factors. It is worse than Nepali agriculture which is dependent on the vagaries of monsoon”, he shares his reading about the business. Therefore, 10 or 12 percent decline or increase over the year is, according to Pandey, always natural in tourism. But now that it has declined 50%, it is time for the tourism entrepreneurs to show their resiliency, says the trekking industry’s leader challenging all the tourism entrepreneurs. As for his own business, Pandey says he has already set up an alternate arrangement – a joint venture operation in Tibet. “This business will help me tide over the present difficulties. But by the time the Nepali tourism revives, I’ll have both of the businesses”, he hopes.

Meanwhile, Pandey is not sitting with his fingers crossed for the Nepali tourism’s revival. “For the last 50 years, Nepali tourism entrepreneurs were acting as mere handling agents doing business granted to them by the foreign tour operators. I want to become a promoting agent so that I’m able to promote the destination that I like. There are very few Nepali tour operators with this capability. I want to become one of them”.

But becoming a promoting agent is a real big challenge. One needs to have international level salesmanship, creativity, leadership qualities and an appropriate financial back up. And Pandey says, he is ready to take that challenge. “Life is not simply earning money. It is facing challenge and getting satisfaction out of that. That’s exactly why people climb Mt. Everest”, he argues.