Rescue tattered travel trade

Holiday and business travellers are cancelling trips to Asia, including Nepal, in droves after the attacks on the US, spelling disaster for the region’s tourism industry and government who rely on revenue from the sector.

In fact both the government and, particularly, the travel trade entrepreneurs are losing their shirts. The drop–off of travellers is sending shivers down the spines of travel entrepreneurs who counted on tourism as a vital source of foreign exchange.

Some tourism authorities are putting a brave face on the crisis, saying Nepal remains safe and that they are confident travellers will return once airline services are normalised. But others admit that the current international scenario has bought business and conference travel to a standstill, and that tourists are now too afraid to leave their home countries and travel to Nepal wherefrom Afghanistan is not very far off.

The World Tourism Organisation (WTO) has said the disaster had struck "a terrible blow" to the industry, with travellers worldwide cancelling or postponing trips in large numbers. South Asia’s tourism industry appears to be bearing the heaviest brunt of the damage due to its geoproximity with Afghanistan.

WTO has already warned tourism trips will fall by between 1.5 – 2.0 percent this year instead of rising by 2.5 – 3.0 percent as expected before the attacks.

Industry experts say the cost of tourism would escalate. This depends on the extent of US reprisal attacks against Afghanistan. Industry experts have warned the WTO’s 139 member states would have to brace for tens of billions of dollars of lost revenue.

Even places like Hong Kong and Thailand are already badly affected and WTO officials say the long-term trend is difficult to predict.

In such a global scenario, Nepalese travel trade leaders have submitted a tourism rescue package to the government for due implementation. Now given the gravity of the current crisis, the government would better go into action immediately to save the nation’s vibrant tourism industry.

Now a different context altogether.

This is about two inadvertent errors that crept into our last edition. One was we misspelled His Excellency the Indian Ambassador to Nepal Mr. Deb Mukharji’s name in his most thought – provoking interview which he exclusively gave to Business Age. I personally would like to regret for the mistake.

Second is again an inadvertent mistake that crept in page 42 of our September issue in our report titled "NTV unplugged" in which our source provided a wrong information citing a Khetan Group subsidiary, House of Entertainment as being involved in the management of X-Zone Club (Pvt.) Ltd. This is not true. Again, I would like to regret for the unintentional mistake.

Lastly, on the auspicious occasion of Bada Dashain, I and on behalf of all my Business Age family would like to extend a Happy Bijaya Dashami and pray for the good health and prosperity of all our valued readers and patrons.

Send your feedback to the editor: bizage@ecomail.com.np
1999 © Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd. P.O. Box 876, Durbar Marg, Kathmandu, NEPAL. Tel : 977 1 220 773, 243 566 . Fax: 977 1 225 407. Reproduction in any form is prohibited without prior permission. No part of the articles which appear in the internet version on BUSINESSAGE may be reproduced without the permission of Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd. For reprinting rights, please write to us.  Send us your feedback:contact us . CLICK HERE FOR PAST ISSUE. This site is best viewed at : 800 X 600 resolution

Back to the top