Tourism promotional programmes must be given continuity

Dr. Gyanendra Ratna Tuladhar is the only person in Nepal to ave both Masters and Doctorate degrees in tourism. Having studied in Bulgeria and England for many years, he has worked for various organizations including the National Planning Commission where he served for almost three years for the preparation of the 9th Five-Year Plan. With his Ph. D. degree in Tourism Economics, he has been involved more in research works related to tourism development rather than in business ventures. Presently, he is carrying out a study project for the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB). This research work funded by Netherlands Development Organization is targeted at increasing the benefits from the tourism activities to the backward people of Humla, Jumla, southern Annapurna, hills of Chitwan, Kanchanjunga, Makalu-Barun area and Rara. He talked with The Independent on various topical issues of tourism industry. Excerpts:

Q. As the only tourism economist of the country, how do you analyze the present trend of the tourism industry of Nepal?

A. The present trend of Nepalese tourism shows progress. But, it is doubtful. Whether the Nepalese tourism industry is progressing by only five percent while our past trend shows that since 1980 we had the annual average progress of about 7.2 percent. After establishing Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), we have been able to obtain the growth rate of only 5 percent. This shows, there is no difference between the growth rate with or without the Tourism Board. Before the establishment of NTB, with a limited the budget, our industry progressed at the annual rate of 7.2 percent. But, now with the establishment of NTB with the budget of Rs. 100 million for publicity and promotion only, our growth rate is only 5 percent. We are not satisfied with the present growth rate. We still need to do a lot of things to achieve the desired growth rate.

Meanwhile, the numerical value shows that tourists visiting to Nepal are increasing. Everybody is looking to increase the number of tourists. But, as an economist, I must say, we have to see the socio-economic impact of this trend too. We must try to assess what impact it made in our society. In Nepal, very few people analyze these things.

Q. The country observed the Visit Nepal Year in 1998. What has been the impact of this first ever promotional event in our tourism industry?

A. This is a very interesting question. No one analyzed the impact of Visit Nepal Year. During the Visit Nepal Year, we talked a lot about boosting the tourism industry.  We concentrated all our efforts to organize this year-long programme by organizing various events. Once the Visit Nepal Year was over we stopped all such efforts. This is very bad. We must give continuity to such promotional programmes. We identified lots of products during the Visit Nepal Year. But now we have forgotten them all. Those products must be developed and marketed for sale. This will only be possible if we continue our efforts towards fulfilling the objectives of the Visit Nepal Year.

Q. What strategy should we adopt to develop our tourism industry?

A. It can be determined only after a thorough study. But at the same time we should also keep in mind the long term benefits and impact of this on our society. Our vision should be based on the long term benefit and our programmes should be a continual process. This must be the basis of our strategy.

Besides that, we should also focus on product enhancement, infrastructure development and standardization of service. Of these all, I consider standardization as the most important aspect. This is the most difficult and the most interesting side of this business. But. I haven’t seen this in our industry. Presently, we have more than four hundred travel agencies and seven hundred hotels operating in the country. As a result, there is a great deal of unhealthy competition among them. In order to eliminate such unhealthy competition, the government authorities must play a vital role. Such a trend, which can be damaging for Nepalese tourism can be checked only if standardization is maintained. This aspect must be considered while determining the country’s tourism strategy.

Q. There is always a conflict between quality and the quantity of tourists. Of these two, which one do you think the Nepalese tourism industry should go for from the economic point of view?

A. Of course, this is a complicated issue. In tourism terminology we call it extensive and intensive tourists. It is very difficult to differentiate between these two categories. In Nepal, we still have to define what it exactly means when we say quality tourists. It is a wrong concept to think that a tourists who stays at a five-star hotel is automatically a quality tourist. Because for a two-star hotelier any of its guest who come to stay at his hotel is a quality tourists for he pays the amount the hotel charges. The meaning of quality tourists varies from place to place and from people to people. For example, to a certain porter, quality tourists are those who gives him plenty of money as a tip regardless of the amount he spends in Nepal everyday.

On the other hand, we can consider a tourist who spends more than a thousand dollars a day while he is in Nepal as a real quality tourist. But it must be remembered such a tourist could also be involved in acts which transfer diseases like AIDS to Nepalese. Can we consider him a quality tourist? No.

Thus, by quality tourists we mean the one from whom there will not be any distortions in our environment and there will not be any negative impact on our socio-economic system. Likewise, it is useless to have rise in quantity if returns from it is less.

Presently, Nepal has the infrastructure to accommodate more than one million tourists a year. So, both quality and quantity are important to us.

Q. Before the establishment of NTB, the private sector used to blame the government for not giving concrete direction to this industry. But now, it is the NTB which is flayed for not being able to solve tourism problems. Why?

A. The private sector blamed the government for it didn’t do anything. The NTB was formed last year as a private-public partnership to give the desired momentum to the tourism industry. The NTB is still at the initial stage and it is very difficult to bring about changes within a year. We should not expect much from NTB as of now.

However, it is true that a larger section of the industry has started to charge the NTB. They have been charging that there is a growing difference between the NTB and the industry. But, I think only a few of those charges are really genuine. However, it is also true that only the high-class businessmen who are benefitting from it.

Q. How do you evaluate the performance of NTB? Is it satisfactory?

A. It is too early to say satisfactory. It was established just a year ago. We must give it some time. It has just started to expand its base for its future action. It also initiated a few promotional activities and research projects. Many of its tasks are yet to be completed. As of now, it is too difficult to say whether it is satisfactory or not.

Q. We have been selling the same old destinations for the last thirty years. Why do you think Nepal has been unable to give new destinations?

A. I think this is one of the reasons why NTB has been formed. We have been selling the same old destination for the last many years. Those destinations are also not identified by the Nepalese people. They were identified by the tourists themselves. Now, its time for us to find out and develop new destinations. The NTB has taken this responsibility. Almost twelve years ago, I demanded for a body to look into this aspect. But such a concept has been taken up just recently. I don’t know how they are moving ahead towards this goal. Let’s hope it will bring about new destinations and products very soon.

Q. Do you think the NTB is capable enough to handle such problems? Does it have professional people like you to address these problems?

A. You have raised a very appropriate question. It is interesting to note that so far the NTB has no persons serving within it who has specialised in tourism. This doesn’t mean that Nepal lacks highly educated people in the tourism sector. There are altogether nine persons who have received high qualification in tourism, five of them have obtained Master’s degree in tourism and four, including me, have obtained Ph. D. in tourism related subjects. I am the only person who has completed both the Master’s and Doctorate degrees in tourism.

Tourism and its multiplier effects in our economy and society must be studied deeply because it is a very vague subject. For the best result, the responsibility of carrying out various researches must be given to any one of us. But no one of us is working for the NTB. I think this is the weakness of NTB. I can only say that the NTB has not given any thoughts to the education and the educated people.

Q. You focused on standardization. For this we must have trained manpower. Why hasn’t Nepal initiated any programme to establish a standard training institute?

A. Presently, there are many types of training centers in Nepal. But they are providing only short-term vocational courses. In the past few years, many number of institutions have came forward to provide quality education to our students. Some of these institutions are affiliated with the Tribhuvan University. Tourism education is very important for the sustainable development of the tourism industry in Nepal. There must be a faculty of tourism in every university of Nepal.