NATIONAL 5 (Spotlight Weekly)]

Successive Blows

Why do opposition parties, hotel workers and even some entrepreneurs want to bring the tourism industry to a standstill?

By KESHAB POUDEL

After the hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi in the last week of December 1999, Nepal's tourism sector has undergone several convulsions.

Despite the series of sustained efforts aimed at paralyzing the sector, Nepal's tourism industry has been able to survive. From indefinite closedown of hotels to the hostile propaganda unleashed against Nepal by India's mainstream media, Nepal has still been able to draw visitors.

In the first three months of the current fiscal year, tourist arrivals from third countries witnessed a single-digit increase.

Tourists travelling by rickshaw : Hit by strikes

Nepal Tourism Board also took certain positive steps to lure Indian tourists. The board has started a special campaign to attract Indian tourists to Nepal by publicizing the rich and diverse itinerary the country has to offer.

The Nepalese media, too, created some difficulties for tourism by its sensationalism. In October and November last year, major Nepalese newspapers were full of stories of birds hitting aircraft at country's international airport.

Although arrivals of Indian tourists plummeted in 2000 and during the first three months of this year, total arrivals still remain positive.

"The nation has to pay a heavy price for frequent strikes. I don't see any rationale behind them," said Dr. Badri Prasad Shrestha, addressing journalists.

If things remain unchanged, the three-day general strike called by the six left parties, including the main opposition CPN-UML, will push the Nepalese tourism industry to the brink.

"The tourism industry will be destroyed by the three-day bandh. If political parties are really sincere about uplifting the national economy, they have to bring other types of agitation programs," said Pradeep Kumar Shrestha, president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Others agree that the tourism industry would be damaged beyond recovery if political parties do not give up such irrational forms of protest.

"How can tourists come to visit Nepal when they don't have transport to go to the hotels," said one tourism entrepreneur.

Although opposition leaders are trying hard to justify their decision to hold the bandh, they haven't been successful. "We don't want to damage the economy, what we want is to press Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to resign," said MP Dr. Dilli Raj Khanal.

The people are not in a mood to support such destructive activities. It is beyond their imagination that a party that is running the shadow government would choose to take such a harmful course.

"It is not our wish to go ahead with such program, but we are forced to take such a harsh decision," said Dr. Khanal. He did not mention who forced the organizers to take such a suicidal step.

As tourism has a major contribution in the national economy, any negative effect in this sector would harm the country's long-term interest. If Nepalese political parties are really sincere to the cause of the nation, they would have to start thinking constructively.