National 5 (Spotlight Weekly)

Neighborhood Campaign

As tourist arrivals in South Asia continue to decline, the spotlight shifts to intra-regional travel

By A CORRESSPONDENT

If the statement of World Tourism Organization Secretary-General Francisco Frangialli provides any indication, it is that South Asian countries have no alternative to going for intra-regional tourism in order to maintain their edge. Along with promoting tourism, the countries of South Asia have to stop focusing on long-haul destinations.

Frangialli was speaking on the sidelines of the South Asia Travel Tourism Exchange in New Delhi recently. "While South Asian countries should maintain their market shares from the west, they should also follow a regional approach."

Indian tourists comprised the second largest segment of visitors to Nepal until 1999. Despite many complications following the hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi in December 1999, more than 35,000 Indian tourists visited Nepal.

With the subsequent drastic decline in Indian tourists, however, Nepal's hotel industry has been pushed to the brink of bankruptcy. To regain the confidence of Indian tourists, Nepalese entrepreneurs have been launching various schemes targeted at the vast southern market.

At a time when Nepal has been making efforts to promote Indian tourists, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has also initiated an approach to improve regional tourism. Under the ADB initiative, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Bangladesh have agreed to join hands to promote tourism.

Financed by the ADB, the project, titled "South Asian Sub-regional Cooperation" (SASEC), is aimed at improving regional cooperation in the tourism, transportation and infrastructure, energy and environmental sectors.

According to India's Statesman newspaper, the tourism departments of the four countries, under the coordination of the Nepal Tourism Board, have come together to galvanize the tourism component of SASEC.

"The next tourism meeting will be held in Bhutan in May. Tourism representatives from the four countries will be present. The project is likely to be finalized within a few weeks," said Pradeep Raj Pandey, chief executive officer of the NTB.

The new development came after a meeting of senior officials and tourism entrepreneurs of the region in New Delhi. As South Asia's tourism market largely depends on India, carefully crafted programs aimed at Indian tourists would help to change the face of tourism in the region.

Provided it can maintain relative peace and security, Nepal has a huge possibility of luring Indian tourists, who are still attracted by the country's Hindu temples and beautiful mountains. There is also a clear possibility to increase tourists from Bangladesh, who are charmed by tales of the Himalayas.

In terms of distance, culture and other attractions, the four neighbors stand to benefit from intra-regional tourism. After last year's terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington DC, Nepal has witnessed a sharp plunge in tourist arrivals from the West. In first three months of this year, tourist arrivals in Nepal declined by more than 50 percent compared to the same period in the previous year.

If the initiative by the ADB and the four South Asian countries materializes, it would help to revitalize economic growth the world's poorest region through the engine of tourism. For Nepal, which has seen a continued decline of a sector that has long remained its economic lifeline, the benefits of regional partnership cannot be overstated.