National 8 (Spotlight Weekly)

NATO MEET
Call for Tourism Promotion

Nepal Association of Tour Operators (NATO) fifth general assembly demand declaring tourism as a national industry

By A CORRESPONDENT

When Nepal’s tourism industry has been passing through a very critical phase, tourism entrepreneurs have expressed their willingness to work to promote the sector in Nepal with the hope that the country’s economy will follow the right direction.

Tour operators : Meeting of the mind

“We are strongly lobbying with the government to declare tourism industry as the national industry and to govern its activities as per the essential services act,” said Basanta Raj Mishra, president of NATO. “This can help increase the number of high-paying tourists to a significant level.”

The NATO is the apex body of national level tour operators of Nepal. It represents major tour operators of the country along with hotels, airlines, golf courses and cable car operators.

“The burden of the country’s reputation as well as the role of the custodians of the tourists’ dreams and their delivery in Nepal rests on the type of travel operation. For these reasons, it is imperative that the tour operators of Nepal be bonded, at least to the tune of 2.5 million rupees to guarantee the experiences that tourists pay us for,” Ashok Pokharel, secretary of NATO.

Inaugurated by the Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Deep Kumar Upadhyaya, the fifth Annual General Meeting (AGM) also discussed the matter related to VAT threshold in the tourism industry, especially to widen the TSF net and bridge the 12.2 percent price-gap between those travel agents who pay VAT and those who don’t.

“With a view to give a big boost to tourism industry, His Majesty’s Government has started several far reaching policy initiatives. Visa provision has been relaxed and simplified. New peaks, rivers and trekking areas have been opened; the government is serious in rescuing of sick industries. We are also focusing on pilgrimage tourism which has a tremendous scope in the future,” said minister Upadhyaya inaugurating the meeting.

Present Tourism Scenario

Globally tourism employs 1 in 9 persons which is bigger than global oil or entire defense industries.

Regionally, the fastest and most successful countries have tourism as their economies’ backbone – e.g. Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and China

Nepal lacks reliable tourism satellite accounts, but it is expected to earn at least US$ 232 million from tourism in 2004

Nepal’s Woes

Over the years the demand for travel to Nepal has diminished
Negative publicity due to violence, political instability, travel advisories and other social issues has eroded destination image
Stiff competition and in-house competition has made tourism more complicated
Future of tourism is uncertain and we are forced to survive on a day-to-day basis

Need of the Hour

Set up an effective and efficient crisis management team
Only countries that have established mechanisms to handle crises have been able to sustain their industry
Remember it is not the big that shall eat the small but, the fast that will consume the slow

Improve Accessibility

Even the demand for a destination is phenomenal, potential visitors must be able to reach there
The available average 600 odd seats per day will get us only 219,000 tourists
To get half million tourists, we must have 1400 arrivals every day
Encourage additional flights and charters
Strengthen the national carrier

Re-branding Nepal

The branding should be done based on research and not on whim, and should be timely
We must be smart and piggy- back our marketing campaign to those of our neighbors
Increased marketing budget will raise the profile and demand for our tourism product
Recovery of the tourism industry will bring benefits right down to the village level

All Should Join hands

The tourism industry at this time is fragmented
Foreign exchange earning indicate that most sectors contribute more or les equally to the national exchequer
Industry rarely gets anticipated returns from the government because of sectoral interest
Swim Together or Sink Separately!
We must build a common agenda that will impact the whole tourism industry positively
Keep pushing this agenda until we accomplish our goals. Then build a new common agenda and push that

(Prepared by Basanta Raj Mishra, President, Nepal Association of Tour Operators)