National 6 (Spotlight Weekly)

Advantageous Proximity

Campaigns to promote Nepal in India has paid off to an extent, but it needs to be diversified and sustained

By SANJAYA DHAKAL

Around whopping 6 million Indians will be packing their bags and heading off to overseas destination to celebrate their holidays this year. This is a 30 percent rise in the figure from the previous year, according to Indian travel trade analysts. But very few of them would be coming to Nepal.

While so many Indians travel abroad, very few of them come to their neighboring country Nepal, which is internationally renowned as one of the most exotic holiday destinations in the world. Recent surveys by British media have vindicated that Nepal remains one of the most favorite destination.

Indian tourists: Neighborhood market

Indian travelers are also known to be spendthrift when they go abroad. As such, Nepal has a clear advantage in luring them.

In the last one year, the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) did organize campaigns in several Indian cities to attract more and more Indian tourists. The campaigns have also paid off to a certain extent as shown by their increasing figures – first time since the negative growth of Indian visitors following Hrithik Roshan episode and hijacking of Indian Airlines.

The NTB-organized campaigns to promote Nepal as a pilgrimage destination have also worked wonderfully. But that has not been enough. “India is such a vast country that there are potential tourists of every kind – not only pilgrims. Nepal should promote its cultural, religious, natural as well as adventurous tourism market in India,” said an entrepreneur.

Just recently, NTB, along with other travel trade companies from the private sector, took part in the Travel Trade Fair held in Bangalore on February 24-26. Nepal was projected as an ultimate pilgrimage destination there. It also projected a parallel them of Nepal as an adventure destination in the same fair.

One third of total tourists coming to Nepal, by air, are Indians. The recent figures released by the NTB showed continued growth in their arrivals. In the month of February also, their number grew by 35 percent compared to the same month last year.

According to Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), the record of tourist arrivals, by air, maintained by Department of Immigration, has showed increase of 44 percent in their arrival on February. The third country arrival grew by 48 percent, making a total of 24,456 visitors during the month.

The growth in Indian visitors was also due to the Mahashivaratri festival as well as the result of sustained Pashupati Darshan Package launched by the NTB, in cooperation with Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) and Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC).

“We are looking forward to continued growth of our tourism market, especially Indian market, in the months ahead,” said Tek Bahadur Dangi, chief executive officer of NTB.

Although the country is still embroiled in internal conflict, it has not touched tourism sector much. The message from the Maoists, too, has been loud and clear that they do not have any policy of targeting tourists. As such, sustained and diversified efforts by the NTB as well as private sector could result in much increased flow of tourists. Even if Nepal manages to attract a small chunk of that 6 million Indian visitors, it would mean a bumper harvest.

Clash In Bhojpur

A major clash occurred between the Maoists and security forces in Bhojpur on the night of March 2. At the time of this writing, the details of the fight still remain unclear. But initial reports suggest heavy casualties on both sides.

Sources have said that at least 29 security personnel were killed in the incident including 11 army personnel and 18 police personnel. Security sources claim dozens of Maoists, too, died in the incident. Exact casualties on the Maoists side could not be confirmed as yet. The district administration office at the Bhojpur district headquarters was also damaged in the incident. This is the first biggest attack the Maoists have launched following the breakdown of ceasefire in August last year.