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VOL. 28, NO. 11, Nov 21 , 2008 (Mangsir 06 2065 B.S.) |
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RESURGENCE OF TOURISM
PeaceDividend
If there is peace and stability and enough connecting flights from Nepal to other parts of the world, Nepal's tourism can rebound. This is what the trend of this year's tourist arrival has shown. After more than a decade of slump, Nepal's tourism industry rebounded back again. Although the intensity of political instability continues to make the situation fragile and unpredictable, it has not yet harmed the growing number of tourists. The upsurge in the tourism sector has been a welcome relief. At a time when Nepal's all other economic sector is going from good to bad, how the tourism rebound will bring contribute to economy remain to be seen.
By KESHAB POUDEL
Prasiddha Bahadur Pandey, the newly elected president of Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) is in a cheerful mood these days. Having suffered a prolonged recession in tourism sector, this year's upsurge has made the entire hotel industry cheerful.
In an interaction with media recently, HAN president Pandey expressed hope that Nepalese hotel industry will not have to go through the previous bad patch ever again.
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"This year's booking is high and occupancies at the country's major hotels are good. After a long time, the tourism industry seems to be rolling back to its original shape," said Pandey.
Not only Pandey, president of HAN and owner of a star hotel, small lodge owners, too, have felt the joy of growing income from tourism. Binod Lama of Nagarkot lodge, a backpacker hotel, too, is very happy.
"I am too busy this year," said Lama, whose 20-beds lodge is almost full during the last two months. From small star hotels to non-star hotels and lodges of Nagarkot and Thamel, all did brisk business this year during the month of September and October. Even the month of November seems to be going well.
"For the last five years, my lodge was almost empty. This sudden upsurge in terms of tourists and earning helped a lot to pay back my dues to bank," said Lama.
Although the global economy has seen a major recession in recent months, Nepal's tourism industry has not felt its any effect till now. "Law and order and other local situation determines our business more than the international situation," said Lama.
Known for its magnificent view of sun rise and sun set along with the Himalayan range from Mt. Everest to Dhawalagiri, Nagarkot attracts all kinds of tourists. From European to Indians, everyone loves Nagarkot.
With the completion of election for CA and formation of new Maoist government, the country has seen relative peace. From Everest base camp to Kathmandu valley, almost everything seems to be settled though there is possibility of revival of anarchism, street demonstrations again in the context of growing differences between major political parties.
"During ten years long violent conflict period, hoteliers used to request us to send tourists. Now the situation has reversed and as a tour operator we need to request them to manage a room for our guest," said Ramkaji Kone, president of Nepal Association of Travel and Tour Operators, at a recent press conference. "The situation in Kathmandu is that we have to send tourists to Nagarkot and Dhulikhel after accommodating them for a few days in capital," said Kone, who is organizing an international conference of travel and tour operators.
Popular destination of backpackers, the situation in Thamel, too, has changed as one can see growing tourist activities. After a long time of lull, there is sudden outburst. "There were a lot of tourists last year also but this year you cannot find any room in Thamel. The closure of night club after 11 pm has help restore its glory," said manager of Tibet Guest House. "Occupancy in our hotel is almost hundred percent in the month of September and October. The booking in the month of November is also encouraging."
According to Nepal Tourism Board, the tourist arrival in the month of October set a record high. The tourist arrival in September was also much higher. Nepal regarded a Shangri-La for holiday makers with its Himalayan ranges, assortment of religious shrines and trekking spots, has recorded the highest tourist arrivals in eight years.
According to the Nepal Tourism Board figures released by the Immigration Office at the Tribhuvan International Airport indicate that 50, 567 tourists visited Nepal in October, the highest in a single month since 2000.
Experts argue that the opening of two more casinos, a host of adventure sports like Everest skydiving and mountain biking as well as international music and film festivals have contributed to lure more foreign tourists.
The NTB said the total number of visitors till October 2008 reached 307, 748 and if the October growth is any indication, by the year-end, it could catch up with the record situation in 1999 - when the country had hosted 421, 000 visitors.
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Tourist in city: Trickle down effect |
According to NTB, India remains the largest tourist-generating market for Nepal, registering a 14 percent growth in October. It has set the trend for South Asia with an overall positive growth of 26.3 percent. In this, Bangladesh and Pakistan registered growth respectively by 73.9 percent and 35.3 percent. Only Sri Lanka showed a decrease of 5.9 percent.
Other Asian countries like Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia and China have maintained the upward trend with 150.4 percent, 53.2, 24.4, 23.2 and 1.6 percent growth respectively. However, Japan witnessed negative growth by 10.9 percent.
Britain, Israel, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and Sweden have also maintained the upward trend as well as the US and Canada. Only Italy and Spain registered decrease in arrival figures by 13.2 percent and 7.5 percent respectively.
Indian tourist arrival has begun to look up after it took the swift and sustained plunge since the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines aircraft on way to New Delhi from Kathmandu.
After the plane hijacking, the royal e massacre in 2001, and the intensification of Maoist insurgency that killed over 13, 000 people pushed Nepal's tourism industry to the verge of collapse.
Three years after the comprehensive peace agreement with Maoists and the elections for CA and formation of government under their leadership, new positive message has gone out to the global tourism market and tourism has restarted to flourish in the country.
Nepal's tourism industry recorded its biggest growth in 2007, making it the most successful in seven years, thanks to the peace process with the Maoists and better air connections, tourism officials said.
'The total number of tourists arriving by air in 2007 was 27.1 percent higher than in 2006; 360, 350 visitors arrived in Nepal through Kathmandu airport, the highest since 2000,' the board said. The figure does not include visitors arriving overland from Tibet and India, but in December, authorities said more than 150, 000 people had crossed overland into Nepal since January.
Although the air fare is still higher in Nepal, the good air connectivity with many destinations along with the operation of nine new international airlines to Nepal in 2007 pushed the growth of tourist arrival.' The major markets of Europe and North America recorded high growth in 2007: 46.8 percent for North America and 38 percent for Europe, the board said.
Arrivals from Asian countries also recorded growth of 49.4 percent with Chinese tourists leading the way with a surge in tourist arrivals of 120.9 percent.
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Domestic Airlines: Good times are here |
Nearly 14, 500 Chinese tourists visited Nepal in 2007, up from 6, 500 in 2006. At a time when Nepal's trade deficits continue to grow, the tourism industry is one of Nepal's biggest foreign exchange earners, bringing in millions of dollars to the impoverished country and providing employment to hundreds of thousands of people.
Thanks to the intensification of insurgency, hundreds of tourism-related businesses and hotels had been closed and hundreds of workers including the porters were unemployed and most of them are now working in the Gulf and Malaysia. As the global recession is definite to reduce the demands for foreign workers, the tourism may support it.
Nepal Tourism Board holds the view that new airlines flying to Nepal and existing airlines' increasing capacities have helped rebound the tourism industry. "Increasing number of flights helped bring about the surge in the number of tourists," said a senior official with Nepal Tourism Board.
Despite the change in political system, the decade of 1990 performed well in terms of overall arrival of tourists. The years 1997, 1998 and 1999 were remarkable in terms of tourist arrival in Nepal. During these three years period, Nepal's tourism sector witnessed 429, 857, 463484 and 491, 498 tourists arrival.
The new airlines like Air Arabia, GMG (Bangladesh), Korean Air, Silk Air, Dragon Air, Hong Kong Express, Orient Thai, China Southern and Etihad Airways have been providing services since April, 2007.
"Many new airlines want to start service in Nepal and existing ones want to increase their flight frequency," said Prachanda Man Shrestha, Chief Executive Officer of Nepal Tourism Board.
Looking at the surge of tourist some entrepreneurs are hoping to see their numbers touch about a million visitors in the year 2009 or 2010.
Had Nepal's own airline, Nepal Airline been equipped with new aircrafts, it could have ensured reliable service; and the arrival would have gone much higher, say officials. However, Nepal Airlines is now flying its service with only two aircrafts.
Meanwhile, as the number of airlines increase, there is also the need to improve physical infrastructures of the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).
Thanks to the growing number of air service, it is virtually overcrowded now.
According to General Manager of the TIA, Mani Raj Upadhyay, not more than five airplanes can land in the TIA at a time. The crowd at day time could be diminished if the airport could be used round the clock.
The upsurge of the tourists has not only crowded the several five star hotels but also the small ones. Only 72 percent of rooms in hotel were occupied last year, but it has stepped up to 82 percent this year, said the Nepal Hotel Association. The HAN said that Nepal has capacity to accommodate over a million tourists.
