Tourism’s cure Reactive not Pro-active

By Navin Singh Khadka

The state-run Nepal Television often telecasts an old footage picturised during the popular movement of 1990 in the country. The visual, shot in the heart of the capital city, has many people running for cover amidst police-shootouts.What draws your attention in the unruly crowd is the sight of few tourists either curiously watching what was going on while other visitors seeking safety.

These are rock-solid proof that tourists did go around in the Capital Valley even during the crisis of the people’s movement magnitude. And it was not just one or two troubled days. The anti-establishment movement had lasted for more than two months. Yet, there were visitors, though less, in the country.

When that was the situation then, why should the travel trade suffer now? Agreed there are many burning problems facing the nation. Topping the list is the fast-spreading Maoists problem across the Kingdom.

Then there have been sensation-creating episodes like the unconfirmed remarks by an Indian actor against Nepal. Consequences: Riots and demonstrations.

Worst of all came the tragic Royal Palace massacre that placed the country in the global news-screen. The curfews and the social unrest that followed were adequate events prompting foreign missions here to warn their citizens planning to visit here. Tourism was, and still is, the immediate casualty.

What marked the genesis of troubles for tourism was the hijacking of an Indian Airlines Airbus that took off from Kathmandu for New Delhi on December 24, 1999. As if it was the first ever hijacking in the world, the Indian national flag carrier abruptly suspended all its inbound flights causing drastic decline in the arrival of Indian tourists.

Travel traders realised how is it when the shoe pinches. After all, Indians constituted more than 30 per cent of the total inbound tourists — recorded at around 500,000 in 2000.

In the meantime, news of Maoist-police encounters — resulting into many deaths — in several parts of the country kept on trickling in. Unfortunately, some of these places happened to host popular trekking routes.

Worst of all came the Royal Massacre on June 1 earlier this year that placed the country in the global news screen. The curfews and the social unrest that followed prompted foreign missions here to warn their citizens planning to visit here. Tourism was, and still is, the immediate victim.

The Japanese Government, for instance, had in June issued a travel advisory alerting its people planning to spend their holidays in Nepal. The notice remained valid for almost one month. Soon after the notice came out, travel agents received series of cancellations from their Japanese clients.

"We have had complaints from many travel agents who said that the packages reserved by the Japanese clients were cancelled," said an official at Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), a government-private sector partnership with responsibility to market Nepal in the world as a tourist destination.

According to travel agents, travel advisories of different countries alerting their public all-set to visit the country have had widespread effect in different markets. "Our clients from Europe, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, among others, said that their tour operators are not providing them the travel insurance due to such travel advisories," said Bhola Thapa, President of Nepal Association of Travel Agents (NATA). "The insurance providers were quite alarmed and that resulted into massive cancellations of the tourists’ trips."

In most of these afore-mentioned crises, the authorities most of the time chose to react only when things went wrong. Or, say, only when the outsiders pressed the alarm. In short, the officialdom became reactive instead of becoming pro-active.

A senior official at the Foreign Ministry said that most of the missions are yet to be properly mobilised for the long over due "damage control." "Most of these missions are yet to be made pro-active especially for foreign investment and tourism."

One fact such pro-activism could cash on is that the "people’s war" waging Maoists have never specified that they would not like to see tourists even in their flash-points. Or else, Eric Velli, a noted French film maker, would never have been able to shoot the Oscar-nominated Caravan in Upper Dolpa — that has its lowlands well under the Maoists’ influence.

Recently, another French film-maker arrived in Lower Dolpa and his big team was proceeding toward upper Dolpa for picturising project.

Striking message: Tourism can exist even in such "troubled" areas. The only thing that needs to be done is that wannabe visitors need to be convinced. And this is where the officialdom’s pro-active role becomes crucial.

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