Ten leading travel trade organisations have expressed serious concern over increasing extortions and politicisation of the business sector through trade unions.
Talking to Nepalnews Tuesday, president of Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) Prakash Shrestha said tourism sector has been hard-hit by extortions and political activities after the restoration of democracy in the country.
“We expected economic revolution just the way there was political revolution, but the new government turned deaf ear to repeated appeals of the private sector tourism organisations to stop the chaotic situation prevailing in the industry,” he said and added that the political parties had also failed to take note of their concerns.
The Maoists went on a donation drive and started formatting trade unions in tourism-related organisations after they came in the open after the success of Jana Andolan-II. There have been media reports of Maoist cadres sneaking to hotels and ask for big amounts as donation.
Economic Department chief of the CPN (Maoist), Dev Gurung, addressing a meeting of the hoteliers’ recently had said the party would direct the cadres to stop extortions. Extortion goes unabated, however.
Chairman of Himalayan Rescue Association Bikram Neupane said extortion is not only limited to major hotels in Kathmandu but tourists and tourist guides have been asked for donations along the trekking routes.
Shrestha further said, “We are not against the formation of unions but they must remain within the boundary of labour laws. Their demands must reflect the rights of labourers, not that of political parties.”
Last week, hotel employees abruptly halted services and took to the streets when the rumours of arms being ferried to Kathmandu spread. Other tourism organisations also faced similar condition.
“This is sheer politicisation. Ferrying arms has no relations with rights of labourers. Since tourism industry is very sensitive service sector, employees should maintain restraint on such matters,” Shrestha added.
Already a dozen hotels have been closed down and the number of travel trade organisation meeting such a fate is quite big.
The Nepal Tourism Board has stated that tourism arrival by air last month decreased by around 12 percent as compared to same period last year.
In a public statement on Tuesday, leading travel trade organisations warned that if such atrocities continued and government and the parties did not take initiatives to address these problems, this would lead the industry to collapse.
According to the HAN president, the hoteliers would have little option than to close down their businesses if the situation did not improve.