Barely a month after launching the ambitious “brand Nepal” campaign, tourism industry has been hit hard thanks to the prolonged strike and curfew
By Pratibedan Baidya
The general strike called by seven political parties that entered on 19th day on Monday and the daytime curfew imposed by the government to thwart the on-going pro-democracy movement has adversely affected the ailing tourism industry of the county.
The tourism industry, already facing hardships due to prolonged political impasse and the decade-old Maoist insurgency, has further deteriorated with the general strike called by major opposition political parties since early this month.
Tourists in Thamel : Feeling safe?
Tourists in Thamel (File Photo)
With the political unrest continuing and countries advising their citizens against traveling to Nepal, tourism industry is bound to face negative consequences both in the short as well as long term, according to entrepreneurs.
The foreign countries have been issuing strict travel advisories to their citizens not to travel to the Himalayan Kingdom citing political unrest of the country. The atrocities of the security forces against tourists who came out in support of the pro-democracy movement have only added to spread negative message towards Nepal.
Talking to Nepalnews, Sajan Shakya, proprietor of Marcopolo business hotel, a leading business hotel of the country and director of the Club Himalayan, a popular resort based at Nagarkot, said the number of tourists arriving Nepal has gone down drastically in recent days.
“Not only individual tourists, but various projects have also been cancelled in recent days thanks to the recent political situation,” he added.
He informed that many tourists are canceling their trips and also curtailing their stay in Nepal as they were compelled to limit themselves within the rooms of their hotel due to the popular uprising.
The Club Himalayan Resort, which remained a centre of attractions till a few weeks ago, bore a deserted look this week. Only half a dozen rooms are occupied, said Shrestha.
He informed that the negative publicity about the situation of the country is also affecting the tourism industry hard.
According to the Ministry of culture, tourism and civil aviation, there was an increment of 14 percent in the arrival of tourists to Nepal by air in January this year, which rose to impressive 27 per cent in the month of March.
Continued political turmoil and Maoist violence continue to take their toll on country’s tourism industry. Officials say a total of 278,000 tourists visited Nepal by air in the year 2005—nearly 4 percent less than those who visited Nepal in the previous year (2004).
Despite agencies like Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) trying to promote Nepal as a safe tourist destination, tourists who had confirmed their visit earlier have begun to cancel their travel due to the political unrest in the country.
Nepal continues to hit headlines in world media including BBC and the CNN—but for the wrong reasons.
Talking to Nepalnews, Chief Executive Officer of Nepal Tourism Board, Tek Bahadur Dangi, however, tried to put up a brave face saying that the decline in the arrival of tourists in recent days will turn out to be a temporary event and will not affect the tourism industry in the long run.
He informed that the NTB was working to reduce the inconvenience to the tourists and operating shuttle bus services to facilitate their travel even during the strike and curfew hours.
“The crisis management team of NTB, with the help of Tourist Police, is working round-the-clock for reducing the inconvenience to the tourists,” said Dangi. He expressed hope that tourist arrival will increase after the situation returns to normalcy.
Tourism sector contributes nearly 2 percent to the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country. If the revenue generated from Indian tourist is included, it would be more than 2 percent of the GDP, according to the NTB.
Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh and US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.
File Photo
As the situation in Nepal remains volatile, foreign governments continue to advise their citizens to leave Nepal at the earliest. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) of the United Kingdom has urged any British tourists remaining in the Himalayan kingdom to contact the embassy as a matter of urgency saying Nepal (could) descend into bloody insurrection.
“There’s complete unrest in Nepal at the moment and anything could happen. Anyone with friends or relations currently on holiday there should contact them if possible and tell them to get in touch with the embassy,” the FCO said.
The Sunday Times, a leading newspaper of Britain quoted Anita Benson from Newmarket as saying, “We’ve been warned even tourists can be shot on sight. Police are stopping people traveling in cars and even if I could get to the airport every flight is fully booked with people fleeing the country.”
On Monday, China asked Chinese tourists to leave Nepal quickly and urged its citizens living in Nepal to take care of their personal safety.
The US government has asked all non-emergency U.S. mission personnel and dependents in Kathmandu to depart Nepal citing ongoing violence, curfews, and widespread insecurity in the kingdom. The Consular Section and American Center Library remain closed since April 12.
Thamel area, the main tourist hub in the capital, looked deserted as the tourism entrepreneurs stalled their work expressing solidarity to the pro-democracy movement of the country. A number of tourism entrepreneurs including former president of the Trekking Agents Association of Nepal, Dipak Mahat, have been put behind bars for demonstrating demanding restoration of democracy in the country.
Despite current turmoil, Nepal Tourism Board came up with a new tourism brand with the slogan ‘Naturally Nepal, once is not enough’ in March this year to revive the ailing tourism industry.
Rahul Sen and Arun Anand, Brand Consultants, Alchemy, said the new brand was needed to “repackage the diverse, existing product offerings, increase the number of tourists visiting Nepal, increase the revenues and profits of the Nepal Tourist Board, align NTB’s stakeholders and the Nepali tourism industry to a common future and define branding guidelines and investment vehicles for building a low-cost international consumer brand in the very competitive tourism industry.”
The brand, that aims at repositioning Nepal’s image in the international tourism market, incorporates a strategy to attract additional 300,000 tourists in Nepal in a year by making around Rs 100 million investments in tourism promotional campaigns.
But, with the on-going political unrest and high-handed measures employed by the royal government to suppress pro-democracy demonstrations, Nepal’s tourism has sustained a severe blow which will take several months, if not years, to recover.