With the lifting of most of the restrictions imposed to control the spread of COVID-19, people are adapting to new normal. The business sector that was hit hard by the extended lockdown and prohibitory order is trying to return to the pre-pandemic phase. Nonetheless, the country is not still out of the woods. The national and international health authorities have warned of the possible resurgence of the third wave of the virus as it is undergoing continuous mutation. They have asked for not ignoring health protocols as the number of virus cases are now increasing after it drastically went down some weeks back. On the one hand, there is the need for maintaining all necessary health precautions against the virus, and on the other it has become imperative to gradually open the businesses, transport, industries, tourism and other sectors which stimulate the economy and provide employment to the people.

There are some sectors which require effective policy intervention and financial support. Mere normalisation won’t help the areas like tourism that was buffeted to the hilt during the pandemic. Tourism that includes a wide range of economic activities and occupations has the investment totalling about Rs. 1,500 billion. In Nepal, it directly employs about 400,000 people, with more than a million indirectly benefiting from it. But COVID-19 brought a catastrophe to tourism, a reliable source of foreign currencies. It has been estimated that around 200,000 tourism workers have lost their jobs owing to the lockdown. It also incurred a loss of Rs. 71 billion in the Fiscal Year 2019/20, resulting in the negative sectorial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 16 per cent, according to the news report of this daily. Now only 10 per cent of the workers in the hotel sector have returned to their work.

Bearing in mind the importance of tourism in the overall economy, the government has already rolled out an array of programmes and packages to breathe new life into the moribund sector. The current fiscal year’s budget has introduced ‘free visa’ for foreign tourists for a month and 10-day paid tourism leave for government employees. But these schemes are yet to be implemented. The immigration offices are yet to send circular regarding the ‘free visa’ offer so that foreign tourists are informed about it. Likewise, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has not formulated the procedures for the paid tourism leave. The apathy in the implementation of the announced programmes and packages reveals lack of coordination between concerned line agencies to this end.

Tourism entrepreneurs are struggling to meet the operational costs of their business in the form of taxes, employees’ salary, house rent and bank interests. They have not been able to make any income in the last one-and-a-half years. The growing economic loss has greatly dented their confidence that is the key to revitalising the industry. Entrepreneurs have urged the government to provide concessional and business continuation loans to the large enterprises, financial support and continuation loans to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and monetary support to the employees and workers to boost confidence of the sector. They have called for making the past one-and-a-half years as a zero hour and waiving off all renewal fees, taxes and penalties. The government should address the burning concerns of the tourism sector in earnest so that the economic recovery will pick up pace.