By Purushottam P. Khatri
Kathmandu, Aug. 4: At a time when the coronavirus infections are resurging globally, passengers from abroad have been reaching their destinations directly without following compulsory provision of staying in hotel quarantine. Although the government has made it mandatory for unvaccinated passengers to stay in quarantine, they have been avoiding the provision due to lack of monitoring.
As per the government criteria, those who have returned from foreign employment and students visas have to stay in hotel quarantine for at least five days.
Apart from that, it has become mandatory for Nepali citizens or foreigners returning from other countries to stay in the hotel quarantine.
International airlines have been asking for proof of hotel booking prior to ticket booking. But hoteliers have complained that many passengers booking hotels online do not reach and stay there.
The Department of Tourism (DoT) has given permission to run hotel quarantines to 134 hotels, out of which 35 are star-level hotels and 99 are tourist-standards hotels, Khem Raj Joshi, section officer at the Department said.
Some airlines, in collaboration with the hotels, used to bring the passengers by adding the hotel charge to the air ticket.
After they were criticised for cheating passengers, many airlines started carrying passengers showing the proof of hotel booking.
Karisma Shrestha, spokesperson for Nepal Airlines, said that the airlines in the initial days had charged the hotel fee along with the air ticket, but lately this had stopped following the passengers’ complaints.
“We are now bringing only those passengers bearing hotel booking certificates,” Shrestha told The Rising Nepal. “Whether they go to their booked hotel or directly to home, we are clueless.”
Hoteliers, however, say that even though the airlines bring passengers on the basis of hotel bookings, later they cancel their bookings and go to their destinations.
“There are a lot of people booking hotels online as the airlines will not pick up passengers until they book a hotel,” said Binayak Shah, first Vice-president of the Hotel Association of Nepal and owner and managing director of Hotel Airport.
“There is a facility to book hotel online from outside. You don’t have to pay for booking,” Shah said, adding, “The government’s order has neither been complied nor monitored.”
However, COVID-19 Crisis Management Centre (CCMC) has claimed that international passengers have been staying in hotel quarantines.
“You cannot come to Nepal without booking a hotel. “We have made it mandatory for the passengers to go to the hotel directly from the airport,” said Nurhari Khatiwada, Joint Secretary and spokesperson for the Centre. Hotel quarantine is not compulsory to those who have been vaccinated fully, he said.
He claimed that the DoT would also check to monitor if foreign passengers are staying in hotel quarantines.
“One or two people may not have stayed in the hotel. But Many hotels are already booked. The CCMC can only take action if someone lodges a complaint,” said Khatiwada