By Shanta Adhikari
Sauraha, Nov. 27: Hotels in Sauraha, Chitwan, one of the major tourist destinations in Nepal, have been fully occupied for the past few days, thanks to fall in COVID-19 cases and the 10th National Congress of the CPN-UML.

With the dive in the COVID-19 infection rate, tourists started flocking in Sauraha immediately after Dashain and Tihar festivals. The riverside pops are open all night long. The streets are equally crowded day and night.

According to Suman Ghimire, the outgoing president of the Regional Hotel Association, Sauraha, there is a crowd of domestic tourists since Dashain and Tihar, but no foreign tourists are found visiting in Sauraha. “We are yet to receive international tourists but domestic tourists are flooding the hotels and parks in Sauraha these days,” he added. Although the number of tourist arrivals in Sauraha has skyrocketed at the time of the CPN-UML National Congress when the number of domestic tourists is still increasing, it cannot be said that there will be any significant improvement in tourism business in Sauraha until the arrival of foreign tourists, he said.

Ramesh Silwal, Manager of Hotel Jungle Vista in Sauraha, said that he paid the bank instalment by selling his ancestral property when the business went bust due to COVID-19. He said, “Tourist arrivals were halted. I was struggling to pay interest and instalments, staff and even the expenses of the elephant.” Now I can breathe a sigh of relief that domestic tourists are flocking to Sauraha,” he added.

Since Dashain, there is some hope in the tourism business. Entrepreneurs are excited as various programmes have been organized focusing on Sauraha. “Earnings for elephants and hotel room bookings have been good in the last two months,” he said.

Rishi Tiwari, chairman of the United Elephant Cooperative and a hotelier, said that the elephant keepers who have been unable to feed elephants for the past two years are now relieved. Due to the CPN-UML General Convention, Sauraha has returned to normalcy.

Before the pandemic, the private sector had 45 elephants in Sauraha, but now their number has declined to 33. Tiwari claims that elephant riding is an important part of Sauraha's tourism.