Fees levied on trekkers make entrepreneurs unhappy

By Santosh Subedi,Kaski, Nov. 4:Tourism entrepreneurs are dissatisfied with the Machhapuchhre Rural Municipality’s decision to charge tourists who come here for trekking. 

Following up on the proposal passed by its rural municipal assembly in June, the local level recently announced that foreign tourists would have to pay Rs. 500 and domestic tourists would have to pay Rs. 100 to trek in places inside the rural municipality. 

“The rural municipality will levy a tourism service charge to develop infrastructure, set up information centres, install solar lights, manage garbage and provide other facilities along its foot trails for the convenience of the tourists,” the notice the local government issued read.

Machhapuchhre plans to levy these charges on trekkers coming to the low camp of the Model Trek (Mardi Trek) and Luburak of the Khumai Danda-Korchang Great Machhapuchchhre Trek in the first phase. These charges will be imposed under the rural municipality’s Fiscal Act of 2023 and will come into effect from next week.

But Raj Kumar Tamang, president of the Mardi Trek Tourism Management Committee, said that the move would obliterate the region’s tourism business. 

\He complained that the local government had not consulted with professionals working in the tourism sector and worried that the imposition of charges would affect tourist arrival. He also questioned the need for the rural municipality to collect money for lights and waste management and claimed that the businesses themselves had been repairing trails and building needed infrastructure.

The Gandaki provincial branch of the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN) also issued a statement worrying that the decision would make the trekking process needlessly complicated and entangle tourists in bureaucracy. 

“Just as this sector begins to recover from the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, rules and laws that complicate processes for tourists will push them away and affect tourism in Gandaki Province,” the statement read.

The Association called for the implementation of a single-door system to simplify procedures and collect tourism-related fees. 

“This will boost tourist numbers and help Nepal maintain a positive image,” it stated.

Ram Bahadur Gurung, chairman of Machhapuchhre’s Ward No. 8, however, expressed anger at TAAN’s statement. 

He voiced his displeasure with the Association on social media. “What has come from the money collected so far? Wasting the money raised [so far] on meetings, seminars and foreign trips and then releasing statements like this when we seek [to use the revenue] to build information centres, trails, public toilets and weather stations and ensure trekker security with modern systems and data-keeping mechanisms,” he boomed. 

“If you can, release the details of the revenue spent so far transparently,” he challenged.

Tourists wishing to trek in Nepal already have to pay Rs 2,000, or Rs. 1,000 if they belong to a member nation of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), for the Trekkers’ Information Management Systems (TIMS). This charge is jointly imposed by the Department of Tourism, Nepal Tourism Board and TAAN. The rural municipality’s charge would be an addition to this.