Need To Tap Tourism Potential

As per the data made available by the Nepal Tourism Board, a little over one million (1,014876) foreign tourists visited Nepal in 2023. The officials concerned have expressed happiness that the tourism sector is gradually picking up the rhythm it lost owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. They maintain that the country has recovered around 85 per cent of the pre-pandemic figure (2019). The 2023 figure is lower than the pre-pandemic figures of 2018 and 2019. In 2018, the county welcomed 1.17 million tourists, which jumped slightly to 1.19 million in 2019. This is the third time the country has hit the one million mark in the tourism sector. The country was preparing to celebrate the Visit Nepal 2020 campaign when the COVID-19 struck the country along with the rest of the world. With this, the campaign had to be reluctantly revoked.

The COVID-19 pandemic had far-reaching repercussions on the tourism and other sectors. The repercussions have not completely come to an end. Travel restrictions and lockdowns imposed during the COVID-19 years were major blows to the economy. As a result, the country could welcome just 230,085 tourists in 2020, 150,962 in 2021 and 614,869 in 2022. Compared to these figures, the figure for 2023 is encouraging but it is not enough. The country has never been able to welcome even 1.2 million tourists although the country has innumerable attractions to offer to tourists.    

Attractions

As per the statistics of 2017, most of the tourists visit the country to observe pilgrimage and heritage sites (70.3 per cent). Pleasure-seeking tourists constitute 34.5 per cent, followed by mountaineering and trekking tourists (13.1 per cent) and others who visit the country for official purposes, conferences or on business (18.0 per cent). 

One of the factors contributing to a surge in tourist arrivals in 2023 is the re-opening of the Nepal-China border, increased flight movement from China and record arrivals from India. In March 2023, the Chinese government allowed its citizens to travel to Nepal after a hiatus of three years. Since March 15, the Chinese government has allowed its national travel agencies and online companies to resume, on a pilot basis, outbound group tours for Chinese people to some countries, including Nepal. 

In 2023, Indian tourists topped the chart of tourist arrivals, followed by US and Chinese tourists. It may be mentioned that in 2023, Tibetan authorities did not allow around 50 Indian pilgrims who had already booked the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra programme to visit Mansarovar. Frustrated at not being able to visit the pilgrimage site, they instead visited Muktinath and Lumbini, two of the famous pilgrimate sites in the country, on the same package.

The COVID-19 pandemic has subsided now, although the threat has not been completely eliminated. The emergence of a JN.1 sub-variant of the Omicron variant in India and elsewhere has alarmed the health officials to some extent. They have urged the people to be alert and follow the COVID-19 safety protocols. The said sub-variant is highly transmissible.  

It need not be reiterated that the country has good prospects for growth in the tourism business. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have also predicted that there will be robust growth in tourism activities and the economy of the country will pick up momentum. There is no gainsaying that the country is rich in attractions to be offered to tourists. But what matters is how to manage such touristic attractions and how to explore new destinations. There are 15 national and wildlife parks, two of them being world heritage sites. There is the Asiatic rhinoceros (one-horned rhino) and the Royal Bengal tiger. Eight out of 10 the highest mountains in the world are located in the country. Besides, the country is endowed with topographical attractions, historical or cultural sites, socio-cultural traditions, practices, customs or rituals and many more. The country is a paradise for trekkers, mountaineers and rock climbers. The country is a Mecca for adventure tourists and eco-tourists. Mount Everest and Lumbini are famous all over the world. 

Tourism could be an effective tool for earning foreign currency. It could generate employment opportunities within the country. The current trend of migrating to foreign countries for employment could be mitigated to a great extent with an increase in job opportunities. Tourism could also be a means of alleviating poverty by developing the rural economy. In fact, it leaves much to be desired when it comes to promoting the tourism sector. The officials concerned seem to be complacent with the annual one million target. 

Three international airports – Pokhara, Bhairahawa and Gautam Buddha international airports – have come into operation. The Bhairahawa International Airport is a gateway to Lumbini, while the Pokhara International Airport is a pylon to Annapurna, a popular destination for trekkers. These airports could help in increasing the inflow of tourists to the country but these airports have not been able to perform up to the mark. Some people have even raised questions over why these airports were constructed. There could be geopolitical factors behind the sorry state of these airports, especially with India. On the other hand, the proposed construction of the Nijgadh airport has been on the backburner owing to factors like the need for felling a large number of trees.

Infrastructure 

There is no denying the fact that infrastructure is the key to promoting the tourism sector. When it comes to infrastructure development, the progress achieved so far is far from satisfactory. It seems infrastructure development is not the priority of any governments, whether federal, state or local. Travel vlogs uploaded to YouTube show that travellers have to travel along dust roads to reach a site of touristic attraction such as a pilgrimage site or a historical site. When the local units were being looked after by the government employees before the 2074 BS local elections, it was alleged that lack of people’s representatives had hindered local development. Now, the local elections have since been held twice but local development, especially in terms of infrastructure development, is yet to take off satisfactorily. 

The government should, therefore, realise the potential of tourism and embark upon effective measures to promote the tourism sector by emphasising infrastructure development. In 2023, Thailand welcomed over 27 million tourists. The country cannot achieve such a figure at one go but there is no reason why the country cannot attract more and more tourists in the years ahead. 

(Maharjan has been regularly writing on contemporary issues for this daily since 2000.)