Take Measures To Stimulate Growth

In view of its role in making foreign exchange, creating jobs and supporting numerous other sectors, the tourism industry is considered a vital part of Nepal’s national economy. It is undoubtedly the second biggest sector to contribute to earning foreign currency for the nation after the foreign employment. Having realised this importance, every successive government seems to have laid much focus on this multifaceted industry. Despite this, the country’s tourism has not boomed as anticipated. Various internal and external factors ranging from policy instability, and negligence on the part of the responsible bodies and authorities to boost this sector to the ongoing global economic slump and wars between nations, including the persisting Ukraine-Russia war have posed as hurdles.

Since the outbreak of this war in late February 2022, Nepal has witnessed a remarkable drop in the number of Russian tourists. The Hamas-Israel conflict has also caused ripple effects on neighbouring destinations. Before the start of COVID-19, Nepal also used to welcome thousands of Israeli travellers annually. Now their numbers are quite insignificant. The war has dried out travel demand to Israel as well. Since such wars have affected the global supply chain in one way or the other, prices of goods and services have risen considerably, making tour packages more expensive than ever before. 

Budget for tourism

Even amid this backdrop, the Nepal government has come up with a plan to stimulate tourism growth. In its recently unveiled annual budget, the government aims to bring in 1.6 million foreign tourists in the upcoming fiscal year 2024/25. The government has set aside about Rs. 12 billion for the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation.  

In 2023, the country was able to host more than 1 million international visitors. As the arrival figures nearly exceeded the target, the government appears to have been inspired to attract more tourists. But this ambitious target is unlikely to be achieved if the two new international airports — Gautam Buddha International Airport in Lumbini and Pokhara Regional International Airport — do not come into operation in full swing as the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) has already become quite congested. Hotel beds are said to have been adequate for about 3.5 million tourists. The hotel sector has witnessed massive investment in recent years.   

The nation’s tourism business had begun showing signs of recovery since the beginning of 2022 following COVID-19. As a global public health crisis, the pandemic had caused an unprecedented damage to the economic sector worldwide. Being a very sensitive sector, tourism had suffered a great setback, with the movement of international tourists falling at an alarming level in 2020 and 2021. To meet the target, the government intends to work towards developing Nepal as an alluring tourist destination. It plans to carry out a variety of programmes, including road shows in tourist generating countries, to lure more tourists from different parts of the world. It also plans to concentrate its efforts on building tourism infrastructures and identify new tourist spots and destinations. 

The country receives a large chunk of repeat visitors every year. Such tourists naturally want to experience new products and destinations. The government now plans to create profiles of the established as well as freshly-explored destinations in order to promote them in major tourist source markets. Over the past couple of years, many more new places have been identified and developed for tourists to visit. But owing to a lack of better roads and other necessary infrastructures, tourism has not been diversified successfully.

In addition, the government is also going to facilitate tourists by delivering services to them through a one-window system. It plans to digitise the mountaineering permit system in order to ease the process of issuing permit. Mountaineering has been an important adventure tourism activities in Nepal as the nation is home to hundreds of peaks, including eight of 14 peaks above 8,000 metres. A lot of mountaineers from across the globe come to the country to attempt various peaks every year. They contribute a huge amount of money as a royalty fee to the state coffer. Another advantage of mountaineering is that it creates jobs, though seasonal, for many people. What is more notable is that mountaineering and trekking activities support the rural economy as adventurers spend several weeks in remote areas.       

The government plans to develop different circuits and trails for tourists. It will also build necessary infrastructure along the Great Himalayan Trail (GHT), Mundhum Trail and Guerrilla Trail in order to encourage more tourists to visit there.  It also intends to set up tourist rescue centres in possible risky areas. With the availability of this kind of service, more adventure seekers are expected to make their trips to such areas. The government aims to lease public lands to the private sector for opening hotels and resorts in potential tourist destinations in order to increase tourism activities there. Arrangements have been made for forging cooperation between the local and provincial governments to provide basic facilities like roadways, electricity and water to hotels to be established in such areas. 

 Cultural diversity

As Nepal is well-known for her cultural diversity and religious harmony, many tourists who are interested in culture and spiritualism come to the country.  Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha, Pashupatinath, Muktinath, Swargadwari and number of other religious sites see a large number of pilgrims annually. If these sites are managed and promoted well, they are sure to lure many more visitors in the days to come. 

Considering the fact that many foreigners, especially Indians, want to get their nuptial knots tied in religious places like Janakpur, the government is developing the Ram-Janaki Temple as a wedding hub. Similarly, Lumbini is going to be developed as a birthing hub as well. If the budget is implemented effectively, it may help bring about some tangible changes in the tourism sector. The government must ensure that the budget is not limited only to documents to yield better outcomes. 

(The author is a former deputy executive editor of this daily.)