BMD

As Nepal has seen a drop in new COVID-19 cases, the country has reopened regular international flights to limited destinations like Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE), South Korea and Japan since June 24. It has also decided to allow domestic airlines to operate 50 per cent of their scheduled flights from July 1.
The carriers, however, are required to strictly abide by all the health safety protocols unveiled earlier by the government.
Domestic as well as international flights were suspended from the first week of May with restrictions imposed to contain second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government has permitted Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) and Qatar Airways to operate two flights each a week on Kathmandu-Doha route. It has allowed four flights each a week on Kathmandu-Kuala Lumpur, Kathmandu-Istanbul, Kathmandu-Dammam and Kathmandu-Kuwait sectors. In addition, one more flight has been allowed to operate between Kathmandu and New Delhi. On May 28, the government had given permission to concerned airlines to operate once-a-week flights to China, Qatar and Turkey. All international flights, except two flights a week between Kathmandu and New Delhi, had been suspended to rein in the contagion.
The resumption of these flights has created some rays of hope among all the tourism stakeholders in Nepal that the fragile tourism industry may start reviving from the upcoming autumn. Global tourism has hit a snag since the beginning of 2020 due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Tourism in Nepal has not been an exception. The lingering virus disease has become a big setback for tourism that is an important vehicle for generating foreign exchange and jobs.
In terms of employment, tourism is the fourth largest industry after the wholesale and retail trade (accounting for 30.6 per cent of the total employment), followed by education (15.9 per cent) and manufacturing sector (15.8 per cent). A fresh analytical study conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics indicates that the tourism industry provides some 371,140 jobs. The figure represents 11.5 per cent of all the human resources involved in all the industries across the country.
In the meantime, international tourist arrivals were down by 83 per cent in the first quarter of 2021 with widespread travel restrictions in place. Despite such a gloomy scenario, the UNWTO Confidence Index indicates some signs of a slow uptick in confidence. The global tourism body states that, between January and March 2021, destinations around the world welcomed 180 million fewer international arrivals as compared to the same period last year.
With a 94 per cent fall in international arrivals over the three-month period, Asia and the Pacific continued to suffer the lowest levels of tourism activity. Similarly, Europe witnessed the second largest decline with -83 per cent, followed by Africa (-81 per cent), the Middle East (-78 per cent) and the Americas (-71 per cent). In 2020, international tourist arrivals fell by 73 per cent.
Meanwhile, the latest surveys of the UNWTO Panel of Tourism Experts show prospects for the May-August period improving slightly. The vaccination drive has been intensified in some major tourist source markets and they have come up with policies to restart tourism safely. These have raised hopes for a rebound of tourism in some of such markets. However, looking at the global scenario, the global tourism is unlikely to return to 2019 levels before 2024.
For our tourism to revive, Nepal also needs to carry out vaccination against COVID-19 as early as possible. This will not only ensure health safety of Nepalis but also help take potential international travellers into confidence.