Tourism in Nepal
As we know that Nepal is the south asian small landlocked country situated between two large nations India and China. The word In Tibetan, ne means "wool" and pal means "house". Thus, Nepal is "house of wool". The Newar people, who inhabit the Kathmandu Valley, have the word nepa in their Nepal Bhasa language, meaning "country of the middle zone". Nepal may have been derived from this. The country is nestled among the world’s highest mountains, the Himalayas,and the world’s highest summit, Mt. Everest. The people, the diverse cultures, the majestic grandeur of the sacred Himalayas and the “Shangri-la” mysticism have lured visitors from all corners of the globe. A majority of the international .tourists come to Nepal for holiday/pleasure, trekking and mountaineering, pre-dominantly during the tourist season ranging from October to May. Touristtravel occurs within the Kathmandu valley (the international air entry pointand the capital city), but the greater part takes place outside the capital at cer-tain destinations, especially at select few protected areas. During the past thirty years, Nepal has experienced an unprecedented growth in tourist arrivals from approximately 6,000 in 1962 to almost 500,000 arrivals, and contributes to 20% of the total foreign exchange (Ministry of Culture,
Tourism and Civil Aviation, 2001). However, this influx is steadily decreasing due to the recentheightened political instability and the war on terrorism within the country, the
region and beyond.
Tourism is very important to Nepal and is a key industry; so much so that to
some extent it represents the third most prominent religion in Nepal after Hindu-
ism and Buddhism. Given the increase in international visitors, the potential to
expand this sector to generate more income, employment and other benefits is
enormous, considering the low level of tourism development in the country. Due
to the economic significance of badly needed foreign exchange, the govern-
ment’s tourism philosophy is to increase tourist arrivals, and subsequently hopes
to generate more income, employment, and tax revenues. However, tourism
growth is dependent on a number of factors such as development and improve-
ment of infrastructure, information, facilities, access, transportation options,
safety and security (Goeldner, Ritchie, and McIntosh, 2000), which are all
needed in the case of Nepal. Additionally, tourist demand is subject to change
from unpredictable internal and external influences, notably political instability
and international conflict (Hall and O’Sullivan, 1996; Richter, 1992), which has
consequently hindered the pace of arrivals in the country.
In light of the current state of the world with respect to the U.S.-led war on
terrorism, the Indian sub-continent region and the surrounding areas have
borne the brunt of a negative publicity campaign among potential tourists from
the west. Vivid imagery of the insurgency in the war-affected section of Af-
ghanistan as well as military buildups among the neighboring “nuclear power”
countries (India and Pakistan) has had an adverse impact on tourism in the sur-
rounding region. Nepal, a small land locked kingdom between India and China
has felt the negative effect as demonstrated by the rapid decline in tourism.
Visitor arrivals have decreased at an average of about 40% during the peak
season, which has had a major ripple effect on the total economy (Nepal Tour-
ism Board, 2002.
Since the early 1960s, visitors have frequented the
country with influx from all corners of the globe. During 1966-1970, a growth
rate of 266% was experienced which was followed by 95% growth between
1970-1974. Throughout the period between 1962-2001, there has been a posi-
tive growth rate in arrivals except in 1984 ( 2%), 1989 ( 10%), 1993 ( 12%),
2000 ( 6%) and 2001 ( 22%), which were largely the results of political in-
stability in the country (see Table 1).
The distribution of tourists in Nepal has been skewed towards Indians (In-
dia) who represent almost 33% of the arrivals, followed by Western European,
North American and Japanese markets (Ministry of Culture, Tourism and
Civil Aviation, 2001). The Southeast Asian market has been rapidly increasing
in percentage terms as tourists in these markets have increased their disposable
income, and also there has been more interest in leisure and outdoor recreation.
Additionally, tourists from Southeast Asia are attracted to Nepal due to Bud-
dhism, as the city of Lumbini is the birth site of Lord Buddha. Since tourism is
seasonal, the Indian market plays an important role as Indian tourists primarily
visit during May and June, which compensates for the seasonal decline from
other countries. Nepal is a long-haul destination from the major tourist gener-
ating regions and it is not surprising to note that the average length of stay has
been 11.5 nights with 86% of all visitors coming via air and 14% by land (Min-
istry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, 2001).
Besides the famed mountaineering, trekking in the Himalayas still ranks as
the major reason to visit as indicated by 43% of all visitors (Nepal Tourism
Board, 2001a). Almost all trekking occurs in four popular protected areas:
Royal Chitwan National Park (home of the one-horned rhinoceroses as well as
the first National Park, established in 1973); Sagarmatha National Park (home
of Mt. Everest and the indigenous Sherpa people); Langtang National Park;
and Annapurna Conservation Project Area which includes the Upper Mustang
Conservation Area. Although visits to protected areas (18% of Nepal is under
protected status) have been increasing at an annual rate of 15%, other types of
attractions have also gained widespread popularity, namely white-water raft-
ing and wildlife viewing (Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation,
2001; Nepal Tourism Board, 2001a). Additionally, seven sites within the
Kathmandu valley, the birth site of Lord Buddha in Lumbini and two natural
areas (Royal Chitwan and Sagarmatha National Parks) have been designated
as World Heritage Sites (Nepal Tourism Board, 2001a), which has an added
appeal for tourists and the specialized Cultural and Heritage tourists’ market
segments.
The increase in tourist arrivals and consequent increase in foreign exchange
earnings has created a tourism dependent economy.
In addition, The Nepal Tourism Board officially launched “Destination Ne-
pal Campaign 2002-2003” in January 2002, with two basic objectives: (1) to
generate considerable tourism awareness domestically, and (2) to embark on
effective international tourism promotion and market repositioning strategy to
instill an image of Nepal as a reliable, safe and attractive destination (Nepal
Tourism Board, 2002c). The campaign was promoted to coincide with the
United Nations’ international declarations, such as International Year of the
Mountains 2002 and International Year of Ecotourism 2002. Mountain re-
gions, tourism and ecotourism opportunities are in abundance in Nepal and
thus made for a logical strategic choice and effort to promote the country.
Due to the economic importance and significance of tourism, the Tourism
Board along with the government has been proactive with respect to re-creat-
ing and repositioning a favorable image of Nepal as a vacation destination, de-
spite the undulations of political instability within the country, the region and
beyond. However, notwithstanding the various promotional activities spear-
headed by the Tourism Board, there appears to be a cloud of pessimism among
the tourism supply sectors with respect to any potential success. Since the cre-
ation of the Nepal Tourism Board, the various segments of the tourism indus-
try have yet to fully embrace the organization and its initiatives. There appears
to be disengagement between the Board and the industry that it represents
which essentially has led to a lack of a cooperative effort. The Board and the
tourism industry should come to a unified effort to promote the country as Ne-
pal as synonymous with trekking and mountaineering in the Himalayas, and an
unique and invaluable product as known to potential and repeat visitors. For
example, based on a survey among international travelers (about 1,600) that
had collectively visited 180 countries, Nepal was voted as the second best
country to visit behind New Zealand in the Wanderlust (UK based travel mag-
azine) Travel Awards 2001 (Nepal Tourism Board, 2002b).
In conclusion Nepal is one and only landlocked country rich in water resources as well as having higher potential of electricity due to availability of fast flowing rivers and so on. As we all scenario of Nepal
lots of mountains, rivers , brooklets ,lake water falls, national parks , wildlife reserve's, hunting reserves , lots of hills for trekking , country of highest mountain hill attracts the tourist to visit here. Hence,
Tourism is smokeless industry for economy from tourism for development of infrastructure of our country.
Plz do share if you love .
(Source: Wikipedia Brijesh Thapa and so on.)
Post a Comment