As we walk by the streets of Kathmandu nowadays, the most common thing that we see in front of the hotels and restaurants is a banner, written as ‘Nepal Tourism Year 2011’ along with the name of the hotel. After the consultation of Nepalese Government with major travel trade groups and concerned organizations, experts and industries, the government decided to launch a tourism campaign “Nepal Tourism Year 2011” with a exaggerating brand ‘Naturally Nepal, once is not enough’ on October 25th 2008. The campaign anticipates bringing at least one million international tourists to Nepal by the year 2011.
Previously, a similar launch of ‘Visit Nepal ‘98’ was able to attract around 464,000 tourists from all over the world. The campaign was able to collect total revenue of US$24.8 million. Whereas, the recent data reveals that around 509,752 tourists visited Nepal in 2009. After a long effort of Government of Nepal, mainly after a big effort of the Nepal Tourism Board and other related institutions the formal Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal officially lunched the Nepal Tourism Year 2011 (NTY 2011) by lighting the peace light bought from Lumbini in the Army Pavilion Ground in Tudikhel, Kathmandu on 26th February 2010. A few months prior the campaign, a question triggers in most of our mind: Are we ready?
Though a lot of exercises have been done for this operation, NTY 2011 still appears to be ‘a rose in between the thorns.’ Various obstacles are definite to harden the campaign to run smoothly. The major ones are poor infrastructure, poverty, political instability, bandhas and strikes, unmanaged waste management and unhealthy competition in the travel and tourism sector.
Despite having strong potential to flourish travel and tourism (T & T) industry, Nepal has not been able to propagate its potentiality. Nepal ranks in the 118 position amongst 133 nations in the T&T competitiveness. Similarly, it lies in the 125 place in the ground transport infrastructure and 114 in the air transport. Since long, Nepal has been satisfying with only one international airport and a government run airlines company which has been ongoing with bankruptcy and with insufficient aircrafts. On the other hand, the condition of most of the domestic airports is pathetic.
Meanwhile, the creeping tariffs for the tourist, itself discourages them to visit Nepal more than once. As soon as the tourists come out of the airport they get irritated with the taxi drivers who firstly welcome them with a sneaky manner and then charge extraordinary amount. Likewise, traders and shopkeepers act as a fraud and charge ludicrous prices as they recognize a foreigner entering their shop. The mismanagement of waste and the frequent strikes by the municipal workers and the locals of landfill sites oblige these wastes to be collected on time. Ultimately, tourists are encouraged to leave this malodorous place and return to their own serene homeland.
Mostly, recurring strikes and bandhas confine our guests to travel only few of the places. During a month long visit, generally a tourist is compelled to stay inside a hotel for more than half of his days in Nepal. Though the major political parties have agreed to not to recourse their favorite tool- bandhas- to solve a national issue, we can only hope that they will keep up their promise.
The supply of basic necessities is another barrier for a successful tourism year. The ongoing power crisis is inevitable in Nepal. Load shedding has been a part of all who arrive to our country till date. Obviously, no one would like to have a candle light dinner every day! Moreover, the unavailability of internet access is extra distressing news for our ‘atithies’. Nepal is far behind in the development of communication, science and technology. On the other hand, there are very few good hotels in many of the tourist destinations, whereas, the few ones are not able to provide good accommodation and food to their customers. This makes great impact on the perception of our ‘atithies’ who visiting our country.
Although these complications are sure to trigger in the upcoming campaign, the effort made by the Nepal Tourism Board and some affiliated parties is highly appreciable. A lot of effort has been made by these groups to bring this campaign to this stage. However, some of these constrains can be solved during finishing move for the successful kickoff of the campaign. Strong backup and a good investment from the government can overcome few of these barriers. Likewise, as promotions and advertisements make the first impression of the country; more focus should be made in effective and attractive promotion of the campaign through national and international media’s.
Whether or not these snags are resolved before the campaign commences, it is responsibility of all of us to promote and support the government for a successful ‘Nepal Tourism Year 2011’ stimulating the tourism brand ‘Naturally Nepal, once is not enough’ .
No comments:
Post a Comment