The travel advice and guidelines that foreign embassies issued for Nepal following the earthquake have come under scrutiny amidst claims they were over-cautious and hampering the country's economy. These guidelines are ultimately aimed at keeping civilians safe and informed while travelling.
Over the last few weeks travel restrictions from the US, the UK, Australia and many other nations have been finally dropped. This is seen as both a concrete and a symbolic gesture where the international community shows its faith in Nepal to rebuild. However, the removal of these restrictions has come too late; their negative effect has already been felt on the battered Nepali economy.When over half a million people work in tourism sector, the revival of tourism industry is intrinsically linked with the revival and growth of the country's economy and the failure to lift these restrictions early has hampered that revival. Obviously it is easy to understand the caution showed by international embassies before relaxing travel restrictions; it is, after all, always better to err on the side of caution. However, the impact of these restrictions is immense especially in countries where tourism is a large part of the economy.
Advising on travelling to a country decimated by an earthquake would not be a good idea. Thus, warning against travelling to Haiti, too, was naturally sensible. Luckily, Nepal is in a much better situation than Haiti and therefore advising against all but essential travel to the country was unnecessary. With Tribhuvan International Airport operational and tourist hotspots like Pokhara, Chitwan and Lumbini almost completely unaffected, it is unlikely the earthquake would have posed major, if any, challenges to tourism in these parts.
This is exactly the message that the civil society wants to convey to counter the negative media perceptions, that Nepal is open for business. A variety of social media campaigns are gaining ground to highlight that tourists are, and have been, safe and enjoying travelling around Nepal for several weeks. That it took so long for the advice to be turned around highlights either a lack of awareness on the situation on the ground or a lack of concern or awareness about the effect reduced tourism will have in the country.
The British Foreign Office dropped the warning against all but essential travel to Nepal on July 3. The US updated their travel warning on the July 2 and now recommends travellers to 'Reconsider your need to travel' to mountainous districts. The fact remains that these warnings were not updated in time with developments on the ground; therefore, the warnings remained in place long after the immediate danger had passed.
While advice and restrictions on travel are advisory by nature, they have enormous weight with travel companies and insurers. In this regard, they play a direct role in the number of tourists coming to a particular country. The strange contradiction is that these countries have at the same time been pledging billions between them to help Nepal. Yet internal growth is always better than external aid, so why the preference for giving Nepal aid but not the ability to help itself? It furthers the donor-recipient relationship between the international community and Nepal. It may make Nepal reliant on aid rather than help it make an economically independent nation.
With the monsoon's full force about to bear down and statistics released from the Economic Survey Report stating that economic growth in Nepal is projected to fall to 3.04 percent, the economy needs all the help it can get. A knee-jerk reaction of many embassies was exactly the kick in the teeth Nepali economy did not need.
What it needed was brave action by embassies in embracing the message that has been floating around Kathmandu for weeks now: Nepal is open and safe and if you want to help, come visit and directly contribute to the economy. However, this action was sadly missing. While the international actors were providing with one hand, they were simultaneously denying Nepalis an opportunity to get back on their feet on their own.
The author is a post-graduate student in Kathmandu
m.morch@tuicms.edu.np
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