DHARAN, Aug 22: Some travel professionals were utterly surprised when during their recent visit to Darjeeling, Silghuri and Gantok of Sikkim in West Bengal, India. Their five-day tour to the Indian region in the second week of August left them sad realizing lesser level of awareness among Indians about eastern Nepal's tourism potential, despite being being so close to these Indian tourist towns.
Though their visit was for tourism promotion in Nepal, the task became even more demanding after the visit.
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"We had been there to promote East Nepal as an alternative tourist destination for Darjeeling, Silghuri and Sikkim. We were there with 'Green East Nepal' tour package to lure Indian tourists to Nepal," said Vasudev Baral, a representative of Sekshya Travelling . "Getting to know that the people across the border have least idea about the eastern Nepal's beauty, we had to work even harder to promote tourism," he said.
The catastrophic earthquake three months ago took toll upon the whole country and has badly hit the tourism sector. Tourism professionals are worried that flow of tourists has remained still low.
"Tourists have received misleading information that the entire nation had been affected during the quake and therefore consider visit to Nepal risky. So, we are putting extra efforts to correct this misconception and get things back to track," said Baral.
He informed that 'Green East Nepal' package, is a Sekshya Travelling's initiation to promote eastern Nepal as an alternative travel destination to Indian tourists against famous Indian tourist destinations of Sikkim and Darjeeling.
Baral mentioned that the people of North-Eastern India were very surprised to hear about the tourist spots in East Nepal. "West Bengal and eastern Nepal are very near to each other. But still, the people there had not even heard much about the eastern Nepal's tourist destinations," he added.
West Bengal residents in lack of knowledge about the promising tourist destinations in eastern Nepal visit Gantok, Silghuri, Sikkim repeatedly or head towards Thimpu of Bhutan for a change, he informed. "Except the 'golden triangle' of Nepal which constitutes of Kathmandu, Chitwan and Pokhara, tourists are not aware of other attractions of the country."
Although the people had heard of Dharan, they only understood it as a hub for enrollment in the British Army. Baral added,"The golf course, heritage sites in Bijayapur, adventure sports such as rafting, paragliding, etc are still virgin areas in Nepal for the West Bengal tourists to explore." Adding to it, he said Nepal's climate could be another attracting factor for Indian tourists.
Major eastern Nepal tourist destinations such as Barahkshetra temple of Sunsari, Bhedetar, Nirwana Golf course, Tamor rafting, paragliding, Sandakpur of Ilam, Fikkal, Maipokhari, Pathibhara temple of Taplejung and the mountain ranges are being promoted in the tour package.
Chairman of Hotel Association of Bhedetar, Lilaraj Lawati said that eastern Nepal has been only a route to reach the Nepal's golden triangle destinations for the West Bengal tourists. "Our audiences were were very much impressed with our promotion materials like brochures, posters and flyers. It exposed them to something very new and reflected the lack of knowledge about potential tourist destinations in eastern Nepal," he added.
He expressed optimism that the new package will encourage West Bengal tourists to visit the 'not so famous' tourist destinations of eastern Nepal.
"Bhedetar which includes the attractions of Pathibhara temple, Namaste waterfall and Namje has to be established as a hill station in East Nepal. It can be very beneficial to include it in the 3-4 days package along with other sites such as Tinjure, Milke, Vishranti temple and Rajarani," he said outlining prospective tourism packages for the region
Along with that Lawati pointed to the need of creating awareness among the public for being more friendly towards Indian nationals along the border area and curbing practices where exorbitant charges are taken from Indians for services. "Indians complain of being charged unnecessarily by police and highway officials along with the locals. This has to be stopped" he added.
Furthermore,Baral stressed on shifting the focus of travel agencies in the region towards promoting tourist destinations in the region along with ticketing.
