Ghorepani residents get the jitters as tourist arrivals fall

GHOREPANI (MYAGDI), June 3: Sita Pun is extremely nervous these days. Pun had borrowed Rs 10 million to build a hotel in Ghorepani, a famous village in the Annapurna trekking circuit. She had hoped hordes of foreign tourists would come to stay at her 18-room hotel Nice View, enabling her to pay off her loan in eight years. But since her hotel came into operation three months ago, occupancy has been almost nil.[break]



"I don´t know what to do and I don´t know how to pay back the loan," she told myrepublica.com.



Most residents of Ghorepani, an area dominated by the Pun community, run hotels to make a living. In fact, most of the houses there were converted into hotels when the Annapurna trekking circuit was opened to foreigners some four decades ago. But as the number of tourists coming to the region is plummeting, the residents´ livelihoods are now at stake.



According to rough estimates, the number of incoming foreign tourists has declined this season by around 60 percent.



The president of the Hotel Management Committee of Ghorepani, Om Narayan Sherpuja, says, "Most of the hotels used to be jam-packed in this season. But this year our hotel rooms are empty." His 12-room Hotel Dhaulagiri sees only a handful of tourists these days.

Sherpuja, like others in Ghorepani, attributes this decline to the global economic crisis, which has forced many in developed and developing economies to cut down on their spending.



Bhim Pun of Hungry Eye, the oldest hotel in Ghorepani, says, "A few tourists who visited us this year have mentioned in the comment book that though Nepal is a beautiful country, many foreigners have not been able to visit this nation due to the economic crisis." There are around 26 hotels in the area, which together can accommodate around 800 people. But most remained empty this season.



Besides the global economic crisis, the construction of a road that is being carried out in this famous trekking circuit is also believed to have deterred many from visiting the area. "Many foreigners say the road has taken away the natural beauty of this place. They say trekking in this area is not fun anymore," Pun says.



With the decrease in the number of tourist arrivals, a sense of pessimism has shrouded Ghorepani´s local entrepreneurs. They fear the situation might revert to something similar to the days of the insurgency, when the insurgency took a toll on the tourism sector.



Ghorepani, located at an altitude of 2,847 meters, is one of the most beautiful natural spots in Nepal. The village offers spectacular views of Mt Annapurna, Mt Nilgiri, Mt Machhapuchare, Mt Dhaulagiri and Mt Manaslu.

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