Dinesh Prasain, who has been operating ChaChaWhee Fun Park at Gharipatan, Pokhara, for the last four years, is investing millions of rupees to expand Hotel Jal Mahal despite slowdown in tourism industry due to devastating earthquakes of 2015 and Indian blockade."We built a fun park and a 15-room hotel four years ago. Now we have expanded the hotel to 36 rooms expecting more visitors.
Prasain was building new rooms when the earthquakes rocked the country in April and May last year. Many entrepreneurs, who were also expanding their business scale in Lakeside area of Pokhara during that time, stopped their work following the earthquake. However, Prasain decided to continue with the expansion plan. "We have invested additional Rs 50 million in expansion work. This takes our investment in the hotel to Rs 120 million," he said, adding that he was investing more money as he is optimistic of the industry seeing better days ahead.
"The resort expansion is based on a concept 'ChaChaWhee for All'. We have been giving priority to domestic tourists ever since our inception," he added.
Jal Mahal Hotel wants to tap the spending binge of domestic tourists amid increasing trend of Nepali going to Pokhara for the vacation. "Though there are other hotels, we have entertainment services for children along with the hotel which gives us an edge over other hotels," he said, adding: "We made investment as we saw business opportunity here. If we had stopped expansion out of fear in the aftermath of the earthquake, the hotel would not have been built."
According to Prasain, the impact of recent earthquakes and economic blockade is becoming less severe now.
"We are hopeful that the tourism sector will get back into track soon. This very hope led us to add more rooms in the hotel," he said. He told Republica that 10 newly added rooms are now ready for operation, while remaining rooms will be completed 'soon'.
The hotel spread over 10 ropani has three swimming pools. These swimming pools are named as 'infinity deep', 'family splash' and 'kids pool' where even toddlers and elderly people can go for swimming, according to Prasain.
There are 36 rooms in the hotel including deluxe, super deluxe, 'Jal Mahal Premium' and 'Connecting' rooms. Balcony of 'Jal Mahal Premium' rooms is directly linked with 'infinity deep' pool.
According to Prasain, beautiful mountain range, including Dhaulagiri, Annapurna and Manaslu peaks, can be viewed from every room or the balcony of the room. Also, the fun park spread over 18 ropani has 15 entertainment services like video parlor, flying chair, massage chair and swimming pool, among others.
The hotel is charging US$ 50 per night for a deluxe room for foreign guests. Similarly, charge for super deluxe, Jal Mahal Premium and Connecting Room is $75, $100 and $125, respectively.
Domestic guests, however, will get 30 percent discount on these charges, said Prasain. One child below 10 years staying with the parents gets free extra bed, breakfast, use of swimming pool as well as a voucher worth Rs 500 for our sister concern -- ChaChaWhee FunPark, he added.
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