In the first week of October, Chinese people celebrate a five-day October holiday and this is the good time for them to visit destinations abroad. “We already have received more inquiry calls than we really can handle,” Suresh Kumar Shrestha, director of Shuang Qi Tours Pvt Ltd, one of the major travel agency dealing with Chinese tourists said. [break]
Big hotels in Pokhara, including Fulbari Resort, Pokhara Grand and Shangri-La Resort, have already been booked. Fulbari and Pokhara Grand are five star hotels whereas Shangri-La Resort is a three-star.
Pokhara hotels are worried regarding the management of regular groups during the period. An employee at Fulbari Resort said all 163 rooms of the hotel have been booked for 10 days starting October 2.
Pokhara Grand Hotel stated that the hotel is fully occupied for the October season. Shyam Gurung, sales supervisor of Shangri-La Resort, said for the October first week, 50 rooms of the hotel have been booked.
As many as 2,229 Chinese tourists visited Nepal in October of 2009, according to the data provided by Nepal Tourism Board. Though Pokhara is popular among Chinese tourists, infrastructure constraint has become a major hurdle in attracting them.
Besides Pokhara, other destinations like Chitwan, Nagarkot, and Lumbini have also been included in our travel package, Shrestha told myrepublica.com. “However, Pokhara is the most popular destination in the travel plan,” he said.
There are dozens of travel agencies dealing with Chinese tourists. Shuang Qi Tours alone had received over 700 tourists last October. “This October the maximum number of Chinese tourists that we going to invite will drop down to 100, seven times less than last year,” Shrestha added.
According to data of NTB, 31,628 Chinese tourists visited Nepal in 2009. Every year around 50 million Chinese travel abroad and neighboring countries.
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