Around 60 vehicles carrying tourists, including 20 giant buses, left for the capital on Tuesday morning. "More than 800 tourists exited Pokhara on the same day," said Pom Narayan Shrestha, chairman of Pokhara chapter of the Nepal Association of Tours and Travels Agency (NATTA). "It is rare for such a large number of tourists to leave Pokhara on just one day. This is undoubtedly the consequence of the general strike," he said.
"Many tourists expressed their disappointment as they couldn't stay in Pokhara as many days as they had planned to stay," said Shrestha. According to him, not so many tourists would have left the city at once had the strike been called for only a day. "Three days of strikes worried them," he said. He added that hundreds of tourists left Pokhara through air on the same day.
Kedar Sharma, operator of Blue Sky Tours and Travels, Pokhara, said all of their bus tickets were sold out as tourists were in a hurry to leave the city. "We used to have some spare tickets with us most of the times. But we couldn't meet the demand today," he said.
On the other hand, tourists arriving in Pokhara were few in number. Accroding to Shrestha, just 16 giant buses entered Pokhara carrying only around 350 tourists. "Incoming tourists were far less than the outgoing ones," he said, adding that it has severely hampered the businesses of tourism entrepreneurs.
Tourist entrepreneurs said they have incurred huge losses due to large number of tourists leaving the city before their planned departure. According to Hari Sharma, former chairman of Western Hotel Association, many hotels are empty at present.
"Tourists saw no point in staying in the city when they would not be able to roam around safely," said Sharma. Bandhs cause huge loss to the economy, he added. "Such incidents put Nepal's tourism sector in bad light."
In order to maintain security for tourists during bandhs, police had escorted outgoing tourist vehicles till Kotre, border of Tanahun district. Incoming tourist vehicles were also escorted from Kotre to Pokhara, according to DSP Kedar Rajauni, spokesperson of DPO, Kaski.
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