News from Nepal is seldom positive these days. Among its most reported issues are the continued failure of political parties to see eye to eye on crucial peace and constitution issues, which in turn is prolonging the country’s wrenching transition; the extended load-shedding, shortage of food and water, corruption, red tape… and a hundred other ills that dog this once-peaceful Himalayan enclave. One beacon of hope amidst this gloom is the country’s tourism sector. Following the end of the 10-year insurgency, the number of tourists visiting Nepal has been steadily rising. According to the latest figures, there has been nearly 28 percent hike in the number of tourists visiting Nepal in the first three months of 2012 as compared to the same period last year. Nearly 150,000 tourists visited the country through Tribhuvan International Airport in this period.
What has been particularly heartening is the robust growth in arrivals from big countries like India and China. The year-on-year figure for March indicates a whopping 69 percent jump in arrival of Indian tourists; and a more than healthy 47 percent for the Chinese. This is certainly good news for Nepali tourism sector and the country’s remittance-dependent economy. But there still is much room for improvement. For instance, in absolute terms, around only 16,500 Indian tourists visited Nepal this March, while the same figure for Chinese was around 4,500; a drop in the ocean for these humongous tourist markets. With better promotion of Nepal abroad, improved aviation infrastructure and better management of tourist-targeted schemes like NTY 2011 and Visit Lumbini 2012, these figures can easily double or triple.
Nepal, currently, simply does not have the infrastructure to cater to influx of tourists in such a scale. An overhaul of the overworked TIA infrastructure is long overdue. Addition of another international airport (as has been proposed for Nijgadh) would certainly help Nepal’s cause as well. But again, all these efforts will come to a naught if the country cannot properly handle and emerge from its prolonged political transition. In the turmoil of transitional politics, political parties and various bodies affiliated to them have found it convenient to call for strikes and shutter down transportation services to get the authorities to heed their demands. The pledge of the major parities not to hold disruptive activities during NTY 2011 was forgotten before the ink even began to dry.
In this state of political flux, the positive vibes on Nepal going out to the international community (for instance many Western governments have now lifted travel warnings to Nepal) could soon be drowned by a flood of negative messages about a botched transition. The political actors would do well to take into consideration this wider picture while deciding on important political matters in the days and months ahead. Growth of tourism, which now contributes around 4 percent of GDP, will be vital if the country is to wean itself off its overreliance on remittance. As figures from last five years show, despite all the hassles associated with visiting a country undergoing an excruciating transition, they will keep coming so long as there is no overt threat of violence against them.
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