POKHARA, August 2: Tourism entrepreneurs have expressed their objection to the Tourism Act introduced by the Gandaki Provincial government, saying that it will displace tourism businesses instead of establishing them. The Act was passed by the Provincial Assembly last Friday. The entrepreneurs complained that the Act tries to confuse the business rather than making it flourish.
Tourism entrepreneurs lamented that while discussing the draft, they had given various suggestions, but those suggestions were not included. The Act has made it mandatory for foreign tourists to pay for services or goods they buy in US dollars. It has been mentioned that "when travel agencies provide services to foreign tourists, the transactions should be done in such a way that the bill is paid in the foreign currency specified by the government". Foreign currency transactions must be done through the national banks. Tourism entrepreneurs said that this arrangement will cause problems for tourism businesses.
Gandaki Province: Daily expenditure of tourists ranges from 54...
“All businessmen do not have the right to do business in dollars. The agency that gives permission to carry out transactions in US dollars is the Nepal Rastra Bank,” said tourism businessman Basu Tripathi, “If this law is to be followed, even if you buy a bus ticket, you have to pay in dollars, but the business person who buys that bus ticket may not have the right to do business in dollars.”
He said that not only that, now that payments are made through electronic means, there will be a problem. “Very impractical provisions have been implemented. This will not give relief to the businessmen,” said Tripathi, “Even though we repeatedly asked not to include this provision, it was included.”
Similarly, people should mandatorily register their hotels, lodges, restaurants, resorts and bars as tourism businesses. In the absence of such registration, any word, symbol or sign board which symbolizes hotels, lodges, restaurants, resorts or bars will not be allowed to be used in advertising and conduct business. They will not be allowed to contact any foreign tourists directly abroad without the permission for the purpose of arranging accommodation for them.
Likewise, in the Act, it is mentioned that every hotel, lodge, restaurant and resort or bar must publish and publicize the information of its rates or prices in the format prescribed by the Ministry of Tourism of the province and such information must be sent to the ministry. According to Tripathi, there are 10,600 businessmen related to tourism in Gandaki Province. He said that it is not possible for the ministry to keep the price list maintained by all those businessmen. Businessmen change the price of their goods from time to time. According to the season, the prices of hotel rooms and restaurant food keep changing',” Tripathi said, “It is not possible for the ministry to keep the records of the prices of all of them.” Tripathi added that this provision only created an excuse to fine businessmen. "This provision is intended to hurt businessmen in the name of monitoring,” he said.
