POKHARA, Oct 5: The tourism sector, which has been affected by the corona virus infection, has not yet recovered. Recently, the businessmen have not stopped complaining about the lack of visitors even during the tourist season, but they are increasing their investment in the tourism sector every year. Businessmen say that the amount of investment in Gandaki Province is increasing every year.
According to Tikaram Sapkota, a former member of the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), the investment in the tourism sector of Gandaki Province has exceeded Rs 500 billion. He said that the investment is increasing at least 10 percent every year. Presenting the data in the discussion held by the Ministry of Tourism of Gandaki Province, Sapkota said, “There is a complaint in the tourism sector that there are no visitors, but the investment in tourism has somehow increased every year.”
Sapkota is a member of the task force formed by the Gandaki Provincial government to study the tourism sector affected by the corona infection. According to him, based on the study up to 2020, Rs 500 billion investment is estimated in the tourism sector. This investment is currently being added, but then the investment has not been assessed. “Major investment infrastructures have been completed during the Corona period, because of that, the size of investment is increasing,” he said, “Businessmen could not stop investing even though they were at a loss.”
About 10,600 businessmen are involved in the tourism sector of Gandaki Province alone. According to Sapkota, more investments have been made from the private sector. There are about 700 tourist level hotels in Gandaki Province. He also said that the hotel has about 40,000 beds. Similarly, the number of tourist level restaurants is 150. There are 203 travel agencies, 159 trekking agencies, 65 paragliding companies, and three ultralight companies. Similarly, there are 115 shops of trekking equipment. Around 87 tourist class buses are also in operation.
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Also, about 341 homestays, 42 money changers, 12 rafting agencies, 502 boat services and 75 garment shops are also operating in the province. There are 53 spas, 15 tourist book shops. Similarly, tourist infrastructure such as taxis, cable cars, hot air balloons, ziplines, bungee jumps, etc. are also available in Pokhara. There are about 8,000 small and medium businesses related to tourism in the province.
“The tourism sector has given employment to about 75,000 people in Gandaki Province. If there was no tourism, neither investment of this size nor employment would have been created,” Sapkota said, “Even though some businessmen and workers have been displaced due to Corona. While, many lives have been uplifted by the tourism sector.”
According to Sapkota, there is also hope for construction of infrastructure in the continued increase in investment in the tourism sector. He said that with the start of the construction of Pokhara Regional International Airport, the process of adding large investment infrastructure in Pokhara has greatly increased. Large-scale hotels were built just before the start of the corona infection.
“Investment in the tourism sector is increasing, but due to Corona, the province's tourism sector alone used to incur a loss of around Rs 135 million per day,” he said, “It was so affected that about 30 percent of the small and medium-sized businessmen in the tourism sector were displaced. Even now, the tourism sector is in losses, but not as much as during the Corona period.” Businessmen are investing in tourism, seeing the future, he said. “The businessmen who are optimistic in the tourism sector did not hold back from investing, instead they waited for a good day,”he said, “Because of that, the size of the investment increased.”
According to the data so far, 1,197,191 foreign tourists entered Nepal in 2019. That number was 1,173,072 in 2018. The government's target was to celebrate the year 2020 as 'Visit Nepal Year' and invite 2 million foreign tourists that year, but due to the corona virus infection, the government target could not be fulfilled. At that time, the tourism sector was very optimistic because of the Year of Visit Nepal announced by the government and the PIA was about to be built.
“The Gandaki Province government encouraged us to invest mentioning that 2 million foreign tourists will come in during the Visit Year 2022, but the arrival of tourists halted due to Corona. The investment started by the businessmen was continued,” Bachuram Tiwari, the former president of Pokhara Tourism Council, said, “The government itself has called us to invest. The provincial government encouraged businessmen to increase investment stating that the existing infrastructure would not be enough for the guests coming at that time, but now the Gandaki Province government could not be responsible for the lack of tourists. The provincial government was not active in protecting businessmen's investment.”
Businessmen said that although the corona infection is the main factor in the weakening of the tourism sector, the non-start of international flights from Pokhara airport is another cause for loss. They added that the main reason for the recent decrease in visitors is the problem of land access and the inability to expand international access by air.
According to Laxman Subedi, president of Paschimanchal Hotel Sangh Pokhara, the hotels in Gandaki Province currently have a capacity of 40,000 beds to accommodate about 1.2 million guests per month, but the government is aiming to bring in 1 million tourists this year. While the number of foreign guests who entered Nepal by air services during the eight months of 2023 (January-August) has barely exceeded 600,000. In the eight months of 2023, only 601,360 guests have entered Nepal.
“Gandaki Province expects 1.2 million guests per month, but the government's target is to attract 1 million guests a year,” says Subedi, “From this it is clear that the government is not positive towards the tourism sector.” He said that businessmen are increasing investment in the tourism sector with the hope of serving a huge amount of tourists but the improvement in the tourism sector will not come tomorrow.
He said that sometimes the lure of visiting Nepal and sometimes the lure of the international airport led to increased investment in business. “Investment is still increasing. On the other hand, some businessmen are fleeing because they cannot sustain their business,”he said, “Due to hope, investment in the tourism sector is increasing now.”
