Hotels, resorts will have to upload details into the Department of Tourism's portal

KATHMANDU, March 18: The government has asked hotels and resorts to upload details of tourists staying at their properties to the web portal of Department of Tourism (DoT) to make tracking of tourists more convenient.

Issuing a notice on Wednesday, the department has made it mandatory for hotels and resorts to make entry of their guests on its website. Hotels and resorts have been asked to enter details like name of visitor, passport number, country of origin, duration of their stay in Nepal and the concerned hotel, check-in and checkout date, next destination and contact information to the department's website.

“Technical staffers of the Department of Immigration and Department of Tourism are working on the online-based entry system. The system should go live by Wednesday night,” said Surendra Thapa, an information officer at the DoT.

Large numbers of Indian visitors enter Nepal from the land route. As Indian nationals do not need visa to enter Nepal, their details are not entered in the system of Department of Immigration. It will become difficult for the government to track them in case of crisis. But the new arrangement will help the government to track the movement of tourists.

Stating that details of Indian visitors, who enter Nepal from land route, are not recorded in the system, Thapa said that the electronic record-keeping system will help to track such visitors. 

According to Thapa, the electronic entry system will have profile of all hotels categorized by the department. "Hotels and resorts that aren't in our system yet will have to contact our staffers to create their user profile. After creating profile, they can upload details of guests staying in their property" he added. "The details of tourists and their health condition as well as their travel history will help us to track them easily in case we need their information immediately."

Officials of the DoT say that the system will come handy in the event of spread of coronavirus in Nepal. "In the long run, it will be easier for us to track tourists visiting the country Nepal,” added Thapa. 

The department has also requested tourism entrepreneurs to implement the direction issued by the Ministry of Health and Population and abide by the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus that is spreading exponentially throughout the world.

 
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