KATHMANDU, Feb 4: The Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) has said that the hospitality sector in the country has taken complete precaution measures against the possible risk of coronavirus.
At a news conference today in the capital, HAN said that tourists have not cancelled their hotel bookings in Nepal and ruled out the rumors spread about it.
The umbrella organisation of the hotels in the country also said that Nepal is safe from coronavirus though it has impacts internationally. The HAN comes with its views after some media reports on cancellation of hotels' bookings by the tourists amid the threat of coronavirus that has spread in some countries starting from Wuhan of China.
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Chairwoman of HAN Srijana Rana said that there was no impact of coronavirus in Nepal but precautions were taken for its treatment if the symptoms were detected. She also said that Nepal was safe from the outbreak, and was cautious against the possible risk adding that there is nothing to panic though some impacts were seen in tourism sector.
On the occasion, national programme coordinator of Visit Nepal Year 2020 Suraj Vaidhya said that the coronavirus would end soon though the Chinese market was hampered from it for the time being. He further said that new programmes have been put in place to bring in Chinese tourists in Nepal on the occasion of the Buddha Jayanti.
HAN's first vice-president Binayak Shah said HAN's member hotels have been urged to adopt precautionary measures including the medical examination of visitors coming to Nepal. Noting that the tourism entrepreneurs have been moving ahead facing various types of diseases and disasters that have been occurring at different times in the national and international arena, HAN stated that they will do the same to face similar kind of situation now.
"The government has already made it clear that Nepal is so far safe from the coronavirus. The Visit Nepal Secretariat too has issued the official notice and HAN has also issued circular urging its members to ask the guests to adopt preventive measures against coronavirus and to take them to hospital if any symptoms are seen and found in any of the guests," HAN stated in the press release.
It also made it clear that so far no hotel has coronavirus infection. It is stated that HAN, in collaboration with the Visit Year Secretariat, will vigorously work to bring tourists from the neighbouring countries India and Bangladesh as well as from countries of the Middle East, South-east Asia among various other countries as per the target, without being perturbed even slightly.
The organisation has stated that a special tourism package has also been prepared in consultation with all the stakeholders including the government and airlines companies for the immediate identification and promotion of alternative tourist source market.
