POKHARA, Sept 18: Hotels along the Annapurna area are expanding to accommodate more tourists in the region.
A total of 26 hotels are currently under operation. These hotels house domestic as well as international tourists, including trekkers. However, with increasing inflow, the available hotels are unable to meet demands. As a result, the Annapurna rural municipality has begun work to expand the capacity of the hotels.
Annapurna base camp hotels to be reopened from mid-September
Accordingly, a task force has been formed to study into the need for increasing hotel's capacity while considering the ecological factor of the region, according to Chief of the Rural Municipality Yubaraj Kunwar. Najaraman Gurung leads the task force.
Last year alone, 32,000 foreign tourists trekked up to Annapurna base camp, which is six times more than when hotels first began operating in 2049 B.S., says member of the task force Lalit Gurung. Adding domestic tourists as well as tourist and trekking guides takes that number to almost 80,000, adds Gurung.
The 26 hotels operate under the standards determined by the Annapurna Conservation Area Project. Accordingly, every hotel has six rooms each, with a total of 156 rooms available for guests. The hotels are based in Sinuwa, Bambo, Himalayan, Dhobhan, Deurali, Machapuchre base camp and Annapurna base camps.
The rural municipality has taken the initiative after revenue collection from the hotels came under its authority. It was earlier being collected by the ACAP.
