The 65-year-old Vermont native who has visited Nepal for the fourth time said he has never felt awkward or have had any interactions with the people that has made him discomfited.[break]
“People haven’t been awkward in hearing my response [that I’m gay],” Nasmith said, who returns to Nepal because of the country’s “diverse people and the expressions of their various backgrounds, cultures and history.”
To attract more tourists to Nepal and promote Nepal Tourism Year 2011, the country is focusing on LGBT (Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender) tourists who would help the country’s economic growth potential, said Sunil Babu Pant, Nepal’s only openly gay Constitution Assembly member and a proponent of the LGBT campaign.
“The gay, lesbian market hasn’t been welcomed in Asia, and Nepal should take the benefits since it has no competition from its neighbors,” Pant said. “We can’t compete in import and exports with India and China but tourism is one sector we can compete in.”
Referring to the US$670 million LGBT tourism market worldwide, Pant said that if Nepal were to bring only five percent of that share, it would boost the country’s economy.
To help the influx of LGBT tourists in the country, Pant— who also heads the Blue Diamond Society, which advocates the rights of sexual minorities—has established a travel agency. Pant said Pink Mountain Travels and Tours will create special packages for LGBT tourists—wedding ceremonies in the monasteries in Mustang and the Everest Base Camp are currently in the roster.
Pant informed about the interests from the international community: India’s openly gay prince, Manvendra Singh Gohil of the former princely state of Rajpipla, who’s planning his wedding in the Himlayan Republic, and a lesbian couple from Massachusetts are among the first clientele of Pink Mountain.
“Gay and lesbian couples can do ceremonies here, honor their relationships, make memorials in an exotic place,” Pant said.
A rise in LGBT tourism will also create jobs and opportunities for the LGBT community in the tourism sector, said Pradip Khadka, human rights coordinator for Blue Diamond Society and one of the members of Pink Mountain.
“If it works in travel industry, other sectors will come forward too [in hiring the LGBT community],” Khadka said.
Along with the LGBT community, other tourism sectors are also supporting the move to boost the country’s hospitality industry.
Aditya Baral, director of Nepal Tourism Board, said the organization supports Pant’s initiative, adding this is one of the prominent markets that will help meet Nepal’s target of bringing one million tourists for the Nepal Tourism Year 2011.
But various social sectors disapprove of promoting Nepal as an LGBT destination.
Arzu Rana Deuba, politician and social activist, denounced the idea, citing that this will give a rise to sex tourism in the country. Instead, she said there are other forms of tourism that the country can endorse.
“As a student of psychology, I respect human behavior and sexual preferences,” Deuba, who has a doctorate in organizational psychology, said. “My take is, why are we talking about gay tourism instead of other sorts of tourism, like pilgrimage tourism?”
However, Pant disagrees.
He said the LGBT tourists would come to Nepal not for sex tourism but to explore its nature, culture and for adventure activities.
“Specific pockets of tourists shouldn’t be prejudiced against,” Pant said, referring to the existing, illicit sex market in the capital catering to heterosexual tourists.
Thomas Roth, president of Community Marketing Inc., a California-based LGBT market research company, said a large proportion of LGBT travelers are interested in culture, history, cuisine, health, spirituality and adventure.
“Nepal has all these, plus it may become the only Asian country (till now) making an effort to genuinely welcome LGBT visitors,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Nepal is also demonstrating leadership when it comes to equal rights for its own LGBT citizens. That’s also a strong indicator for LGBT visitation.”
Nepal is also safer in terms of race and gender-related hate crimes and discrimination, another reason for the LGBT tourists to visit, Khadka said.
“However, the idea is not to promote Nepal as a gay hub but LGBT-welcoming country,” he said.
Baral also gave a similar notion.
“We don’t discriminate against consumers [tourists] with respect to their castes, creeds or gender,” he said. “As long as they come as bonafide citizens of any country and maintain decency without disrupting the social fabric of the country, everyone is welcome from across the world.”
But to welcome tourists irrespective of race, gender or sexual preferences, the country should focus on its touristic infrastructures, Roth points.
“It’s not good enough to just want gay money [since they have larger disposable income],” he said, stressing that Nepal should have hotels, spas, tour operators and attractions that want to welcome LGBT visitors and are well-prepared with policies about their approach.
Nasmith said that Nepal should focus on properly managed tourism, which will benefit tourists and also help Nepal and Nepalis generate income. He reiterated that Nepal’s beauty and its hospitable people attract tourists.
“People like myself feel welcome in Nepal. Many people, whether heterosexual or LGBT, are attracted and become attached to Nepal for the same reasons that appeal to me— the people, the cultures, the rich diversity and the natural beauty.”
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