Hotel Soaltee, Hotel Everest, Hotel Yak and Yeti, Hyatt Regency and several other hotels have closed their additional restaurant operations. May is regarded as prime time for Indian tourists. With the occupancy falling to 18 percent, Nepal"s popular five star hotel, Soaltee Hotel, has shut sown its Italian and Kakori restaurants for dinner. The hotel is operating only one restaurant for local customers. [break]
Amir Pradhananga, director of sales at Hotel Everest, shared a panic situation of no guest and more cancellations. He said that the management has recently closed its Indian restaurant. The hotel has been forced to close the restaurant, despite the fact that May is the most appropriate season for Indian tourists.
Likewise, Bharat Joshi, director of sales at Hotel Yak and Yeti, said the hotel has closed its banquet service along with Chinese and Indian restaurants. “Only Coffee Shop and China Garden restaurants are in operation, he said.
Hotel Shangri-La, another five-star hotel in the capital, is also limited to 55 percent occupancy from well above 80 percent that it was enjoying before the shutdown began.
Meat supplies to the hotels have completely stopped due to the strike. They are running their normal restaurant services from the stocks which they had arranged before the indefinite strike began on May 2.
The occupancy of the hotels has also decreased remarkably due to the strike. The average occupancy of hotels has dropped to 35 to 40 percent from 70 to 90 percent recorded a week ago.
Harsh Rayamajhi, manager of Hotel Radisson at Lazimpat, said as many as 35 tourists are returning home everyday due to the strike.
“We aren"t getting any booking for our banquet service even since the indefinite strike began,” Lila Hangyakso, restaurant manager at Hotel Himalaya, told Republica.
Due to the strike, star hotels all around the country are receiving cancellation calls and messages from abroad. According to hoteliers, major hotels like Radisson and Soaltee are receiving cancellation of 50 percent of their bookings.
Other hotels are receiving cancellation in the range of 40 to 50 percent, a hotelier told Republica.
Nepal is organizing Nepal Tourism Year 2011 with the target of welcoming one million visitors during the year. Though political parties have expressed commitment not to organize bandas and strikes to facilitate tourism sector, the indefinite strike shows that the political parties will not translate in practice what they had committed.
“We had not expected such a long strike from the Maoists, as their Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal had expressed commitment not to disturb movement of tourists within the country,” Yogendra Shakya, national coordinator of NTY 2011 campaign, said.
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