Ballav Dahal

t is good news that global tourism is now on the path to a gradual recovery, with numerous destinations lifting travel restrictions and the COVID-19 vaccination rollout gaining a pace in many countries worldwide. Nepal’s tourism, too, has been scrambling for revival even as the pandemic continues to persist.

Relaxation on curbs

Tourism activities in the country are now resuming slowly, bringing a lot of cheers to everyone directly or indirectly involved in this sector, as the government has eased restrictions following a notable drop in the number of daily COVID-19 infections and deaths.

The government’s move to restart issuing on-arrival visas to international tourists and reopen the country’s borders is becoming helpful for the worst-hit tourism industry to bounce back. In addition, the government has also scrapped the provision of quarantine for tourists entering the country. Fully vaccinated tourists are now free to go anywhere upon their arrival in the country.

The government seems to be quite serious about giving a boost to the tourism sector given the latter's role in generating foreign exchange and jobs. The government has already reopened all the tourist destinations, monument sites and other places with tourist importance. Hotels, restaurants, other hospitality-related services, and domestic and international flights are in operation by observing all health safety protocols.

Provincial and local governments have also started showing their interest in promoting tourism. The Gandaki Province government hosted a trip for high-level delegates, including ambassadors of 11 different countries, to Pokhara and other tourist hotspots located in the province to spread a message that the province was safe for tourists.

The trip was organised in late September. As the guests had an opportunity to visit some scenic spots and experience the local culture, the tour is anticipated to be very effective in reviving tourism in Pokhara.

A ray of hope

Several popular tourist destinations like Kathmandu, Pokhara, Chitwan, Annapurna Region and Khumbu Region have begun welcoming few foreign tourists after a couple of months. There has also been an increased inflow of domestic tourists into these destinations. This has created a ray of hope among those who are dependent on tourism for their livelihoods.

The reopening of the tourism sector seems to have greatly supported the country’s mountain tourism. Dozens of Nepali and foreign climbers have scripted history on Mt. Dhaulagiri and Mt. Manaslu with the start of this autumn.

These landmark feats have highlighted Nepal as an important tourist destination globally at a time when COVID-19 has dealt a serious blow to the country’s tourism sector.

Tricky situation

As tourism is a very sensitive industry, it had to face a quite tricky situation as soon as travel restrictions were imposed worldwide immediately after the outbreak of the killer viral disease in late December 2019. As a result, many countries, including Nepal, have lost their incomes from tourism substantially. Tens of thousands of people are believed to have lost their jobs and livelihoods to this contagion.

Nepal has hit a snag with the Visit Nepal Year-2020 due to the emergence of COVID-19. The country was forced to cancel its national tourism campaign. Through that campaign, the nation was all set to give a boost to the tourism industry by welcoming two million foreign travellers by 2020 and beyond. Many tourism entrepreneurs have increased their investments in hotels, resorts and other hospitality services. They had also invested much in the creation of a wide range of tourism products.

The tourism sector had also been able to attract a lot of foreign investments. Unfortunately, billions of investments have gone down the drain. Hundreds of tourism entrepreneurs, including hoteliers, have been displaced from this sector owing to the lingering COVID-19 and various restrictions in place to contain it.

In view of such an adverse situation, the present government has come forward with an economic recovery plan. Under this, even tourism businesses are supposed to get some respite. However, the plan may not be adequate for the tourism sector that has remained affected badly. Similarly, the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), in its monetary policy for the current fiscal year, has also offered some help to the ailing tourism industry.

Flight resumption

Looking at the possibilities of tourism revival in Nepal, several international carriers have already resumed their flights to and from Kathmandu while others are in the process of resuming their services. With this, the country now has air connectivity with many tourist generating markets.

With the resumption of flights and reopening of borders between Nepal and India, more travellers from the southern neighbour have begun turning up in various destinations within the country.
It is also notable that Nepal and Sri Lanka are now directly connected by air as Sri Lankan Airlines began operating its scheduled services in the Colombo-Kathmandu-Colombo sector on August 31 this year.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka was one of the leading tourist source markets for Nepal. In 2018, our country hosted as many as 69,640 Sri Lankan tourists. The number, however, fell to 55,869 in 2019.

As Nepal is home to Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha, and numerous other popular Buddhist pilgrimage sites like Swayambhunath and Bouddhanath, the country can attract more Buddhists from Sri Lanka. With Sri Lankan Airlines expanding its network to different nations and regions, it may help bring in additional tourists from other tourists to this Himalayan nation in the days to come.

Movie team

Meanwhile, some Bollywood stars have now been in Nepal to shoot the film 'Uchai’. Having returned from the Everest Region, the jumbo movie team that comprises actress Parineeti Chopra, actor Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, among others, is also visiting Manang and some other places.

The filming of the movie is scheduled for 40 days across the country. Upon their arrival in Kathmandu about two weeks back, they had also visited Pashupatinath, a world-famous Hindu temple.

India has also begun granting tourist visas to foreign tourists interested in visiting the country on chartered flights on October 15. The country is set to issue visas for those travelling on regular flights from upcoming November 15. Since hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists other than Indians extend their trips to Nepal, this visa policy is expected to have positive implications for our tourism as well.

Another encouraging aspect is that the United Kingdom (UK) has removed nearly four dozen countries and territories, including Nepal, from its red list. This has come into effect since October 11. As per this provision, passengers returning to the UK from Nepal are not required to stay in hotel quarantine.

England now treats vaccinated travellers from these countries in the same way as returning fully vaccinated UK residents. Besides, the UK gives recognition to the vaccinations of four vaccines -- Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, Janssen and Janssen. Passengers travelling to the UK from Nepal need to submit proof of vaccination.

Regional tourism

Despite the vaccination drive against COVID-19 in most parts of the world, an uncertain situation still persists. Some of the key tourist source markets like the UK and Russia have continued to report thousands of new infections daily. Against this backdrop, Nepal needs to explore and tap the regional tourism prospects.

In this time of the pandemic, most tourists prefer short-haul destinations to long-haul ones because of cost and time.

(Dahal is deputy executive editor at TRN.)