TOURIST ARRIVAL TO FALL BY 40%

KEDAR DAHAL

KATHMANDU, June 16

A total of 200,000 tourists scheduled to visit Nepal have cancelled their booking after the earthquake on April 25 and continuous aftershocks. The tourism sector has lost income of around Rs 12 billion as a result, according to Director General (DG) at the Department of Tourism Tulsi Prasad Gautam.

The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has projected tourist arrival to fall by 40 percent this year, and by 20 percent for the coming two years. Each tourist spends at least Rs 60,000 apart from tickets, Gautam explained how the figure of Rs 12 billion was calculated. A large group dependent on tourism has now become unemployed. Jobs of almost 200,000 persons including those involved in trekking have been lost, according to the ministry. It estimates that many jobs will also be lost in travel and tour agencies, hotels, and restaurants.

Ministry Spokesperson Mohan Krishna Sapkota says the earthquake will not affect just the current year but will have a long-term impact. He states that Rs 62 billion will be lost from the tourism sector this year. Income from the sector had increased by Rs 12 billion in 2014 despite fall in tourist arrival to 790,118 from 797,616 in 2013. It had increased to Rs 46.37 billion in 2014 from Rs 34.21 billion in 2013. Tourist arrival is projected to be less than 480,000 this year, according to the ministry.

There has been massive fall even in length of stay and daily spending in the current year. Average daily spending by a tourist was US$ 42.80 in 2013 and US$ 46.40 in 2014. It was US$ 40 in 1998. It had fallen to US$ 28 in 2016 after the Maoist conflict and gradually increased to US$ 35 in 2012.

Physical loss due to the earthquake in the tourism sector alone has been Rs 18.86 billion, according to the ministry. It will take Rs 41 billion for reconstruction of the sector, according to spokesperson Sapkota. A total of 741 heritages, 1500 monasteries, and 250 kilometers of trekking trail especially in Langtang, Khumbu and Manaslu regions have been destroyed due to the earthquake. There has been 15 percent of loss in tourist standard hotels.

Discussions to correct travel advisory

The government will start special initiative to get travel advisory issued by different countries after the earthquake corrected.

Countries like China, Britain, America, Germany, Netherlands, France and others have issued travel advisory instructing their citizens to not visit Nepal after the earthquake. “We will hold discussions with representatives of all of these countries next week and urge them to remove their travel advisory,” DG Gautam says.