Ample challenges, immense prospects
When India Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Nepal twice in 2014 and talked up Nepal's potential as a tourist destination for his citizens, the buzz generated around it in the Indian media had propped up tourism entrepreneurs' expectations of good days ahead. Adding to the optimism were 2013's data which showed that a record number of Indian tourists had visited Nepal. However, figures for 2014 released in July this year showed that not only was this euphoria premature, but the number of Indians visiting the country in that had actually plummeted quite significantly -- by 25 percent. That's 45,631 less visitors than 2013.
Stakeholders say Nepal's failure to benefit from the free publicity generated by Modi's visit was largely due to a lack of follow-up promotional campaigns in India. They also say news of the closing of casinos here contributed to the drop in visitor figures as Nepal's casinos have historically been more popular with punters from India, where gambling is illegal everywhere.
The number of Indian tourists visiting Nepal has been going up steadily since after 2008. In 2010, the number reached six figures for the first time since 1999. Numbers then started climbing steadily. After a 28 percent jump in 2010, growth slowed a little, but it still ranged between above 9 percent to 23 percent. That is until 2014.
According to Nepal Tourism Statistics (NTS) 2014, published by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA), 180,974 Indian tourists visited Nepal in 2013. That went down to 135,343 in 2014. Data published on NTS also shows that the number of Indian tourists visiting Nepal had been on a constant rise since 2008. The inflow of Indian tourists to Nepal in 2013 was the highest ever, according to the 1993-2014 data made available in NTS.
End of the Maoist-insurgency in 2006 and a mostly peaceful Constituent Assembly election in 2008 opened the floodgates to tourists. Indications of stability then led to the surge in numbers seen in the last few years. As the overall arrivals figures went up, visitors from our neighbors in the south also started making up large parts of that. Entrepreneurs say the stakes in India are now very high when one considers how large a slice Indian tourists make up in Nepal's tourism figures.
They say this can be both a great opportunity as well as a challenge. Nepal play up its cultural heritage sites and bring in large numbers of Indian Hindus by more aggressively promoting religious tourism and organizing publicity campaigns in India. Nepal has not been able to draw as much attention as it should through whatever promotional campaigns it has been organizing, entrepreneurs say.
"Outbound tourism from India is raising a lot and Nepal can take major slice of that pie in the form of religious tourists and adventure tourists, among others," Prabesh Aryal, the executive director of the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) told Republica, adding: "However, we have not been able to bring enough Indian tourists to Nepal due to the lack of ample promotional campaigns."
Aryal blamed the drop in visitor numbers in 2014 primarily on the closure of casinos. "A lot of Indian tourists who visit Nepal want to visit casinos at least once during their stay. However, the casinos in Nepal were shut down in 2014, sending a large chunk of those Indians to other countries like Thailand and Malaysia," Aryal adds.
The government shut down operation of casinos on charges of failure to pay a large amount in back taxes.
The earthquake in April could also have a big impact on flow of Indian tourists, Aryal says. He wants tourism products and campaigns to be branded effectively in Nepal itself and then in India.
Besides lack of branding and effective promotional activities, entrepreneurs say the state of infrastructure development as well as lack of effective government policies are also acting as roadblocks in the further development of tourism in Nepal.
But still, stakeholders in Nepal's tourism sector are generally optimistic of the future. Tourism, especially from India, has a bright prospect in days to come, they say.
They are also pinning their hopes on MoUs on tourism promotion and motor-vehicles traffic between the two nations made last year; development of the Greater Lumbini Buddhist Circuit; restart of operations of casinos; and increasing of air-routes to India by Nepal Airline Corporation (NAC), among others, to significantly push visitor figures up.
Mohan Krishna Sapkota, spokesperson of MoCTCA, says that the government has focused its plans on increasing the number of Indian tourists, among others. "All these developments -- ranging from the Greater Lumbini Buddhist Circuit to our tourism pact with India -- focus on increasing the inflow of Indian tourists," Sapkota told Republica.
NEPAL-INDIA TOURISM PACT
On November last year, Nepal and India signed a tourism pact in the presence of India Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nepal Prime Minister Sushil Koirala.
The pact also included a motor vehicles agreement to connect Kathmandu and Delhi through bus services and a three twin-cities agreements twinning Ayodhya and Janakpur, Kathmandu and Varanasi, and Lumbini and Bodh Gaya, with the aim of increasing tourism activity between them.
"These two agreements and their implementation will certainly help increase the inflow of Indian tourists," HAN executive director Aryal says.
THE GREATER LUMBINI
BUDDHIST CIRCUIT
The development of Greater Lumbini Buddhist Circuit to promote tourism among Buddhists is expected to boost the ammunition available to Nepal's tourism sector to attract more visitors, especially from India. The government has already started work on developing the Greater Lumbini Buddhist Circuit. It has focused on offering better facilities and services, hoping it will induce visitors to increase the length of their stay in Nepal.
Aiming to promote Lumbini as a major tourism destination, the 160-km-long Buddhist Circuit aims to link 10 major Buddhist destinations including Kapilvastu and Devdaha. Besides, the circuit also aims to link different Buddhists destinations in India with regular tourism destinations in Nepal like Pokhara and Chitwan. "The Buddhist Circuit will be a milestone in Nepal's tourism sector development," MoCTCA spokesperson Sapkota says.
Like the Buddhist Circuit, the government also has plans for a series of Hindu circuits between Pashupati and Banaras; Banaras and Janakpur; and Baraha Chhetra and Gorakhpur.
RESTARTING CASINOS
Stakeholders say resuming operations of all the casinos will be crucial to Nepal's future.
While Casino Majhong in Crowne Plaza Kathmandu-Soaltee and Casino Shangri-La have already resumed services, plans to restart Casino Tara in Hyatt Regency Kathmandu and Casino Royale of Hotel Yak and Yeti are in the pipeline.
"We hope that the reopening of two casinos will help attract more Indian tourists," Govinda Bahadur Karki, the director general of the Department of Tourism (DoT), says, adding: "The other two casinos -- Casino Tara and Casino Royale are in the pipeline."
NAC FLIGHTS TO MUMBAI, BANGALORE
The resumption of direct flights to Bangalore and Mumbai from Kathmandu by the flag carrier, among others, is expected to help significantly increase the number of Indian tourists. After a decade's gap, Nepal Airline Corporation (NAC) resumed direct Kathmandu-Bangalore flights on September 1 and flights to Mumbai on Friday.
NAC says it also plans to fly to Kolkata soon.
Saroj Kasaju, the commercial director of NAC, says the flag carrier was working to begin flights to Kolkata directly, thereby easing and encouraging people from Kolkata to visit Nepal.
Source: Republica
