The Nepal Earthquake and its effect on Tourism.

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Lesley Morris
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1 The Nepal Earthquake and its effect on Tourism. The earthquakes of April 25 and May 12 that struck central Nepal pulled the carpet from under the feet of not only Nepalese, but also from the people all over the world who were preparing to visit. The international media carried shocking videos of the dead, injured, destruction and the panic that followed the quakes. The international media coverage of recent earthquake somewhat backfired as it made thousands of tourists cancel already booked holiday to Nepal. No doubt loss of life and fallen homes in villages and children staying outside the school without proper food, water and sanitation will take years to rebuild. Given the facts the earthquake has only affected 2% of the total tourist areas and remaining sites are all functioning as normal. This is not only the time to visit Nepal as tourist to see mountains, learn cultures but one can be part of this great rebuilding process and live in the hearts and minds of those affected for many years to come. From the snippets of information travelers got, a lot of UNESCO heritage sites were destroyed or hit hard. Normally, a travel itinerary to Kathmandu valley, which takes 2-3 days, now appeared to hang in the balance. Meanwhile, the condition of the remote areas and trekking routes remained unknown. Few days to mid-may, when Nepal government was just telling the world that Nepal is safe for travelling, the second earthquake struck, corroborating opinion that it is unsafe in Nepal. Even proven thrill seekers changed their mind and cancelled their trips. Destruction of the road from Kathmandu to Tibet made the way to Lhasa and to Mount Kailash very expensive as the only access remaining now was via flight into Lhasa. Leaving all that in the recent past and with normalcy back in place, the need of the hour is to regain the confidence of the international travelers to visit Nepal. As the main attractive tourist activities in Nepal are trekking, mountaineering, rafting, wildlife jungle safari, mountain biking, among others, combined with cultural tour highlighting the native culture and traditions of the peace loving Nepalis, it is time to put our acts together and move ahead with full determination to restart the promotion of Nepal in the international arena. For this scribe, Russia being an important market, we would like to draw the attention of concerned authorities in Nepal that at the moment the adventure vacations are not so popular

2 with the Russian people, who can afford trips to South Asia; they rather opt for holidaying on the beaches of Goa, Bali or Thailand. During our February FAM trip to Nepal together with travel specialists from Russia, we arrived at the conclusion that Nepal may become popular as cultural and sightseeing destination for Russian people as the country has great potential in this respect. Before the recent earthquakes, only 5 percent of the Russian population knew about Nepal. The disaster increased that to about 10 percent. However, this population views Nepal as a dangerous destination given the way the country came into their light. Moreover, such defamatory slogan by media as Help Nepal - Visit Nepal has further conveyed the message that Nepal is not ready to host tourists. Yet, as Nepal puts efforts to convince tourists from around the world that the country is safe to visit, this time also provides opportunity to promote the country as tourism destination in those countries whose citizens have little knowledge and awareness about Nepal s tourism value. In case of Russia, adventure and cultural tourism could be two areas which might interest Russian tourists, and the government of Nepal and other concerned stakeholders should focus on devising strategies to effectively inform them about Nepal s cultures and adventure prospects. It s worthwhile to inform Russian people about Nepal s rich history, religion, culture, people, cuisine and beautiful landscapes. Only little proportion of Russians know about the historically and culturally affluent Kathmandu Valley and Lumbini, the birth place of Gautam Buddha, for instance. Once informed about Nepal, however, many of them could put Nepal on their top destination list. Mass media like television shows, articles in magazines, websites could be strategically used to spread information about Nepal among the Russian citizens. Likewise, the range of tallest mountains on Earth, the Himalayas and the trekking trails that pass through picturesque hills and landscapes which takes the travelers very close to the snowy mountains make Nepal a destination for adventure tourism that no other place can offer. Adventure in Nepal brings enthusiasm and real happiness to the visitors. The rich flora and fauna of the Chitwan National Park and dozen other national parks and wildlife reserves and picturesque places like Pokhara add to Nepal s majestic beauty. Tourists

3 who visit Nepal will definitely find themselves in a bright, impressive, memorable Asia. In fact, adventure begins when person decides to go next time off the beaten track to Nepal. One reason which has augmented less foreign visitors to Nepal is a lack of direct flights from Europe. The way to Kathmandu are limited to connecting flights via United Arab Emirates (Dubai, Sharjah, Abu-Dhabi), Turkey (Istanbul), Qatar (Doha) and Thailand (Bangkok) only. It looks like that Nepal s fame as a mountain country, land of mystery mostly brings thrill seeker, who mostly come to trek to high hills and mountains. Other categories of tourists, who come to Nepal stay in cities like Kathmandu and Pokhara and spend around dollars a day, sightseeing tourist, who get here by air or ground from India. A small category comprises affluent travelers. The earthquakes cut off mainly the tourist traffic (if the amount Nepal had we may call traffic ), mainly in case of sightseeing tourists, affluent travelers and halved thrill seekers. The government of Nepal could adopt following measures to attract these tourists back: The first priority for the government should be to coordinate with the embassies in Kathmandu and issue press releases to inform that Nepal is safe. The first and the last official press release was issued on May 13, a day after the second strong earthquake struck. The Ministry of Culture, Toursim and Civil Aviation under Government of Nepal has released a press statement assuring Nepal is now safe after an earthquake except for worst hit 8 out of 75 districts. Also at those places rebuilding process is going on and slowly life of people is getting back into normal. Having provided the safety assurance, the next step has to be large scale campaign for promotion of Nepal as travel destination. As mentioned above, press trips with articles, photo exhibitions showing culture and nature of Nepal, documentary films, promo clips could be ways of doing so. The government should lead such a campaign and facilitate access of travel writers, shooting groups and other related people to national parks and other tourist destinations, for example to make the required promotion materials. Nepal must organize arts and crafts exhibitions, photo exhibitions, various festival ceremonies, cultural lectures and seminars and other similar events for further promotion of the country. Taking all the aforesaid into consideration in spite of all the problems marring Nepal after the recent disasters, it will rise again and there is always a possibility that in a short time Nepal will reach a greater height in tourism than before. Foreign tourists will once again prefer Nepal to

4 spend their vacation. The UNESCO Heritage sites will be shining again. All we need to do is to take some small steps every day, to do some small things for safety, joy and happiness of the visitors, who want to experience the hospitality of the Nepali people, witness the ancient cultures and touch the greatest mountains in the world! After the earthquake, several countries warned their citizens not to visit this country except if they were involved in rescue and relief. Today, Thamel wears a deserted look, the Everest Trail and other trekking routes are abandoned, and even Pokhara, where there wasn t much damage, is largely empty. Hotel owners, trekking companies and travel agents say tourism may actually start picking up even during the monsoon, since that is the ideal time to visit Manang, Mustang and Dolpo, which are in the Himalayan rain shadow. Tibet-bound transit tourists would also be making stopovers, as in previous years. Nepal has a niche adventure tourism market and that category of visitors will not be deterred for long, says Yogendra Shakya of the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN). We just need to spread the word that our infrastructure is intact and ready before the autumn season. But he admits that there will still be residual hesitancy about visiting Nepal. No matter how well we promote Nepal s tourism and say all is well here, they will still have their doubts, he says, stressing on the need for a creative promotion strategy. For example, this would be the time for our prime minister to invite Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi to visit Janakpur, Lumbini and Muktinath where he could not go last time, Shakya says. It would send a strong message to Indian pilgrim tourists and the world that Nepal is open for business. The international community has gone out of its way to help Nepal, and tourism entrepreneurs say that could be Nepal s strongest selling point. We just need to convert that goodwill into a willingness to visit. The government can actively promote trekking areas of the country not affected by the earthquake, pilgrimages, and conference tourism to get the industry back on its feet. Tourists should not be worried about Nepal, in a few months the hotels and infrastructure will all be

5 restored, says former HAN president, Shyam Lal Kakshapati. In fact, 90 per cent of the hotels are not damaged, and many that are can be repaired and retrofitted. A government committee has inspected 15 hotel buildings, and only one of the wings of the Kathmandu Guest House in Thamel has a red sticker. All five-star hotels in the capital have got safe green stickers. Amar Shakya, a member of the committee, says inspection was halted after the 12 May aftershock and will resume. Our preliminary inspection shows most hotel buildings have not suffered structural damage, he says. The government has already formed a Tourism Recovery Committee in partnership with HAN and Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN) to repair damaged trekking routes, heritage sites and promote safe tourism destinations. "Rebuilding the nation will automatically help revive tourism," says Sangita Shrestha of Dwarika's Hotel, which has opened a camp in Kathmandu for 326 displaced people from Sindupalchok. The hotel is designing special promotions for visitors from South Asia. The earthquake was just the latest in a series of disasters to hit Nepal. Last year s Everest avalanche killed 16 climbers, and the Annapurna blizzard in October left 80 people dead including foreign trekkers. Despite this, a record number of tourists visited Nepal in 2014, boosted by an influx of visitors from China and India. Tourism has a capacity to heal itself, the only question is how will the Nepal Tourism Board and the government deal with the necessary international promotion to bring visitors back in 2015 and beyond.

6th UNWTO Asia Pacific Executive Training Program on Tourism Policy and Strategy, Bhutan, June 2012 Tourism Issues and Best Practices

6th UNWTO Asia Pacific Executive Training Program on Tourism Policy and Strategy, Bhutan, June 2012 Tourism Issues and Best Practices Balkrishna Ghimire Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation,