Infrastructure, Capacity Building Key to Nepal Tourism Growth

Mario Hardy: PATA Travel Mart was amongst the first travel trade shows when it first began 41 years ago, which has helped lead the path to the development of the travel and tourism industry across the Asia Pacific region. Through the years, the event has allowed small to medium sized businesses to develop and new destinations to be discovered. The event today focuses on quality as opposed to quantity and brings buyers and sellers from across the world to trade, network and build their business.

Mario Hardy: PATA Travel Mart 2018 achieved its objective of exposing a new destination, Langkawi, to the global market. Deals were made, business was conducted, and business networks were expanded. Furthermore, many delegates left the event with greater knowledge of the current trends and issues in the industry due to the many insightful side events during the event.

Mario Hardy: Even though we have heard it over and over again in recent years, the new trend in the industry is that more and more travellers are looking for local experiences. The days of simply visiting iconic sites are numbered, we as travellers are in search of unique experiences and want to explore the unexplored.

Mario Hardy: The entire Pacific region is still very much unexplored. There are so many beautiful islands with their own unique culture and heritage. Having just returned from “Beautiful Samoa”, I can attest to that. In Asia, countries such as Timor Leste and many parts of India and China remain generally unexplored by international travelers.

Mario Hardy: Nepal is a country that has more to offer than what is currently being promoted. There is so much rich culture, heritage and history that world needs to know about. For instance, I believe there are around 126 ethnic groups dispersed across the country in remote areas that still remain unexplored. Furthermore, let’s be honest, you have never been to Nepal till the day you tasted a momo.

Mario Hardy: A momos festival and I would be the first one to sign up. Jokes aside, Nepal needs to tell the story of its people, its culture and heritage and its diversity, and move away from simply promoting Everest.

Mario Hardy: Yes, most definitely. However, the 2 million visitors need to be dispersed across the entire country. The country also needs major investment in infrastructure, airports, roads, and sustainable energy as well as the implementation of e-visas.

Mario Hardy: PATA recently held a Human Capital Development training workshop in Kathmandu on “The Art of Storytelling” and it is our understanding that the PATA Nepal Chapter will once again organise Himalayan Travel Mart in the first half of next year. We are also hopeful that we can continue to organise regular training workshops in the coming years.

Mario Hardy: This special award is for chapters that engage with the next generation of tourism professionals to help develop tourism in their respective destinations. We at PATA consider this award to be amongst the most important, as it is important for our industry to develop the next generation of tourism leaders.

Mario Hardy: Each student chapter is meant to be linked to a respective university that is also PATA member, with the student chapter members being enrolled at that university. As there are not many universities in Nepal that are PATA members, the local chapter saw the need to create the Nepal Student Chapter to allow other students to also get involved if they wish. We have 21 student chapters around the world, which are meant to be managed entirely by the students with a university advisor, and they are growing at a fast rate.

Mario Hardy: I  don’t know the number of young people studying tourism in Nepal, however they do have a promising future. Just consider the growth rate our industry is experiencing and that will tell you how much potential there is the career development of the young students.

Mario Hardy: Yes, there are scholarships available through the PATA Foundation offered every year.

Mario Hardy: The Nepal Tourism Industry is performing really well in terms of growth numbers. We know that Nepal still has much more potential, but it needs to grow at sustainable pace, ideally at the same rate at its infrastructure development.

Mario Hardy: In recent years, the Nepal Government has been very much engaged with PATA and we believe has very much benefitted from its active participation.

Mario Hardy: As I have mentioned before, there is a great room for infrastructure development and the country needs to build its capacity to handle the expected growth over the next decade. This obviously is creating lots of opportunities for the private sector. It’s critical that both the public and private sectors work together to ensure that their plans are aligned.

Mario Hardy: For a destination to succeed, it needs to have a clear vision. It needs have ease of access, airlift, either no visa or simple visa applications, a good infrastructure and capacity to scale.