October 04, 2017
Now, foreign travelers touring Mount Everest and surrounding region will have to pay Rs 2,000/- per head as an entry fee.
Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality (RM) of Solukhumbu district made this effective from October 1, 2017 for every foreigner visiting the municipality.
With the latest decision, the municipality revoked its existing Trekkers’ Information Management System (TIMS) card.
TIMS card, issued by Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal (TAAN) and Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), will no longer be valid, said the municipality in its public notice yesterday.
Meanwhile, TAAN, in its release, said, “In the meeting, the rural municipality had agreed to not levy any entrance fee for the time being and find an alternative within 45 days. We had agreed to find out an alternative after redefining the constitutional provision regarding fee to be levied on tourists.”
The municipality did not live up to its commitment of postponing the decision, TAAN added.
This decision by the municipality is coming after the RM executive committee meeting on July 9, 2017, wherein, the committee decided to ban the TIMS card system and raise tourist entry fee by itself owing to improper functioning of NTB and TAAN in carrying out tourism promotion works in the region despite collecting the fee.
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