Speaking to the Society of Economic Journalists Nepal (SEJON) in Kathmandu on September 29, 2019, VNY National Program Coordinator Suraj Vaidya said that the Visit Nepal Secretariat is planning to draw another 30,000 tourists from Bangladesh and South Korea, 20,000 tourists from Japan and Thailand.

“Similarly, we target to increase arrivals from Germany by 7,000, and UK and France by some 6,000 each,” Vaidya added.

The Visit Nepal 2020 Secretariat is keen on increasing one-stop flights from major destinations to bring more tourists to Nepal.

“We are focused on one-stop flights from destinations like Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong and Thailand,” he added.

According to Vaidya, 80 volunteers will be stationed at different domestic and international terminals of Tribhuvan International Airport shortly, since the infrastructure and services at the Nepal’s only airport is not satisfactory.

“These volunteers will be fully trained and will be deputed at help desk and other departments. They will help tourists in customs and immigration formalities,” stated a VNY Secretariat official.

Indian tourists posing for photographs on the banks of Fewa Lake, in Pokhara, on Tuesday, May 31, 2016. Photo: THT

Under the theme Nepal: A Lifetime Experience, Nepal will host the following tourism programs and activities among others:

• Ice Climbing
• Ice Hockey
• Ice Skating
• Karnali Kayak Race
• Mustang Trail Race
• 5^th Sustainable Summits Conference 2020 between June 1-5, 2020

The government also aims to spend USD 75 per capita tourist through the VNY 2020 campaign.

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The Ministry of Home Affairs enforced the ‘Foreign Citizens Monitoring Guideline’ to ensure strict monitoring of foreigners and their activities in the country.

Ensuring compliance to visa rules and curbing illegal activities are two of the key objectives of the new guidelines.

A Three-tier Monitoring
With special mechanisms across three different levels, the new regulation proposes to maintain national security and protection of boundaries, among others on top priority.

Under the guidelines, the monitoring activity will be conducted under three tiers: District Monitoring Committees, Central Monitoring Directives Committee and Monitoring & Implementation Committee.

District Monitoring Committee: Headed by Chief District Officers, this committee will foresee monitoring activities across the district levels with the support of National Investigation Department, Police & Armed Police Force, Tourism, Labor and Immigration offices.

Central Monitoring Directives Committee (CMDC): Headed by the Home Secretary, the Committee comprises of Joint Secretaries from different ministries including Home, Foreign Affairs, Labor & Employment and Tourism along with key officials from Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, Immigration and National Investigation departments.

Monitoring and Implementation Committee: Headed by the Director General of Immigration Department and its members along with officials from Tourism Board, among other departments, this committee will keep a close watch on illegal entry points and foreigners’ hiding zones.

Crime Control Information Mechanism: Reporting to CMDC, this special mechanism will have complete information about every foreign visitor including their places of visit, activities and duration of stay, among other key aspects.

Regulatory, Need of the Hour
The latest decision is coming in the backdrop of issues reported over misuse of visa services and local laws among foreigners.

According to the government, some of the foreign visitors on tourist visas were reportedly found to have taken up employment in the local NGOs and opened their own businesses, locally.

As the immigration officials say, there was a poor monitoring of foreign visits to the country due to lack of relevant directives and monitoring mechanisms in place.

They are hopeful that the new directives will facilitate ways for strict monitoring and special security checks upon suspicion of any illegal activity.

Under the new directives, every individual or hotels or resorts hosting foreigners will have to provide all the relevant information to the respective committees, and the immigration officers can ride any place upon suspicion, say the officials.

The new regulation calls for an immediate arrest of any foreigner misusing visa services or overstaying locally.

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Nearing the one million target set during the Nepal Tourism Year 2011 campaign, the country’s industry saw 940,218 tourists in 2017, informed the Department of Immigration (DoI) recently.

“If we count the number of Indian tourists entering Nepal through land route, the arrivals figure crosses the one million tourist arrival target,” says Raju Prasad Poudel, Information Officer at DoI.

According to Poudel, the number of unregistered Indian tourists entering through border points is very high.

Despite missing of the target, the latest arrival figures have offered needed boost to Nepali tourism industry and its entrepreneurs.

Elated at the rise in tourism figures, the President of the Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) Amar Man Shakya said, “We could not bring tourists as much as we have expected. But tourist numbers have increased significantly compared to last year. It is a positive thing,” says Amar Shakya.

According to Shakya, the rise in tourist arrivals could not add to the occupancy of hotel rooms.

“Hotel occupancy was around 65 percent only during September to November. We need more tourists to fill our rooms,” Shakya adds.

Meanwhile, Santabir Lama, President of Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) said, “We should not be disappointed because of our failure to meet the target of one million tourists. We were very near to the target. Hence, I consider the year 2017 as a successful year for Nepali tourism industry.”

Lama opined that the new government, as a result of parliamentary and provincial elections, would further boost the development of Nepali tourism sector.

Though Nepal saw a record number of 796,946 tourist arrivals in 2012, the country’s tourism industry suffered a major jolt because of the 2015 earthquake and again recovered in 2016 reaching 729,550 arrivals as a result of tourism promotional activities like Nepal Tourism Year 2011 campaign, among others.

Country-wise, India with 160,832 visitors stood as the major tourism market for Nepal in 2017, followed by China (104,664), United States (79,146), United Kingdom (51,058) and Sri Lanka (45,361) respectively, shows DoI data.

8 Lakh Arrivals Via Air!
Though the bordering tourists from neighboring countries like India travel to Nepal via land route, majority of tourists to the country prefer air travel.

According to the Immigration Office at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), more than 8 lakh (857,352) foreigners travelled to Nepal in 2017 as of December 26, 2017.

While a total of 734,686 tourists travelled to Nepal till October 2017 with a monthly average of 73,468 foreign visitors, the country couldn’t reach the target due to fall in number by almost 165,000 visitors during November and December of 2017.

Against the governmental target of at least 150,000 foreign visitors in November and 100,000 in December, the country saw only 122,666 tourists in these two months.

According to the Hotel Association Nepal (HAN), general election was one of the prime reasons for fall in tourist arrivals in the last two months as tourists usually avoid trips to the tourist destinations during election time.

Also Read:

• 2018 Nepal Tourist Arrivals: 73.5% Rise in July, 18% Rise in Jan-July

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