The massive earthquake which occurred on April 25, 2015 has obviously shaken tourism industry in Nepal but we believe in rebuilding and revival. Every Nepali believes in tourism with a slogan of “Atithi Devo Bhawa”. Our major infrastructures like airport, roads and the entire heritage sites are fine except few temples which have been affected.
They are being cleaned up by the government and once it is done all the heritage sites will revive within a month. A rapid assessment of the hotels has been carried out by the government which will be completed within a period of one month. As per the present status 90% of the hotels are safe and some of them have minor damages.
Tourism will be revived soon since all the 40 airlines are operating now. Nepal Tourism Board has billion rupees set aside for marketing. Nepal Airlines has brand new aircrafts (altogether 4 aircrafts) for international sectors after two decades. Casinos are open, Hindu’s holiest temple Pashupatinath is safe, outskirt destinations such as Pokhara, Lumbini, Janakpur, Annapurna trek and many other treks are safe except Everest and Langtang. There are more than 10 flights operating from India and hotels will soon offer attractive packages for Indian nationals.
We believe within a month once we clean up all the sites Nepal will be open to welcome millions of tourists from two giant nations – India and China and beyond.
( The author is Chairman- Marketing Committee, Hotel Association of Nepal and Executive Director, Hotel Shangri-La)
