Agents urged to bring clients back to Nepal

durbar-square-of-kathmandu-april-2016

Durbar square in Kathmandu, Nepal a year after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake

ASIAN travel agents are being urged to bring clients back to Nepal, with the government drumming the message, ‘Safe, visit, enjoy and help Nepal’.

Nepal commemorated a year of the 7.8-magnitude Nepal earthquake that struck an area between the capital Kathmandu and the city of Pokhara on April 25, and in Singapore recently to correct misconceptions about safety or lack of infrastructure, Nepal ambassador to Thailand, Singapore, Brunei and Laos, Khaga Nath Adhikari, said: “The airport was safe even on April 26 last year. More than 90 per cent of hotels in Kathmandu were safe and only three trekking routes were affected.

“The government has done two things: put photos of how damaged temples or monuments looked before the earthquake, so tourists could compare them with what they see today. If they are risky, the government forbids them from entering. It’s the same with trekking routes – if they are dangerous the government would not allow visitors on them – there is no way we want to risk the lives of tourists.”

Half of arrivals to Nepal is for holiday, and another 12.5 per cent each is for trekking and mountaineering, and pilgrimage, 2014 data from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation shows. With more than 750 monuments and monasteries destroyed by the earthquake, which claimed nearly 9,000 lives, along with concerns over safety and state of infrastructure such as hotels and roads, visitors have kept away. Nepal’s top markets in 2014 were India, China, the US, Sri Lanka (taking Thailand’s spot in 2013) and the UK.

When asked why tourists should return now, Adhikari said visitors would still be able to enjoy Nepal’s diverse attractions, be it culture, adventure, religious tours, etc, and while doing so they would be helping Nepal. “When Nepal people see tourists, we will feel we are not alone or isolated,” he said.

Adhikari expects Nepal arrivals to be back to 2014 level of 790,118 visitors by the end of this year or next.

Surreal Destinations Singapore recently brought a group of four people, three of them expats, from Singapore at their own request to Nepal. It intends to organise a CSR campaign to educate and create awareness of Nepal, tentatively in the last quarter.

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