Tourism ministry to study three-star hotel occupancy

Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation is preparing to study the room occupancy rates of three-star hotels across the country.

“We will start collecting information from the 25 registered three-star hotels at the ministry from across the country in a fortnight,” said under secretary at the ministry Rabi Kayastha.

“The study — that is expected to take around a month — will in the future, help prepare a database

for the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA),” Kayastha said, adding that the contribution of tourism to the total gross domestic product (GDP) has not been correctly calculated due

to the absence of TSA, though the tourism sector is not only one of the highest foreign currency earners but also one of the largest employers.

The ministry has started collecting primary information that could in future help prepare TSA, said Kayastha, adding that the ministry recently collected the room occupancy rate of five-star hotels across the country.

According to the Hotel Occupancy Rate Indicator prepared by the ministry, of the total 10 five-star hotels — eight in the valley and two in Pokhara — there are 641,670 available rooms and some 395,459 rooms were occupied in 2011. “The total occupancy rate last year stood at 61.63 per cent,” it revealed, adding that in the valley the occupancy rate stood at 66.11 per cent, whereas in Pokhara the occupancy rate stood at 38.27 per cent.

“Similarly, of the 538,375 total rooms available in the valley, some 355,925 rooms were occupied, whereas in Pokhara, of the 103,295 rooms available only 39,534 were occupied in 2011, when the country was celebrating Nepal Tourism Year 2011.”

November was the peak season, whereas July was the lean season, according to the study that was conducted with the help of Hotel Association of Nepal.

“The month of November last year witnessed the highest occupancy in five-star hotels at 85.96 per cent, whereas the month of July saw the lowest occupancy at 47.57 per cent,” it reported.

“Similarly, the eight five-star hotels in the valley also saw the highest occupancy in November at 89.81 per cent and the lowest in July at 51.34 per cent.

The five-star hotels in Pokhara also witnessed the highest occupancy in November at 65.92 per cent and the lowest in July at 27.96 per cent.”

Tourist arrivals to the country were the highest in October (96,970), November (83427) and August (71,378) in 2011, whereas the highest occupancy rate has been registered in November (85.96 per cent) followed by October (77.43 per cent) and April (67.73 per cent), according to the report.

source: The Himalayan Times, 16 March 2012