Many jungle safari goers drop plans

Chitwan:Travel trade entrepreneurs expect tourist movement in Chitwan to bounce back after the Constituent Assembly election. Arrivals have fallen at the popular jungle safari destination in southern Nepal due to the polls as visitors changed vacation plans.

The number of tourists is down this season as a large number of potential vacationers cancelled their trips fearing trouble during the election. A slowdown in vehicular movement has also been cited as another reason for the reduced number of visitors. 

Travel traders said that a large number of planned trips to Chitwan were cancelled due to the insecure environment. About 30 percent of all the tourists visiting Nepal go on jungle safari in Chitwan.

“Visitor arrivals in Sauraha were nominal this season. But we are optimistic that activities will pick up immediately after Tuesday’s election,” said Suman Ghimire, general secretary of the Hotel Association Nepal Regional Chapter.

Hoteliers said that Chitwan received only 20 percent of the safari goers seen last year as of mid-November. “Due to the election and transportation shutdown, visitors have cancelled their trips this season,” said Shankar Saiju, a hotel entrepreneur. “October has also not been good in terms of hotel occupancy,” he said.

During the same period last year, Chitwan received 700 tourists daily. Demand for hotel rooms in Chitwan would jump during October and November in the past. “But this time, almost all the hotels rooms are empty,” said Saiju, proprietor of Hotel Wildlife Camp.

There are around 100 tourist standard hotels in Chitwan. Visitors normally spend three to seven days in Sauraha. However, the election has not had much effect on Chinese visitors, the second largest source market for Nepal.

Entrepreneurs said that a decrease in tourism activities would likely put a dent in hit the government’s revenue collection. Chitwan National Park earned Rs 120 million from travel trade entrepreneurs last year.

Likewise, entrepreneurs paid Rs 30 million in taxes for community forests. Around 4,000 people are directly employed in hotels and resorts in Sauraha.

source:the kathmandu post,19 Nov 2013