Nepal can accommodate 7.44m tourists annually-NRB report

The number of tourist standard hotels in Nepal swelled 15.4 percent to 1,224 in the last fiscal year, said a study conducted by the central bank.

According to the survey entitled Economic Activities Report 2013-14 conducted by Nepal Rastra Bank’s research department in eight major cities in 47 districts, 20,408 room nights are available per day in the country.

This means Nepal can accommodate 7.44 million tourists annually with the existing infrastructure. Room nights or bed numbers of hotels grew 18.47 percent from the previous year.

The central bank survey, the third in the series, is based on field reports of economic activities and other indicators in Kathmandu, Pokhara, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Birgunj, Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj and Dhangadhi.

According to the study, tourist arrivals via air in Nepal in fiscal 2012-13 dropped a marginal 1.4 percent to 586,668, largely due to a significant dip in arrivals from the southern neighbour. Indian arrivals to Nepal via air transport dropped 15.1 percent in the last fiscal year. However, arrivals from third countries grew 3.9 percent.

“As Nepal failed to give continuity to its promotional campaign carried out in past years, its impact was visible in the arrival numbers,” the study said. A prolonged political transition has also been blamed for the failure to attract more tourists to Nepal.

The study report said that Nepal’s hospitality sector had improved gradually in terms of service and facilities. However, it has pointed out that Nepal has not been able to shift its focus from traditional tourism to other products.

The country has not been able to cash in on mountaineering, entertainment, pilgrimage and medical tourism to increase tourist length of stay.

“The policies and programmes have not been able to deal with challenges like diversifying tourism products and holding promotional campaigns beyond traditional areas to create employment, alleviate poverty and make tourism a major foreign exchange earning sector,” the study said.

REGION-WISE SCENARIO
Kathmandu has the highest number of tourist standard hotels and lodges followed by Pokhara. However, in terms of room night availability, Pokhara tops the chart with a 44 percent share of the total room nights available in the eight major cities surveyed.

There are 457 tourist standard hotels in Kathmandu, 10.92 percent more than last year. The Kathmandu area includes Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Sindhupalchok, Kavrepalanchok, Dhading, Nuwakot, Rasuwa and Dolakha districts in the survey. It produces 4,011 room nights, 23.23 percent more than before.

The survey shows that 586,668 tourists visited Kathmandu in the last fiscal year, among whom 143,196 were Indians.

The lake city Pokhara added 78 tourist standard hotels and lodges in the last fiscal. There are 456 hotels in Pokhara producing 8,969 rooms per night. The survey shows that tourist arrivals to Pokhara dropped sharply by 66.44 percent to 72,085 in the last fiscal year. 

Biratnagar saw a 20 percent growth in the hotel sector. The city has 90 tourist standard hotels producing 1,744 rooms per night.

After Kathmandu, Biratnagar attracts the largest number of Indian visitors. There were 49,607 tourists in Biratnagar in the last fiscal among whom Indians amounted to 42,703 (up 21.22 percent).

The number of hotels in Birgunj soared 60 percent to 16 and produce 652 rooms per night. Birgunj received 123,518 tourists including 13,753 Indian visitors.

Bhairahawa or the Siddharthanagar area received the highest number of tourists after Kathmandu. Of the total arrivals, Indians numbered 3,900. Bhairahawa produces 1,054 rooms per night. 

source: the kathmandu post,13 jan 2014