Hotel bookings for Feb, March promising

Occupancy rate of five star hotels in the capital for February and March looks promising this year compared to same period last year. Most of the star hotels in the capital have seen 5 to 20 percent growth in their booking figures for February and March.

A survey carried out by Republica showed that Hotel de l´ Annaupurna , The Everest Hotel and Hotel Radisson has recorded an increase their booking figures for the coming months.

Booking figure at Hotel del´Annapurna for February and March this year has increased by 5 percent each compared to the figure of previous year. Booking figure shows that the hotel has received 70 percent and 75 percent booking for February and March respectively this year against 65 percent and 70 percent booking in the same months last year.

Raj Bikram Shah, head of sales and marketing at the hotel cites the hope for the stability in political situation of the country and increase in corporate activities as the reason behind growth in the occupancy figure. “As the country is heading towards stability, corporate activities of international level are increasing in the country. The flow of tourists which has decreased in the year 2013 is increasing slowly,” Shah said.

Shah added that the booking figure for upcoming two months shall increase further as tourist season begins from February onwards.
Most of the hotels in the capital have received bookings basically from individual segment that are here to participate in number of corporate activities and from Meetings-Incentives-conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) segment.

According to Srijana Maharajan, sales coordinator of The Everest Hotel, the hotel´s occupancy has jumped to 75 percent and 78 percent in February and March this year compared to 71 percent and 59 percent in the same months last year. “The increase in booking is mainly because we have received bookings from MICE segment for both the months,” said Maharjan.

Karuna Manandhar, assistant manager- PR and Publicity at Hotel Radission said that the hotels as received slight increment in the booking figures for both the months this year. The booking figures stands at around 65 to 70 percent for both the months. The hotel has expected the bookings figure to go up in the coming days.

With country moving towards the formation of stable government, hoteliers are hopeful that the flow of tourists will increase in the near future as security and stable political situation has greater impact in the tourism industry.

The statistics of Immigration Office at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) shows tourist arrivals from India and European countries have gone down in the year 2013. However this year, most of the bookings have come from Indian tourists.

source:republica,25 jan 2014