Tourist arrival in Mustang may go down

Tourist arrival in Mustang is likely to go down by 30 percent as tourist vehicles and taxis have not been allowed to enter the district due to the strike called by Mustang Bus and Jeep Entrepreneur Committee (MBJEC).

MBJEC has not allowed taxis and tourist vehicles to enter the district saying they have hampered their business. They have claimed that tourists prefer tourist vehicles to taxis.

Due to the strike, tourists visiting Mustang, especially the Indian tourists are facing difficulties. Hoteliers have also been hit hard as tourists have been cancelling their bookings. "My guests were supposed to arrive in the evening but they did not arrive till mid-night and I have to wait for them the whole night on Tuesday," said Bina Gurung, proprietor of The Little Asia Hotel located near the Jomsom Airport.

The season for Indian tourists starts from mid-April and continues till mid November but the strike of the transport entrepreneurs have created difficult time for Indian tourists visiting Muktinath.

"Most of our guests have even postponed their trips hoping that the strike would come to an end soon. The guests frequently ask us when the strike will come to an end but we are not in position to answer them," said Khagendra Tulachan, proprietor of Majesty Hotel in Jomsom.

Tourist visiting Muktinath are suffering as people do not carry enough money to prolong their stay, the expenses increase due to strike and tourist mostly bring two way tickets and cannot change it.

MBJEC has, however, are allowing the standard tourist vehicles like Land Rover, Land Cruiser and motorbikes to ply the streets.

According to a businessman in Mustang, the bikes charge the tourists arbitrarily to take them to Jomsom from Beni. "Earlier, the motorbikes charged tourists Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,200 to take them to Jomsom from Beni. Now they have been charging Rs 3,500 to Rs 4, 500," said locals.

It is not a problem for youngsters to travel by motorbike. But the elderly people who cannot walk or cannot travel so long in motorbike are having problem as traveling in green-plated vehicles are very expensive. "Elderly people cannot sit in motorbike in rough and long roads and hence they are suffering the most," said Gurung.

Every tourist cannot afford to travel in green-plated vehicles. "It is the right of the tourist to use the vehicle of their wish but the transport entrepreneurs are obstructing the tourist. They have even assaulted and harassed them," said the businessmen.

Transport entrepreneurs have even started checking the Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) of foreign tourists heading to the famous Hindu shrine of Muktinath in green-plated vehicles since the end of March.

In January end, 40 tourists from Malaysia had to produce their passport before the transport entrepreneurs in order to enter the Beni-Jomsom road. They said that they were compelled to produce the MRPs and other travel documents just to prove them that they were not Indian nationals after their vehicles were obstructed at Beni, Ghasa and Jomsom along the road section before they reached Muktinath.

"Transport entrepreneurs are behaving like it´s their private road and are forcing the government to allow operating black-plated vehicles only. We also have to operate our business. Every hotelier has green-plated vehicles and we must also be allowed to run our vehicles," said Tulachan, adding that the recurring strike has created a huge loss in their business.

"If this continues, the tourist visiting Mustang is expected to go down by more than 30 percent as most of the Indian tourist has already started canceling their trips. Indian tourists are budget tourists and they cannot pay more to travel in green-plated ones," Tulachan said adding that in other districts people spend lots of money organizing festivals to attract tourists but transport entrepreneurs here are pushing away tourists.

However, the transport entrepreneurs say that it is not that they wanted to push the tourists back they are having hard time due to operation of green-plated vehicles. "Our jeeps and buses are not getting passengers as tourist vehicles carry tourists directly from Pokhara. The green-plated vehicles must not be allowed to carry Indian tourist as they are our income generators," Jayendra Thakali, chairman of MBJEC told Republica.

source: republica,10 may 2014