Modi visit expected to bring more Indian tourists

With Indian tourist arrivals declining, the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought a ray of hope to tour and travel operators of Nepal as his visit endorsed Nepal as the ´best destination for cultural and religious visit’.

Tourism entrepreneurs are hopeful that Modi visiting Pashupatinath, a big pilgrimage site for Hindus, will promote the destination to Indians and increase the arrivals of the tourists from the southern neighbor.

“Every person in India dreams of visiting 51 Hindu shakti peeths and two of them are in Nepal,” Modi said in his address to the Constituent Assembly. This reflects the fact that Indians are always eager to visit Pashupatinath. Modi also said that Nepal has immense potential in tourism.

Hence the visit of a person, who has a huge fan following, to Pashupatinath will definitely attract Indian tourists.

Govinda Tandon, the member-secretary of Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT), says that he has already started receiving calls and queries from India on how to visit Pashupatinath and how get to offer special puja at the temple.

Year     Indian Tourists visiting Nepal
2008    91,177
2009    93,884
2010    120,898
2011    149,504
2012    165,815
2013    180,000*

“Many have even asked us to provide the relevant information in a website in English,” Tandon says.

According to data from PADT, around 1 million to 1.2 million Indians visit Pashupatinath annually.

“If we can provide facilities like banking and lodging around the area, we can attract more Indians,” Tandon say, adding that the construction of the Nepal-Bharat Maitri Pashupati Dharmashala will begin within three months. This will also help increase the number of tourist as those visiting Pashupatinath will have a better place to stay near the temple.

The live broadcast of Modi´s visit to Nepal by Indian television channels should play an important role in promoting Nepal.

Entrepreneurs say this conveyed the message to the Indians that Nepal is safe to visit and they should visit Pashupatinath where Modi offered special puja.

“There are millions of Indians who want to visit Nepal as most of the Indian community believes that Nepal is the ´country of gods´. Pashupatinath, Mukinath, Kailash and Janakpur are top in their lists,” Jyoti Adhikari, the managing director of Eco Trek International, says, adding that Nepalis can benefit from the Indian segment.

However, Adhikari points out that Nepalis should change the way they treat Indians as in many places Indians are not treated the same way other foreign tourists.

With Modi´s visit, most of the tour operators are preparing special packages for Indians visiting Pashupatinath and other shrines.

“Modi´s visit has added value. But more needs to be done to attract more Indians,” Ashok Pokharel, the president of Nepal Association of Tour Operators, says.

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) is also launching various programs to promote Nepal in India this fiscal year.

“We have also done enough homework to open our office in India,” Aditya Baral, the spokesperson for NTB, told Republica.

Tour operators are hopeful the visit has spread a positive message about Nepal and will mean more business from religious tourists.

“We are hopeful that religious tourists from all over the world will increase as Modi´s visit has strongly advertised Pashupatinath around the globe,” CN Pandey, the managing director of Samrat Tours and Travels and also the vice president of Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents, says.

MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE
Even after the massive promotion that Pashupatinath got from Modi´s visit, PADT’s Tandon says the government and the travel trade industry have to work hard to capitalize on it.

Travel-trade entrepreneurs also urge the government to request the Government of India to provide special concessions and facilities to its Hindu pilgrims while visiting Pasupathinath and Muktinath, like ones Muslims get while traveling to Mecca for Hajj.

“If India’s government extends its area of Leave Travel Concession for its employees to Nepal, we would have a huge tourist inflow. If it provides special concession to Hindu pilgrims and government employees, then benefits from Modi´s visit would be more tangible,” an entrepreneur said requesting anonymity.

“Modi´s visit was trending on news and social media, so information about Pashupatinath has spread widely. But this is not enough to bring Indian tourists to Nepal. NTB should play an active role to promote Nepal in India,” Purna Chandra Bhattarai, joint secretary at the Ministry of Culture Tourism and Civil Aviation, says.

“We need to strongly promote our unique products which have no competitors in the world,” Umesh Gupta, the managing director of Abhiwadan Holidays, says.

TREND OF INDIAN TOURIST ARRIVALS
Indian tourists have been topping the list of arrivals to Nepal. However their numbers have been declining recently due to the closure of casinos. In June, the number of Indian tourist visiting Nepal dropped 2.21 percent to 19,323 tourists, down from 19,760 tourists in same period last year.

Likewise in May, their numbers fell 7.04 percent to 18,720 from 20,138 in May 2013. Nepal served around 180,000 tourists arriving by air in 2013, up from 165,815 in 2012.

Most of the Indian tourists visit Nepal by land. However data of these tourists is not recorded. Estimates put their figures at around 1 million on average arriving annually through land.

Looking at the trend of Indians visiting Nepal, they mostly come for holidays and pilgrimage.

However the length of stay for Indian tourists is the lowest among the major source countries. The average length of stay for an Indian tourist was 9.34 days in 2012.

source: republica,7 august 2014