Tourist length of stay down to 5-year low in 2014

Average length of stay of foreign tourists in Nepal dropped to five-year low of 12.44 days in 2014.

Statistics compiled by Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation shows tourists' length of stay decreased by 1.29 percent in 2014 compared to 12.51 days in 2013. Travel and tour operators say foreigners who go on trekking trips are the ones who spend longer days in Nepal. But trekking trails are getting shortened with the expansion of road network. This is one of the reasons behind decreasing length of stay of foreign tourists in Nepal, tour operators said.

Around 70 percent of trekkers visit Everest Base Camp (EBC) and Annapurna Base Camp (ABC). As per the packages currently sold trekking companies, average days required for Everest Base Camp trek is 12 days. Similarly, Annapurna Base Camp trek can be done in 10 days. Trek to Muktinath can also be done in 10 days. Given the scenario and the packages that Nepal is selling, it seems two weeks is sufficient to visit different places in Nepal.

Amar Bahadur Shahi, general secretary of Nepal Association of Tour Operators (NATO), said that expansion of road network in major trekking routes, increase in schedule by domestic airlines, and operation of late night flights by international airlines have contributed to decline in average length of stay. "Earlier, tourists have to wait for at least a day to visit Lumbini when they arrive in Kathmandu. Nowadays tourists, who arrive early morning, can travel to Lumbini or Pokhara in the evening after completing half-day sightseeing of Kathmandu Valley," he said, adding, "Not only that. Chinese and Malaysia airlines operate late night flight due to which tourists who come to Kathmandu from other cities can catch return flight on the day. This has decreased at least two days."

Tour operators also agree that packages that they are currently offering are of shorter days and that they have been failing to launch packages with new taste since long. Tour operators are selling the same destinations, mainly Chitwan, Pokhara and Lumbini, for the past many years.

"We have not been able to diversify products too much. We must accept that we do not have much to offer to make tourists stay here for a longer time," Raj Gyawali of Social Tours said.

The number of Chinese tourists has been growing significantly in Nepal in recent years. Though they come in big groups, their length of stay is rather short. This has contributed in overall arrival figures, but affected average length of stay.

The number of Chinese tourists increased from 113,173 in 2013 to 123,805 in 2014. Total tourist arrivals in 2014, however, went down by 0.95 percent to 790,118 in 2014 from 797,616 in 2013.

"We agree that we have not been able to enhance the taste that we have been offering to tourists. We have not been able to promote new destinations, give new cultural taste or offer new product and activities," said Ramesh Kumar Adhikari, chief administrator of NTB, adding that it is high time we promoted new destination and offered diverse options to tourists.

Adhikari said that Nepal Tourism Promotion Committee (NTPC) is working with tour operators to identify new products and redesign the existing ones to increase tourists' length of stay in Nepal.

"Once we redesign our products and offer new varieties to tourists, we can definitely increase their length of stay," he added.

The average length of stay of tourists reached the highest level of 13.5 days in 1996.

source:republica,13 august 2015