“Athithi Devo Bhawa”
This must have been the very first brand image that Nepal wanted to promote in tourism
through Sanskrit axiom during seventies and eighties. Though never official
this brand was quite popular and is immensely used among fellow entrepreneurs
and professionals even today. What does Athithi
Devo Bhawa indicate or mean can be a long discussion. However leaving all
philosophical details behind it just means treatment to guests like gods. Why
are they gods? Why should we treat them as goods, can again entertain unending
paraphrasing for clarifications. Looking at our cultural practices it wasn’t
wrong at any point to promote what we have. It gave ethical and moral
empowerment to the industry and of course a good thought to go along with. Since
the terminology is Sanskrit it is commonly used in Hindu philosophy giving way
out to embrace ethics into practice.
Impressions
were good during those times in seventies and eighties. Tourism was at its move
looking forward to expand even when it was distinctly not clear on its course.
Moments of truths and happiness were plentiful despite lots of hurdles an
inaccessibility seen in the industry. Limited hotels and luxury that this
industry offered had lots of positive word of a mouth spread among its potential
clients which at the time was only the major marketing tool to promote Nepalese
hospitality industry to the outer world. Though many things were not up to the
requirement at least available facilities were up to the standard.
After
1990’s like all the industry tourism too was there to face all the ups and
downs bestowed by the time. Initial
political practices after 90’s and immaturity did contribute to destabilize
this industry without anyone’s notice. People’s revolution of maoist did add
more to worsen the situation of hospitality industry which was looking forward
to move ahead. People at the time were not conscious and aware enough to
realize and calculate the loss that these political hurdles brought to the
industry.
Introspection
of all these years after 1990’s can give us multiple thoughts and ideology on the
direction we have undertaken from the tourism perspective. It’s been twenty six
years that we are in the process to make Nepal a better nation through peoples
participation. Well there is nothing wrong with that, however if we account all
the Nepal Bandha, Chakka jam, haadtal, and
other bitter experience in total we have created pretty much nuisance in this
country to spread enough obstacles for the hospitality Industry. This also
means for all these years we have created enough negative impression about our
country. The generation which collected best of Nepal in the past do not exist
at present vibrant market to spared goodness of Nepal and help us grow with our
tourism economy. Those people who visited this country for all these years and could
have talked about their good memories are now talking about their poor
experience during their stay. It is not a fluke when you meet people abroad
they do praise the beauty of Nepal as well as share their bad experience that
they have in their mind in a very positive way. “I did stay in your five star hotel and it had a good power back up”
dose not only indicate the great achievement of the managerial expertise but
also indicates that the person had awkward experience being in the country
where we had terrible power cuts in the city and did not meet his expectations.
Similarly the chairman of famous Blue Elephant chain restaurant in one of his
conversations mention about the garbage problems that he had seen during his
stay in Nepal. These are just few representative examples to imagine of how
many and to what extent we have lost our potentiality and possibilities that
could have possibly been earned in the industry. What are we selling now in
Nepal? Of course the world renowned heritage and natural beauty are there but
in case of life time experience as compliment, and beautiful moments of truth
that we expected our tourists to share to their countrymen is what we have
failed to cash. What matters most in the present world to the tourist is not
the commodities, goods nor service, in total it matters how good experience
tourist is able to carry along with them. Yes sometimes all the chaos and
disorder too can be an experience for the foreigner to understand the country
like ours, however those experience are not sellable and are not productive
enough for future references.
Gone
are those days when one used to sell their commodities, goods and services. Now
the era has already taken a long leap towards experience. The world is moving
towards experience economy and is already much ahead in the global picture. There
were times when one used to organize a wedding party at home and was helped by
family members and friends, it used to be cheap and reasonable later
commodification emerged, people looked for tent, cooks and few materials to
outsource to complete their occasions and now we have Party Palaces where you
pay fixed amount of money and get everything ready along with few complements
being able to collect all the fun you need.
Who
may explain better than those who have enjoyed Disneyland as a life time experience
rather than just being in the business property? This does not necessarily mean
that everyone needs to visit once. Nepal collectively is more than any business
offered to anyone in any part of the world. Once I came across a person who was
sharing his experience about his own incident as a tourist guide. He had to
take the tourist for a trek in the mountain region and had unfortunately failed
to guide him as he had an urgent call from his home. He decided to take the tourist
in his house where his wife was prepared to give a birth to a child and was
unable to attend the barren field to grow crops. Confused and in trouble the
guide used the tourist to plough the field where bulls were used and involved
him in his housework which was highly unethical but not illegal as we have no
such laws to address the issue. He was prepared to face the worst at his travel
agency. After couple of days of work he collected the guts to ask the tourist
about the stay. To his surprise the tourist was more than happy and was excited
about what he had just experienced. The tips and his remuneration was not only
rewarding but brought his wild experiment to a new level of insight. This was
not intentional nor was it supposed to happen. Many of these similar incident
collectively has given a new start to creative thoughts and practices in Nepal.
Inviting tourists to plant rice during monsoon, giving a wash to the elephants
in Chitwan, developing the concept of homestay in Nepal are just the few
commercialized experience among many that we can possibly develop. These
practices that has been unknowingly initiated has shown us the possibilities of
untapped opportunities that we can bring it forward to commercialize. This
paves the way forward for us to conduct more and more research in the days to
come and help nation to really boost its economy through creating incredible
experiences in Nepal.
Recent
research carried out by the Route Happy indicates that the travelers in UK are
happier to travel in the airlines with multiple features rather than in the
low-cost airlines with less facilities. Another research conducted on tripadvisor
in the reasons behind the selection of best destination, amazing facts were
revealed. It was found out that the selection of new destinations were rather
based on their inquisitiveness for new experiences. That was the reason why
more new destinations were getting popular rather than the traditional
destinations of Europe and America. Harvard Business Review during 1998 had
already written various articles based on experience economy, however the
impact is realized now in the global market. Realizing the fact about
experience, Hotels in Los Vegas Casino used the voice record of various stars
who had performed in the hotel to give a wakeup call to provide new life time
experience and it did work very good. Hospitality globally has already created
a long epic on these professionalism. However in the context to Nepal we do
have experiences that can be commercialized, abundance among various ethnic
culture and society.
Experience
that we can create with accessibility, product and service in itself is a
powerful marketing tool to brand Nepal as powerful source destination. Sometimes
doing nothing in comparison to trying everything can be a powerful message to
promote tourism. What is doing nothing can be generalized in terms of not
organizing Banda Chakka Jam and haadtal and other similar events that
can damage our brand image rather than trying to do lots of things? Nepal a
poor economy if only can remain stable, will achieve an unachievable goals in
hospitality industry without any new investments. Concerned stake holders need
to realize this in time. We don’t need any new investment to share our cultural
practices in to touristic experience. Most importantly keeping Nepal peaceful,
clean, secured and pristine does not need any new investment. Only the strong
political commitment to keep tourism away from all the possible disturbances
can do more than a billion dollar investment to enhance hospitality industry in
the days to come.
Experience
that Nepal offers is beyond ones imagination.
Visiting durbar square in Kathmandu
is not only to visit the historical monuments but is to enjoy live museum where
one can experience primeval practices still helping people in the location to live
their life. The beauty of the destination is beyond what it offers as heritage
sites. The mystery behind tourists increasing in Nepal despite all these
difficulties and discomfort is not because we have only monuments and sites, of
course they do play a significant role however the experience that one gets
beyond what is expected is the major driving factor.
It’s not amazing to find a stall at
floating market in Bangkok where after paying twenty baht you can feed a goat.
Well in Nepal too one can feed fish in Siddhipokhari and many other similar
sites and can also feed pigeon in durbar square sites for free. “Honey hunter”
chapter of Nepal did not only amazed the world but also proved the fact
unanimously that the local experience from various ethnic group too can be a
very strong sellable experience to offer internationally. What we all need to
do as said earlier is to be able to find out our pristine practices and trends
that can possible be accounted for the growth of national economy.
Will we be able to always sell the
same experience? We are looking forward
to open new trekking routes and are desperate for it? Side by side are we able
to introduce new product for memorable experience? If we are not able to design
memorable experience on our product and are looking forward to continue similar
experience we may not be serving anything new on the table. So just willing to
open a new trekking route because the old one is having less repeated guest may
not offer sustainable solutions to the business. It will not be wise enough to
expect same tourist to visit similar trekking routs again and again.
Let’s for an example imagine that if
a tourist in the trekking will have night halt in various hotels themed under
various culture, or will pay separately for the natural hot water springs and
water falls, goes feeding yaks after paying, pay separately for using animal
rides, get culturally dressed to various ethnic groups may not only contribute
to the direct income of the people but also will provide memorable experience
that one can share with their circles.
What we need to do more in the days
to come is, find out more tradable opportunities from the indigenous practices
so that people can really feel the diversification of Nepal not only in words
but also in practice.
References
Anderson,
T.D. (2007). The Tourist in the
Experience Economy. (Sweden: Goteborg University).
Gilmore.
H.J., and B.J. Pine II (2002). “Differentiating Hospitality Operations via
Experiences: Why Selling service is not enough”. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 43
(3):87-96.
Khanal,
R. (2001). Democracy in Nepal: Challenges
and Prospects. Kathmandu, Smriti Books
Pine,
B.J. II., and H.J. Gilmore (1998). Welcome
to the Experience Economy. Harvard Business Review.
Sharma,
P.R. (1983). “Nepali Culture and Society: A Historical Perspective”. Contribution to Nepalese Studies. 82(10),
1-2.
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