Pokhara, Machhapuchhre and Danfe

Basantapur Durbar Square and Pokhara at its best

TOURISM IN NEPAL

TOURISM IN NEPAL

“Let’s make it better”

        *Rabin Sapkota

Something very commonly debated topic, topic that fails to pinpoint on the objectives that can be accomplished and the opinion and thought that gets marginalized. Nepal, pioneer of tourism industry in the region with plan policy and strategic document is still in predicament not knowing what this industry offers. The problem is not in the lack of opinion, people with brilliant ideas come forward everywhere but putting those ideas into systematic development has become something that we see as immense unsolved task.

Doing what we were supposed to do could have taken us all into entire new level however the ground reality does not reflect the tangible picture as shown in the documents. The problem with the leadership is everywhere, politicians prefer populist speech and populist speech does not count little and important tasks that needs accomplishment rather prefer hypothetical agendas that can entertain mass.

It’s high time that the country needs to think on those small and minor issues that can make tangible effect on the picture and correct our working pattern. World is a common ground where every country is competing with one another for quality and performance to embrace the benefits that this industry offers. It is only us and our commitment that can change the scenario.

Amenities: Sometimes people wonder, Nepal a strategic location between such a huge population south and north keeps us away from all the possibilities. The reason behind these faded hopes is nothing more than our incapability’s to develop appropriate destinations and facilities according to the time spectrum. What if we had cable cars connecting snowline in all our five development regions? Do we have to worry about tourists from hot and humid India?

Ambiance: When tourists from third country enter Nepal via India they hardly realize if they have entered the new country. Border check point performance is under the benchmark and if any tourist without realizing that it had entered Nepal goes back to India will definitely think that the person never entered Nepal, so grumbling hear in Kathmandu that “Buddha is born in Nepal” is like an irrational statement. All Nepalese are well aware about the strong ambiance one has to come across when visiting Tatopani through Miteeri Bridge. Unless we create similar ambiance while entering Nepal no tourist will realize where they are, so naturally if the ambience is created in the entry point we don’t have to spend millions in marketing and the message will flow naturally to concerned stakeholders and visitors.

Brand: Advertisements are no more effective in tourism marketing though it does still have some impact. “Word of a Mouth” is indeed a vital icebreaker yet in the country like Nepal verbal recommendation from the tourist is not safe from their unprecedented ethical and unethical experiences. Introspection on experiences gained by the tourists for last 30 years and its analysis will tell us what impression we have created in Nepal for the prospective new visitors. There were times during 70’s and 80’s that Nepal truly was natural and of course the guest were treated like gods as guided by cultural ethics. The worst and the best part of Nepal is that it is still not facilitated with modern infrastructures, which makes most part of the country no better than what it was before, so on this ground tourists can still enjoy Nepal as any tourists that had enjoyed Nepal  during 60’s and 70’s. However modern professional growth and exposure of Nepalese in the international market cannot be undermined in the recent years. There is no doubt that Nepal is desperately looking for the new brand that can be established and can be suitable for the country image. Bringing new words as brand or slogan may be easy but what is truly forgotten is that the brand and image of the country relies on the combined factor of all the variables that are involved in making this industry. Fragile structure, underperformance, unprofessional behavior may not support any beautiful combination of words that we put forward. There is no option and alternative to everyone’s collective effort to upgrade this industry the way we think is better.

Religious Tourism: Once one of the Vietnamese person came across the statement mentioning that Buddha was from Vietnam. In Thailand people think that Buddha is from their own country. Most of the Chinese have no idea where Buddha is from. These are not just mere mistakes they truly reflect how insignificant our performance is on the prospective market. Similarly most of the Indians have no clue that Nepal is the land of gods and sages. Many people who reside in Nepal are the true inheritance of those bloodlines. Nepal is not just the country of Hindus but also possess strong spiritual environment that can flourish mental peace and prosperity.

So what is sellable here in Nepal is not only the religious destinations and its value but the experience that one gets and can experience is beyond ones expectations. Diversity and practices in Nepal is more than an open university. One just needs to come up with open mind.

Cultural Tourism: Well Nepal definitely is poor in many economic terms but there is no another country in the world who can boost its cultural enrichment despite severe poverty. Surprisingly even at this poverty level people here are calm, tolerant, and ethical, contains high moral values unlike many developed countries. The term culture does not only indicate at what we practice now but also indicates what makes us do so that is different and is a lesson that can aware the world in many terms. Rites and rituals practiced in this country is very much related to modern terminology that intellectual society uses in abundance to create global awareness. Of course the present society is strongly influenced by the modern achievements however certain behavior practiced by the society is amazingly a lesson to all humans. 

Accessibility: There is plenty of typology in tourism that can be discussed about however any pristine location or place that is available as a product is not far from its inaccessibility. What if Pokhara was not connected with the roadways! So is the case of other destination that if possibly had access could have unimaginable breakthrough.

Product: It’s a lame idea to depend only on one typology of tourism. Our misconception that was built during 60’s is still at large on our minds. It surprising that we still strongly believe that tourists come for mountains and nothing else. Without realizing the fact that the tourists arriving for trekking hiking and mountaineering consists a very small portion and size in the world. This narrow mindset among the stakeholders has stopped us from going beyond normal practices and harvest the possibilities beyond horizons. 

Rabin Sapkota is a Program Supervisor of Masters of Hospitality Management Program in Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM). Conducted in Affiliation with Tribhuvan University

Mt.Dhaulagari

Annapurna Range Nepal

Beautiful Mountain of Nepal 

Pokhara: Believed to be one of the most beautiful place on Earth (Nepal)

   

INTROSPECTION OF HOTEL INDUSTRY IN NEPAL 2015

Despite ample of opportunity industry which is overrated at all times comes to us in pathetic shape never like before. There were times when this industry used to boast its blissful status with less than half the tourists compared to now visited Nepal. At present earthquake that divested the industry and an Indian blockade that took the whole lots of hope in despair does not indicate any relevance to the management practice that we have been following at present.

What have we done? It is indeed always very easy to pin point at somebody else, politics, leadership, disaster, violence, unionism, whatever may be our answer that we may declare appropriate never solve challenges that we are facing at present. As a business, does this sector even have sufficient grooming to be called an Industry? What in the world will anyone do without diligent and competent human resource than to linger? When will we realize the fact? Of course employee turnover is high but is that the problem without solution? Yes the society has upgraded itself to 21^st century but have we ourselves seen problem from those prospective of new generation? How can we claim that the system established during sixties and seventies should still function?

Veterans of this country found it important to establish this sector as an industry much before many nations in the region and around the globe were not even close to the idea, however achievement that we have made all these years is nothing more than “a bubbles of reputation” nothing stable nor countable.

Lack of transformation in employee dose not only mean increase in salary, working environment and hours, holidays and facilities, job satisfaction, performance and appraisals these are only few components that has distracted newcomers in the industry.

Operational issues just provides a gloomy picture.

Human Resource: Nepalese people are famous all around the globe leading this industry except in their own country. Looking into details it’s not surprising to find many doing good as mid-line managers and even general managers of star hotels around the world. Sadly there are only countable managers that are capable of holding the post of general managers in Nepalese star hotels. Situation in this industry is beyond managerial analysis and is funny most of the time.

“Students who go to Five Star Hotel for their research gets the very humble answer almost every time:  We would love to help you but these issues are something we can’t address this time or there are no one to come into your contact so we can’t help you”.

Why these reactions are funny is primarily those who reply are most of the middle line managers and don’t exactly know what research mean to their organization and are afraid that their mere errors will be spotted or even the managers with higher education don’t have the confidence to understand what suggestions and feedback they might come across or most importantly what they are afraid is that the researcher might come across those loopholes and their deceitful activities which they have maintained with local government authorities. While doing so what this industry really is missing, is the billion dollar idea and suggestions that every new and young researcher brings to this industry and revive the worst case scenario to their own rescue and advantage. If competitive corporate culture was in existence these industry would have hired researcher to improve their weakness and improve themselves and now even when students on their own purpose come across them to find their rooms to improve and support the industry people on these sector not only show ignorance but also find it useless activity and are avoided most of the time.

Contemporary situation indicates best manpower are being consumed by banks and are screening significant progress in the region, however hospitality industry is facing massive brain drain and are unable to compete with those regions in the middle east which either don’t have much attractive pay scale. Looking at the reason beyond the cause reflects massive mismanagement within the industry. Hotels in Nepal does not have any trend nor culture to overcome employee turnover and the industrialists are happy thinking that they are able to exploit maximum from their employees unable to understand the fact that the overworked employee are counterproductive for the organization.

Hotel industry unable to upgrade its working culture and environment is facing massive ignorance from the prospective candidates produced from academic institution in the recent years. Traditional and classical working environment and culture in Nepal has compelled many diligent manpower to look for better alternatives in the global market and Nepalese hotels never come to their priority list. Solution is not only the payment, primarily hotel as an organization is unable to present the glamour that this industry needs, working hrs are terribly mismanaged, behavior are below standards as many employee are found to be overworking and management is busy fishing in the blurry atmosphere.

No matter how bleak this article must have been, if taken positively there are ample of Bright-side that can lead us to prosperity. If we are at worst condition due to various reasons there is no better opportunity than this to upgrade our systems and working environment to entire new level.