EDITORIAL: Tourism Decade – The Himalayan Times – Nepal’s No.1 English Daily Newspaper

Battered by the coronavirus pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war this year, the government has unveiled a ‘Nepal tourism decade (2023-2032) strategic action plan’ to revive the tourism sector, which contributes significantly to the country’s foreign exchange earnings. The strategic action plan was prepared by a five-member team headed by tourism expert Prachanda Man Shrestha. It hopes to increase the number of tourists to 3.5 million, not counting Indian nationals and those coming overland, by 2032. Average per day tourist spending will increase from US$ 48 to $125 while creating a million jobs in the tourism industry. This is expected to boost tourism’s contribution to the country’s gross domestic product to 10 per cent from the current 2 per cent.

Although Nepal is endowed with a rich culture, an irresistible natural beauty and a topography best suited for adventure tourism, it has failed to attract the desired number of high-end visitors and in extending tourists’ stay despite the increasing number of foreign visitors.

For too long, Nepali entrepreneurs have been selling the country too cheap to tourists. While average spending of a tourist in Nepal was $54 in 2017, it dropped by 22.73 per cent in 2018 to $44. Similarly, the average length of stay of foreign tourists here in 2018 dropped to 12.4 days from 12.6 days in 2017, despite the government’s three-year development plan (2016-2018) aim to increase the length of stay of foreigners to 14 days by…