Foreign guides, vehicles eat into tourism income
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KATHMANDU, DEC 11 -
The much hyped tourism year couldn’t create jobs as expected and cost Nepal dear as the government put itself on the back foot in curbing the entry of foreign guides and vehicles.
Tourism entrepreneurs say government failure to prevent the increasing flow of foreign guides and vehicles forced the country to lose millions of ruppes. Tourists coming to Nepal from several countries, including India and China, are increasingly reliant on guides and vehicles of their own country.
“Even our neighbouring countries give first priority to their own resources and manpower. They strictly control the entry of foreign guides and manpower. But in our case, that is not happening. This kind of strategy won’t work no matter how many times we celebrate tourism year,” said Hari Sharma, chief executive officer of Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents.
According to him, the government has to come with immediate plans to stop tourists from bringing their own guides and vehicles. “Our focus should be on exploiting the local resources
and manpower.” He also said that any move aimed at controlling the flow of foreign vehicles and guides will not discourage tourists coming to Nepal.
“Other countries like India and China are more aware of this case. Their policies emphasise a lot on the exploitation of local resources. But we lack such a vision,” he said.
As of now Nepal has no record of the number of foreign guides and vehicles. According to the Nepal Tourism Board, Nepal received 593,542 tourists in the first 10 months of the Nepal Tourism Year 2011.
Some tourism entrepreneurs think that Nepal’s failure to produce skilled manpower and provide standard vehicle service has forced tourists to do so. However, President of Nepal Tourist Guide Association of Nepal (Turgan) is not ready to accept that Nepali guides lack standard. “Only Bachelor’s degree holders can get licenses of tourist guides in Nepal. Our guides are among the best in the world,” said Hare Ram Baral.
He also accused the government of announcing the tourism year “without a clear vision and policy”. The government should give jobs to all local guides by stopping foreign guides from working in Nepal, he said.
Currently, there are about 800 license-holder guides and the number of unregistered guides is said to be double than that.
It is said that there is a shortfall of Nepali guides with knowledge of Chinese, French, Spanish and some other languages.
Posted on: 2011-12-11 08:49
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