Hotels inside the Chitwan National Park to relocate

Six hotels inside Chitwan National Park (CNP) have yet to start preparation to relocate their resorts although their renewed deadline to vacate the land leased out to them by the government will expire by mid-July, 2012. 

Though their lease contrat expired in 2009, the government had pledged them additional time to relocate their hotels considering the Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) 2011. The decision was taken after Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Parliament instructed the government for the extension. 

The hoteliers at that time had strongly criticized the government´s intention not to renew the contract. But when the government stood firm on its stance and declined their requests for extension on the instruction of Natural Resource Management Committee (NRMC) of the parliament, they later sought additional time for the relocation. 

Contrary to the NRMC´s instruction and their own commitments expressed then, hoteliers are once again hoping the government would again consider their cases and will pledge them the new extension. 

The hotels are blamed for the degradation of natural habitat of wild animals as well as the environment inside the park, which the hoteliers completely disagree. "Hoteliers are instead helping the conservation efforts and there has been no degradation of the environment since the day of the operation of the hotels” according to the hotel owners inside the Chitwan park.

The umbrella organization of hotels, Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) has sent a request to Prime Minister Office to review the previous decision and to allow the operation of the hotels inside CNP.

Tourism revenue falls in Nepal

Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) may have brought a record number of tourists in 2011, but their average per day spending has dropped to a 10-year low.

Arrivals reached an all-time high of 735,965 in 2011, up 22.1 per cent compared to 2010. But average spending by tourists has dropped to US$ 39.90 last year against US$43.20 of 2010, according to a preliminary study of the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA). The average spending in 2011 has been calculated at the exchange rate of 78 rupees per US$ 1.

Government officials said that the reason behind the fall in tourist spending despite a growth in numbers was yet to be ascertained. However, they said that three major factors could be possible reasons—an increase in same-day visitors particularly pilgrims from the Southeast Asian market, a drop in quality tourists and their length of stay.

Although pilgrims are considered to be big spenders in other countries, lack of tour packages by Nepali agencies has forced them to buy travel packages offered by Indian agencies. Travel trade entrepreneurs said that over 90 per cent of pilgrim packages were being managed by Indian travel agencies.