Tourism sector stucked due to continuous rainy

POKHARA, Oct 10: The tourism sector, which has been affected by the corona virus infection for a long time, had high expectations from domestic guests during this Dashain. The tourism sector, which did not receive foreign guests even during the main tourist season, was waiting for domestic guests during the long Dashain holiday. However, the tourism sector has had to bear the brunt of it as the flow of visitors has stucked due to continuous rain.

Most of the hotels not only in Pokhara but also in the surrounding areas remained empty due to the lack of domestic guests. Other times, during the long Dashain holiday, when domestic guests came, the hotels and restaurants in the tourist areas were full. It was a problem to get accommodation in the hiking area. Short-distance trekking routes were crowded with domestic guests. In the past two years, there was no shortage of visitors in the hiking area despite the fear of corona infection. However, this time the problem of Corona is less, but the tourism sector has to suffer due to weather disruptions, according to businessmen.

This time, due to the continuous rain, the movement of the guests has stopped and the tourism sector has been affected completely, the businessman said. Tulsi Lamichhane, manager of Queen's Park Hotel at Lakeside, said that this time, Pokhara has lost a large part of domestic guests due to the rain that started on the day of Dashain Tika. He said that even the guests who booked the hotel could not come. Due to the rain, the tourism sector has suffered a lot this time. The guests who came to visit on holidays could not leave their homes,' Lamichhane said, 'This time, Pokhara had high expectations from domestic guests. However, due to the rain, the guests could not reach the tourist destination.

Due to the corona infection, foreign guests could not come, at this time tourist cities like Pokhara had high expectations from domestic guests. However, he said that the expected guests did not get inside. He stopped where he stayed. Although some guests reached their destination, they could not return home," he said. "The guests who left home could not even visit. Couldn't even go back, had to suffer a lot. According to Lamichhane, this time, the tourist area was waiting for domestic guests during the Dashain holidays, but the hotel rooms remained empty as the guests did not come.

He said that in normal circumstances, guests who would go out for a walk after being vaccinated were locked inside the house due to the rain this time. Tourist areas everywhere have suffered this time. Even the Indian guests could not come. The guests who were going out for a walk with Dashain tika stopped at home due to the rain," he said, "If the domestic guests were affected, the hikers who went on the padayatra also stopped. The hiking route became completely deserted.'' He said that the tourist area has seen a big relief from domestic visitors in recent times, but this time due to the rain, it had to suffer a big loss. The hotel rooms remained empty. Even the guests who had booked the room could not reach their destination at the appointed time," he said. "Now the holiday is over. It is time for the guests to return.

According to Bharatraj Parajuli, a central member of the hotel association, during the Dashain holidays, the occupancy of hotels in Pokhara used to be around 80 percent. Before Corona, when it was the season for foreigners, it was easy for guests to get accommodation. However, even in the middle of the corona infection, the tourism sector used to be very active due to domestic guests. However, this time the tourism sector has been hit hard, he said. He said that the occupancy of Pokhara has risen to around 60 percent from the guests who have entered safely. The distance between Kathmandu and Pokhara is two hundred kilometers. But it took up to 14 hours to cover this distance. Parajuli said, "In normal conditions, the travel time between Pokhara and Kathmandu is 6 hours, but now the passengers have taken more than twice the time to travel. Such a complete journey does not benefit tourism.

He said that if the infrastructure is not improved in the coming days, the tourism sector will have to suffer on the highway even during normal rains. "If we do not pay attention to improving the infrastructure, there will be a bad day for the tourism sector in the coming days," he said, "If the tourism industry has to rely on the infrastructure in this condition, we will also lose the share of domestic guests." We have already lost foreigners.

According to Parajuli, the tourist area used to be very active for 3/4 days during Dashain holidays. To make the most of the holiday, the family used to go out for a walk with domestic guests. Some of the younger guests went on walks. The tour of the guests with family was in cities like Pokhara and Chitwan. However, this time, due to the rains accompanying Dashain, the guests could not go out for the tour, he said. Even after booking the hotel, the guests could not come. When foreign tourists did not come, domestic guests had high expectations from tourism at this time. However, due to the rains, the movement of the guests was stopped when the highway was blocked,'' he said. Tourists on foot also stopped. Some have returned home without completing the journey.

According to Hari Sharma, President of Hotel Association Gandaki, businessmen expected that Indian and domestic guests would come at this time. However, he said that all the guests were locked inside the house due to continuous rain. The tourism sector is very disturbed. The arrival of guests has become less," said Sharma, "Not only in Pokhara, but guests could not reach all the surrounding destinations. Even the guests who reached their destination could not return home. According to him, most of the hotel rooms in Pokhara remained empty as the guests did not come. The guests were equally shocked. They could not even reach the places where people live. Guests who left home also got stuck on the highway. As they could not reach their destination for a long time, the guests could not go for a walk,'' Sharma said, "Even the guests who reached the destination could not leave for the walk." Due to the continuous rain, it is not possible to go out of the house.'' He said that the tourism sector gets a lot of benefits because of the long holiday of Chandband, but this time it was cured due to the rain.

This is the season of Indian and domestic guests. While guests from third countries were stopped due to Corona, there was a weather barrier for Indians and domestic guests," he said. "The hotel should have been filled, but that could not happen. It became deserted everywhere because the hotel had to be filled up by the interior.