In his first floor bookstore overlooking the busiest street in Thamel, Paki is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the second tourist season of the year. "It\'s not that there are no buyers now, but there are too few of them," says the bookseller who has been in the business for the last two decades.
Parsuram Lama of Paradise Tours and Travels at Kantipath is busy clearing up credits with airlines. "We don\'t want to be bogged down by financial hassles during the season. If things are settled from the beginning, the season sales will run smoothly,\' he says, adding, with a touch of hope, "I don\'t think there will be much decline in the number of tourists this year.
As the monsoon comes to a sputtering end, for everyone invoked in the tourist trade, from the barefoot hawker in Basantapur to the suave manager of a five-stat establishment, from the \'private cab\' driver hanging around Durbar Marg to the travel executive whiling away her time in an air-conditioned office, the waiting is finally over.
It has been a long year since the record hordes who arrived in Nepal last autumn. The spring season was pretty dismal, first with the Y2K scare and then the Indian Airlines hijack. And with the rains tourism came to a near-complete halt. That is why the oncoming season holds special significance for the industry.
There are reasons enough for hope and one is the increase in international flights to Kathmandu. Singapore Airlines and Gulf Air have announced additional flights and Hong Kong\'s Dragon Air is beginning twice-weekly flights. Says Ashok Pokhrel, president of PATA Nepal Chapter, "There isn\'t a negative trend in the flow but the growth is not phenomenal either. The industry still has the confidence although we did go through a pretty rough summer.\'
The number of tourist arrivals by air till the end of August this year was 215.153. which shows a decline compared to the 249,286 who arrived over the same period last year. The fallout of the December hijack is clear in the number of Indian visitors to Nepal, gone down by 34 percent this year.
This is not a healthy sign given the huge potential that exists in the Indian market, says Pokhrel. "Four million Indians travel abroad annually, and we get only about a hundred and fifty thousand of them. With an open border, easily usable currency and a culture and religion so much similar to their own, we should be flooded with them, but unfortunately few people in the travel trade sector see that," he says.
Regardless of the figures so far, there is anticipation in the air in Thamel. The 1sq km area with over 2000 business establishments is being spruced up. "We are trying to tackle various problems tourists face. There has been a lot of cases of credit card overcharging cases, selling of fake idols and crafts. Indian products are being sold as examples of Nepali craftsmanship. All these things affect Nepal\'s image." savs Tejendra Nath Shrestha, president of Thamel Tourism Development Committee. "Apart from that, we are also serious about managing street hawkers, and providing securitv to visitors."
The Committee is planning to organise exhibitions and sales of Nepali industrial products, food festivals, street festivals and other tourist attractions. It is also working on standardising the rates for the growing number of Internet services centres and local groceries and bakeries, to discourage unhealthy competition.
Tour operators are hopeful that this season may not be as good as the previous year, but worries remain about longterm prospects. "This year we are expecting a moderate number of tourists, as usual. But the turnover for the coming years is unpredictable because of the rising political instability," says Shrestha. The Maoist rebellion is certainly contributing to the reduction in tourists, especially since travel advisories put out by various Western countries have specifically highlighted the Maoist threat in Nepal. But there are other long-outstanding issues that has hindered the growth of the industry in Nepal. Says Narendra Vajaracharya, president of Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN), "After the resumption of the Indian Airlines flights we were quite hopeful but the statistics didn\'t live up to our hopes.
The biggest problem in all this is the inefficiency of the national flag carrier. HAN is seriously thinking of dumping RNAC. and partnering with other international airlines in terms of promotion and marketing."
The Director of the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), Pradeep Raj Pandey, however, sounds upbeat. "Even with its limited infrastructure and budget, NTB is trying its level best. And our efforts have been internationally appreciated. In India we have tried to project the image that we are not anti-Indian as was perceived during the IA hijacking. I think the marketing in India will definitely produce positive results."
One can only hope that for the sake of the country\'s tourism his optimism isn\'t misplaced.
Robert Rieffel dead
Robert Rieffel. long-time Kathmandu resident and Nepal-lover, died last week in Maracaibo. Venezuela, at the age of 85. Rieffel first came to Nepal in 1961 for treks in the Himalaya. In 1970, he was designated general manager of Royal Nepal Airlines. That was when Air France was running the airline.
He stayed on in Nepal after his two-year stint at RNAC, authoring the classic tourist guidebook Namaste Nepal (Sahayogi Press 1990), which has also come out in French and Spanish. Later, he served as Belgium\'s Honorary Consul in Kathmandu.
Rieffel\'s wife was a dedicated social worker who died in Kathmandu in 1984. Rieffel was devastated by the loss. He later moved back to France and then on to Venezuela to live with his son, Mark. His son will bring his father\'s ashes to Kathmandu next month and will place it next to his mother\'s grave at the British cemetery in Kathmandu.
Born in Strasbourg, Robert Rieffel started his career as a correspondent for the news agency AFP in Eastern Europe during the Second World War. He was an avid mountain lover and had also written With Zimba the Sherpa and What Do I Know About Nepal.
