One is getting sick and tired of hearing the same regurgitated garbage from each and every industry, in particular from Nepali tourism "entrepreneurs". The 11 September attacks are only partially responsible for the present crisis in our industry.

Our "entrepreneurs" have brought this situation upon themselves by not devising creative solutions in marketting. And I don't blame them: they know not what they do, for they jumped blindly onto the tourism bandwagon.

The lack of operational aptitude and integrity towards tourism, and self-indulgence were their hallmark. They garnered ego-satisfying duty free four wheel drives with green plates, and the social respectability consequent of the construction of a star hotel.

They cared not that their valued god-like (atithi devo bhava) guests arrived in ramshackle cattle carts called taxis spewing smoke inside rather than outside. They cared not that hygiene in both the kitchen and guest toilets were essential, or that the bed sheets and table cloths were stained. They wallowed in their own prescribed levels of mediocrity.

It was so easy to accept this chalta hai mentality because we thought: "We are a poor country and our revenues are just not enough to look after these trivial requirements of the guests." Few hotels are a planned exercise, most evolved on the whims and fancies of the landlord who just made alterations to his home. Few worry about waste disposal, parking or other infrastructure. Hotels in Pokhara pump their sewage tanks into the lake on which they depend for their own water supply.

Much like the carpet, garment, pashmina, airline, banking, taxi, or the trekking industry, most tourism entrepreneurs plunged in to rake in the tourist dollar like there was no tomorrow. The quality controllers and the government's licensing authorities moved with the flow. The resulting degradation is evident.

There have been no creative ideas and approach to marketing many of these hotels and destinations. The only marketing tool applied is rate axing. Even the "two percent" Nepal Tourism Board has not determined for itself the level of quality, or applied any effort to repackage the Nepal product. The opening of more peaks lacks creative inputs and is the knee-jerk reaction of file-pushing finger-pointing bureaucrats. The height of creativity was locking the Buddha in by erecting a brick wall around his birthplace in Lumbini.
For a lesson in marketing, we need to look at the Indian state of Haryana. It had nothing going fo

it, but it taught other states rich in destinations, like Rajasthan and Orissa, how to make an impact. Why can't Nepal, which is so rich in the diversity of its tourism product, do a similar repackaging? Just shedding tears, pumping out vague statistical reports and organising interaction programmes will not help. Stop crying and pointing fingers, take responsibility.

Sanjay
Baneswor