We were expecting two million tourists to visit Nepal this year but it looks like we might not reach the target due to the widespread outbreak of coronavirus in China and various other countries. Even before the Visit Nepal Year 2020 campaign was officially launched, tourism entrepreneurs had serious doubt about attracting 2 million tourists to our land due to inadequate tourism infrastructure in our country.
Our Tourism Minister was in Australia at the wrong time but he didn’t want to cancel the visit at the last minute because he was dead serious in promoting our country no matter what. Thank God, he is not in China right now, trying to carry out another promotional campaign. I think our mantris’ advisors should at least read international news before they head out overseas to waste our taxpayers’ money.
Let us feel sorry for our Tourism Minister because he just can’t seem to get anything right. He now tells us that his ministry is looking for alternative markets such as the Sheikhs from the Middle East.
Well, those folks have plenty of money and they will only be staying at five-star resorts and flying charter flights all over the country if they do come to Nepal. Private helicopter companies and five start hotels might make a few Dinars but that’s not really going to help much. We need millions of tourists so that millions of us can save some money after they spend their dough here.
Maybe, it’s time to focus on us, the domestic tourists instead and make our national campaign a success. Yes, scrap all international campaigns and let’s focus on the people here at home for once. After all, it seems that we, Nepalis, spend more than the majority of bhukka tourists we get in our country.
A foreign tourist travels on a budget. Most of them work, save and then make plans to visit Nepal. Most of the tourists do spend most of their dough in India and then hop on a bus and enter Nepal to spend their last remaining hundred dollars. No wonder, you can get hotel rooms in Thamel for less than 5 dollars a day. Maybe, we should learn a thing or two from Bhutan.
Yes, let’s set a price like the Bhutanese. We want high-spending tourists, not tourists who spend less than a domestic tourist would spend when they visit Pokhara. Well, we can’t blame them for only drinking a bottle of beer in five hours while Nepalis drink five bottles in an hour. Maybe, we just need more Polish and Russian tourists and our vodka manufacturers can also make a killing as well.
So, it’s time for the folks at the Nepal Tourism Board and the VNY 2020 secretariat to spend some dough if there is any left, to promote our local places to us locals. It’s about time our government offered us rebates or stipend so that we, Nepalis can visit Rara, Muktinath and other beautiful places in our land.
How about offering us a thousand Rupees if we do get out at least a hundred kilometers away from our home and visit a local tourist or religious place?
I think the government used to have similar packages for civil servants. Our government should give us some dough back so that we can support local businesses as well.
Maybe, the government should come up with a new policy when it comes to promoting domestic tourism. If you do go to Thailand during Dashain and spend a thousand dollars then you should spend the same amount back home. So if you had fun in Pattaya and Bangkok during your five- night stay then you should spend the same amount of dough in Pathivara and Baglung.
So, what happens if you don’t have any dough to go to foreign lands for vacation? Then, the government should give us some of our taxpayers’ money back to fund our vacation here at home. Our incompetent communist government can at least claim to be the party of the people if it decides to give some dough back to the people.
We really don’t care if Bam Dev wants to be our PM through the window or the back door or wherever possible. We really don’t care if Prachanda becomes our PM again because not much will change in this country. But we will care if our government for once decides to give some dough back to the people instead of only providing funds and misusing our taxpayers’ money on their own cadres, contractors and cousins.
If the government really cares then it’s about time, it did something for its people. Our government doesn’t care about controlling corruption, pollution, inflation and frustration of the people.
For once, spend some money on the people. Let the people from Darchula visit Dhulikhel. Give them a free bus ride. Let the people from Lubhu visit Lumbini. Give them free accommodation. Our netas should understand that giving back sometimes matters to us instead of only sucking us dry.
Guffadi is a grumpy old man who blogs at guffadi.blogspot.com. You can contact him at maguffadi@gmail.com.
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