In the last 10-15 years, the tourism situation in Nepal seems to be weaker than the previous 20/25 years. Even our understanding and practice have not been able to advance tourism in the right direction. Tourism in particular is a purely technical and commercial sector.
But, we have it as education, health and social sector We have made the idea that it should be delivered from house to house, from village to village. As Nepal is a country with limited resources, scattering few resources in many unproductive places is not bringing positive results.
Looking at Nepal's tourism infrastructure, about 1.2 million international tourists visit Nepal annually. According to the 2018 survey, about 12/13 lakh tourists come by road. There are enough destinations in Nepal for so many tourists, if those destinations can be upgraded, the number of tourists can be increased. However, according to the current thinking and understanding, it is not practical to bring tourists from house to house, from village to village. Even if we look at successful tourism models in the world including France, Spain, Thailand and Malaysia in Asia, it is found that tourism activities are concentrated in a limited area and the benefits obtained from it are brought to villages.
Nepal's tourism board and other government agencies have shown activeness in immediate work, but there is a lack of long-term planning and homework. This has hindered the productive work. Currently, there are talks of establishing tourism councils and boards at the provincial level. However, due to apparent lack of modality, proper allocation and utilization of resources has not been achieved. In countries such as Scotland, resources and programs are at the provincial level but implementation is at the federal level. In India, it is the states that make and implement the programs. There is no modality in Nepal. This results in resources being allocated but not being spent . Even if it is spent, it is not being done in a productive manner .
