But tourism entrepreneurs have said that enthusiasm is waning as the number of tourists starts to decline with the end of Tihar.
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Tourism, which had slowed down due to the impact of the Gen-G movement and protests on Bhadra 23 and 24, was further affected during Dashain when the highways were closed in places due to floods and landslides after heavy rains. The situation was different during Tihar. In Sauraha, which is located in the Chitwan National Park, tourists flocked to the area because the road was difficult to navigate. But this number has started to decrease with the end of Tihar. Therefore, tourism entrepreneurs are not very enthusiastic.
Asmita Mahato of Sauraha, who has been involved in the profession of guiding tourists in the park for seven years, was very busy on Friday and Saturday. On Saturday, she went to the community forest and the park three times to take tourists on jeep safaris. She usually took tourists once or twice. “There are just enough tourists today until Sunday. Now what will happen from tomorrow onwards,” said Asmita.
Chitwan National Park is the first destination for tourists who want to observe rare wildlife like tigers and rhinos. Tourists visiting Chitwan National Park enter the park through 10 different checkpoints in Chitwan and Nawalparasi (east of Bardaghat Susta). Among them, Sauraha is the checkpoint with the highest number of tourists. According to statistics, more than 80 percent of those visiting the park enter the park through Sauraha.
According to the information received from the ticket counter of the park in Sauraha, there were not many tourists on the day of Bhai Tika of Tihar. The next day, this number exceeded a thousand. While thousands of domestic tourists visit the park through Sauraha, tourists from SAARC countries are scattered. The number of other foreign tourists has not reached four hundred. Businessmen are not excited as the number of foreigners does not increase and the number of domestic tourists increases and then decreases.
According to Shankar Yogi, an employee of the park's Sauraha ticket counter, the number of domestic tourists on Kartik 1 was 1,388. After that, this number went down and fell to 211 on Kartik 6, the day of Bhai Tika. But on Kartik 7, this number increased sharply to 1,465. On Saturday, Kartik 8, this number reached its highest point. On that day, 2,563 domestic tourists visited the park.
The number of foreign tourists was 381 on Kartik 1. It fluctuated slightly and reached a maximum of 399 on Saturday. There are statistics that 32 SAARC tourists visited the park from Sauraha on Kartik 1. This number also fluctuated and reached a maximum of 87 on Saturday. That is, the number of SAARC tourists visiting Sauraha during the Tihar period does not even exceed a hundred a day.
‘The number of Nepalis was very good on Friday and Saturday. But that too seemed to have come to a standstill. It has started decreasing from Sunday,’ said Om Pandey, president of the Regional Hotel Association (HAN) Sauraha Chitwan. According to the details received from the Sauraha counter of the park, there are 1,176 Nepalis who bought tickets to visit the park on Sunday morning. There are 59 SAARC and 281 foreign tourists.
Although this number has increased slightly due to the addition of those who go in the evening, tourism professionals say that it will not surpass the previous day's number. 'The rooms were filled up to 80 percent for two days. Now it is decreasing. Earlier, the rooms were well filled from September to October, November and mid-December. This time, many bookings were canceled immediately after the Gen-G movement. So there will not be much activity in the coming days,' said Pandey.
Pandey said that this time, he hopes that the rooms will be filled up to 50 percent at most. Tourism professionals are worried that the number of foreign tourists has not increased significantly. The situation of hotels in Sauraha West, where foreign tourists come relatively more, is a little different.
Subhas Gurung, operations manager of Meghauli's tourist resort Barahi Jungle Lodge, said that there has been a good influx of tourists at his hotel since October 10, i.e., Asoj 24. More foreign tourists come to stay at the resort than domestic tourists. Gurung said that the rooms of the hotel, which has 90 percent foreigners, are currently filled to 80 percent. He expects this trend to continue until next month.
Chitwan National Park is the main habitat of rare animals such as the one-horned rhinoceros, the black tiger, and the gharial crocodile in the world. Tourists who come here ride elephants and wander in the buffer community forest surrounding the park. They also go on jeep safaris in the park and the buffer forest and do stone safaris on the Rapti and Budhi Rapti rivers surrounding the park. Three hundred thousand tourists from home and abroad come to visit the park every year. But recently, while foreign tourists have not been able to increase, domestic tourists are also on the decline.
