Pokhara’s tourism has been badly affected due to the third wave of the coronavirus.
Lakeside, the main tourist area of Pokhara, which used to bustle till late night, now wears a deserted look. Presently, it is difficult to see any activity of tourists even during the day.
Hotels, restaurants, shopping centres and other business houses in the main areas of the lakeside are open. However, they are in a dilemma whether to open their shops or not as there is no business.
Tourism entrepreneur Som Thapa said, “Even though there is no business, we are bound to pay the rent, so why not open the shops? We are opening our shops only for cleaning these days.”
Businessman Raju Bhattarai said that increased risk of COVID-19 affecting tourist businesses like hotels, restaurants, hiking, mountaineering, mountain biking, cycling, lake boat rides, sky cycling, bungee jumping, paragliding, ultralight, canyoning and rafting along the cliffs are affected.
Laxman Subedi, president of the Western Hotel Association, said, “The occupancy of hotels in Pokhara has declined. Occupancy, which averaged 40-50 per cent during Dashain, Tihar and New Year, is not even five per cent now due to lack of visitors.”
According to him, the Pokhara region can accommodate 40,000 guests in a single day. But due to the pandemic, the government has ordered not to allow more than 25 people to gather and ask to adopt various health safety measures. Presently, only 200 to 300 tourists are found visiting the tourist area.
In January, there was a schedule of many programmes in Pokhara, including the general convention of Lions, a general convention of various organisations, and various examinations of the Public Service Commission, but all of them have been postponed.
Chairman of the Pokhara Tourism Council, Gopi Bahadur Bhattarai, said that the smart lockdown enforced by the government has hit the business hard again. Entrepreneurs who have invested even after the pandemic have been facing a hard time as they must pay higher interest rates.
The tourist area in Kaski has also been affected by the restrictions formulated by the district administration office.
According to the Nepal Air Sports Association (NASA), earlier some 500 tourists used to avail of services but now it is difficult to get even 100 tourists.
According to the Pokhara Tourism Office, there are 700 tourist hotels in Pokhara as of last February. About 500 of them operate in their own buildings while 200 from rented premises. In this sector alone, there is a total investment of Rs. 125 billion, including private investment of Rs. 50 billion and loan investment of Rs. 75 billion.
It is estimated that around 400,000 locals and 300,000 foreigners used to visit Pokhara in one year before the pandemic.
According to the data released by the Pokhara Tourism Council last year, there is a total investment of around Rs. 500 billion in tourism in Pokhara.
Source : TRN,
