2011 has been declared as Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) by the Nepal Tourism Board, with its official launch due to happen on the 14th January. However everyone has been getting very excited by NTY months in advance and over the weekend we have seen pictures in the press of rather bemused, no doubt jet-lagged, tourists being greeted and garlanded at the airport as the first visitors of this auspicious year.
Nepal attracts around 600,000 tourists per year by air and by land although that baseline figure is far from clearly established. Some put the figure as high as 900,000, possibly - and most likely falsely - to give the impression that only another 100,000 tourists need to be attracted to reach the lofty 1,000,000 target. So how have the rhetoric and aspirations been translated into actions on the ground?
In the run up to NTY significant preparations have been hard to discern although political parties have stated that they will do their bit to make the initiative a success by, er, not calling protest strikes in 2011. If they hold to this that will provide some relief to a country that saw strikes on 125 days out of 365 last year. Over the past couple of weeks and rather belatedly (due to the delayed release of a budget for NTY) some tourist attractions have been getting a last minute face lift. These gestures overlook the fact that such dollying up has little or no impact on tourists who book what are expensive trips to Nepal months in advance and that many visitors from previous years, who could have been excellent prospects for revisiting the country, have probably vowed to never set foot in the country again having felt the inconvenience of previous strike actions.
Setting this aside, there are infrastructure problems to circumvent like the chronic failure of Nepal's one international airport to cope with existing throughput of tourists. Also, they will certainly not be ferried into the country in great numbers by the national flag carrier airline, Nepal Airlines Corporation with its one serviceable aircraft and 1,400 somewhat disgruntled staff. Once in country travellers between Kathmandu and Nepal's second main tourist city, Pokhara, have to contend with a deeply-rutted highway that is almost impassable. Alternatively they could fly but with three fatal domestic aircrashes in 2010 that carries a risk that some might baulk at.
So how will these ambitious targets be achieved and who can save the day? Step forward Mr Sunil Pant, Founder of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersexes (LGBTI) organisation The Blue Diamond Society and Chairman of the Pink Mountain travel and tour agency. The admirable and normally very level Sunil has joined the frenzy and poppycock by suggesting that of the 1,000,000 no fewer than 200,000 will be made up of LGBTI visitors. It is hard to imagine what could attract so many tourists of this sexual orientation who are unlikely to be excited by a few spruced up temples. One wonders also how his claims could possibly be verified in due course unless the level of information that is sought on disembarkation documentation becomes unpleasantly intrusive.
Anyway, let's hope that this initiative makes Nepal a pleasanter, more fun place to be in 2011 in spite of the political clouds that are now hovering well above the horizon.
