With Nepal declaring 2011 as the Tourism Year, tour operators in India seem to have revved up their focus on Nepal to make hay while the sun shines in the holy land.
The country has traditionally been preferred destination with Indian tourists thanks to its affordability and easy accessibility. However,Nepal had seen a dip in tourist footfalls in the last few years, thanks to the political instability in the country. It now aims to attract one million tourists in 2011, double the figure of 2009. According to the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), 2010 saw around 5 lakh foreign visitors coming at the country's only international airport, which is up 15 per cent from 2009. The country aims to bring in some 2.6 lakh to 3 lakh tourists from India during the year. The Indian tour operators are working on designing innovative packages. "Nepal gets a lot of business travellers from India every year. We are trying to design packages this year that will combine business, leisure as well as religious tourism. A business traveller can take his family along with him, and while he is busy working, his family could enjoy a vacation.", said Sanjeev Chhajer, vice president, Cox and Kings.
The travel agency is coming up with affordable packages ranging between Rs 18,000 to Rs 25,000 per person for a five nights package to Nepal. "The advertisements are likely to start from next week.", Chhajer said.
Another major travel portal Yatra.com expects to clock a 100 per cent growth in tourists to Nepal this year. After tasting success with a short trip package to Nepal that started in November last year, come summers Yatra.com plans to launch more elaborate trips. Gautam Kaul, COO, Inbound-Yatra Exotic Routes said, "We are planning to come up with a range of products for Nepal that would include river-rafting, treks, monasteries tour among others. We have already sent around 350 travellers to Nepal since end November last year, and within March this year, we hope to take that figure up to 600 people at least."
Sources in the travel and tourism industry claimed that buoyed by the renewed interest in Nepal as an exotic destination, many South East Asian hotel chains are mulling to set up 200-300 room luxury hotels at Pokhra and Kathmandu.
Also jumping on to the bandwagon, Makemytrip.com will now focus on providing customised trips to Nepal this year. Keyur Joshi, COO, Makemytrip.com says, "We have seen a dip in people travelling through us to Nepal in the last one year by almost 50 per cent when compared to previous year. For a majority of Indians it was a more relaxed hill destination with exotic appeal. There is a segment of customers who visit Nepal for trekking and rafting options but this adventure segment is small though growing category. Its also fairly popular amongst adventure seekers from other countries who club India and Nepal during their holiday." He added that while in the past they had created exclusive flight inclusive packages to Nepal, now they would focus on providing customised packages as per customer requirement in place of fixed itinerary group travel during summers.
A major reason behind the resurgence of tourists to Nepal is it is one of the most affordable foreign locations for Indians. Packages to Nepal start as low as Rs 11,000 per person for a three nights trip inclusive of airfares and sightseeing. Chhajer explained, "The unique selling point of Nepal is that it is an affordable foreign country trip for many middle-class Indians who aspire to go for an international trip. Now, that the insurgency issues are under control people are once again flocking to the neighbouring hilly country."
According to the NTB, visitor's arrival numbers from India to Nepal in in 2009 has been 27.7 per cent and around 23.3 per cent in 2010 of overall in-bound travellers, which is the highest by far from SAARC nations and other South east Asian countries put together.
