The arrival figure has exceeded last year´s arrivals by more than 4,000, said Devendra Thapa, information officer of Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP).

However, statistics of the project shows that the rate of growth of tourist arrivals in the region has consistently slowed in the recent years. “The volume of arrivals has consistently grown. But the rate of growth has slowed over the last three years. This is a matter of concern for all of us,” Thapa said.

According to ACAP, the number of tourists visiting the region increased by 5.3 percent in 2009/10, whereas the rate of growth in the previous fiscal year was 16 percent and the year before was 30 percent.

ACAP officials stated that the region had witnessed a sharp rise in growth rate in arrivals for the last three years mainly after the Maoists joined political mainstream and the positive impact of the beginning of peace process.

“The peace process rejuvenated entrepreneurs, visitors and the industry alike,” said Thapa.

However, instability, strike and slowed peace process again started to drive away the visitors in the recent years. In 2009/10, the region witnessed a substantial drop in the arrivals of South Asian tourists.

According to ACAP data, the region received just 7,901 tourists from the SAARC region, down from 8,735 recorded a year earlier. In 2007/8, the number of South Asian tourists visiting Annapurna region was well over 16,000. Likewise, arrivals of tourists from other countries in 2009/10 totaled to 72,065, up from 67,190 recorded in 2008/09.

“As the number of trekkers is going up every year, we can say the region is performing still good,” Thapa said.

Before the conflict began in the country, the region was receiving well around 75,000 trekkers every year. However, arrivals in the region dropped to just 36,000 in 2005.

Annapurna Conservation Area, which covers mountainous districts like Manang and Mustang, has been a popular trekking destination for visitors from Britain, Israel, South Korea, China, Germany, US, France and Japan.

According to conservative estimate, about 30 percent of total tourists visiting the country travel to the Annapurna region.

Source: myrepublica.com

MoTCA has suggested the government of Nepal to abandon visa fee at least for the campaign time in order to draw more foreign tourists to the country and make Nepal Tourism Year 2011 campaign a huge accomplishment.
Since, more than half a million foreign tourists had arrived Nepal in 2009, so the country has aimed a goal to greeting more than one million foreign tourists in 2011.

The motion have been send to Ministry of Finance to include it in the budget for fiscal year 2010/11 said, Mr. Laxman Bhattarai, Spokesperson and Joint Secretary of MoTCA.

He notified that the motion to present free-visa regime was worked out by the Nepal Tourism Year 2011 National Coordination Committee.

Recently, visitors from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation countries get visa free of cost whereas foreign visitors need to pay 25 U.S. dollars for visa for 15 days and 40 dollars for a month.

Canyoning entangles abseiling, climbing, jumping, swimming and sliding down steep canyon walls and waterfalls to deep pools below through close passages of twisted rock and powerful blasts of water.

Mr. Lal Kumar Shrestha, while opening canyoning, member of Nepal Tourism Board and chairman of Bimalnagar Siddha Cave Development Committee said, “Such a game gives much amusement and fun”.

Mr. Birendra Thapa, Police Inspector of Area Police Office, Aabukhaireni said, “Canyoning will help promote tourism in the western region.”

On the opening ceremony of canyoning, along with journalists, local people and security personnel participated.

Spokesperson of MoTCA, Mr. Laxman Bhattarai said, “The operating policy of home stay will be efficient from August 17, 2010, for Nepal, home stay is a new tourism idea that supplies economical adjustment to foreign tourists.
The prime aim of home stay is to enhance rural people’s participation in the tourism sector. It will also aid self employment possibilities to increase in rural areas. In behold of upcoming year, long crusade Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) 2011, the government has validated the home stay idea for Nepal.
For catering to tourists in the utmost season comprising the extra flow of tourists as part of NTY 2011, the government agencies are creating awareness and giving training in home stay to the rural population.

Under the home stay idea, anybody who has a home with at least 4 rooms can use the empty rooms for tourists’ home stay. The household should be able to give a taste of the local culture and food. As per the government rules for home stay, any house owner who would like to function home stay at his home should register at the Local Home stay Management Committee. The house owner must be able to give hygienic and well facilitated rooms and services.

A home stay is a cultural exchange in which a person visiting or temporarily staying in another country lives with a family in the host country. There are home stays for short periods (one night or a weekend) and for longer periods.

“It’s been years, there has been a ‘genuine hike’ in the remuneration of the tourist guide,” said Hare Ram Baral, president of TURGAN. “Last hike of two per cent was made on tour guide remuneration in 2007 after Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA) and TURGAN,” he said adding that they have proposed for a 60-70 per cent hike in the remuneration now.

According to the tourism entrepreneur, tour and travel sectors are parts of in the hospitality sector. So hike in the present remuneration currently can effect the tourism sector as a whole.

“We have received a circular regarding proposed hike in the remuneration of tour guide from October 1 but as the operators have already forwarded their quotations to the foreign agencies, the new rate cannot be applied soon,” said Hari Sarmah, chief executive officer at NATTA.

The new rate could be applied in the next season but not from October. “Different countries offer different special economy packages during their tourism promotion years, but in our case there is no economy packages for the Nepal Tourism Year 2011,” he said.

“The tourism service charges could not be hiked at present,” Sarmah added. “TURGAN decision is arbitrary,” he said adding that they conducted an expert research before the hike in the remuneration rate.

However, baral said that the rate has to be hiked about 150 per cent, according to the research. “However we have proposed only 60 to 70 per cent hike,” he added.

According to Baral, as there was no response to their proposal that they have forwarded on April 10, TURGAN was forced to send circulars on the new remuneration rates. “We have repeatedly urged for mutual talks but there was no response, Baral said adding that they are ready for talks if NATTA wants to hold talks with them.

“There is no hard and fast rule for determination of remuneration. It all depends on mutual understanding,” said Sarmah.

Though, the world tourism report states that there is an increment in tourist arrivals, the tourist mobility has decreased due to climate change, recession, conflicts and political instability, he added.

Source: The Himalayan Times

Thirteen-year-old Jordan Romero from California reached the top of Everest last month, becoming the youngest person ever to conquer the world’s highest peak after a climb some medical experts criticised as irresponsible.
Now Pemba Dorje Sherpa, who climbed Everest in eight hours and 10 minutes in 2004, is hoping to find a younger Nepali climber to beat that record next year — and is even considering taking his nine-year-old son.
“The last record-holder (said to be 16-year-old Temba Tsheri of Nepal) was a relative of mine. He held the record for more than 10 years, which made us very proud,” Sherpa told AFP today.

“Nepal is a small country and we do not get much good publicity. I want to take an 11- or 12-year-old to the summit because I think all the Everest records should be held by Nepalis.”

Sherpa, who lives in Kathmandu but was born in a small village high in the Himalayas, travelled to his home district this week to try to find a child to take to the summit during the 2011 climbing season.
But he said he had struggled to find anyone with a birth certificate in the remote district, where most women deliver their children at home and few births are formally registered.

He fears that would make it difficult to prove the record, and is now considering taking his own son, Tseten Sherpa, who turns 10 later this year.
Around 3,000 people have climbed Everest since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to conquer the 8,848-metre (29,028-foot) peak in 1953.
Several hundred have died, many of them falling to their deaths or succumbing to altitude sickness during the gruelling climb, and any attempt to take a young child to the summit is certain to attract controversy.
Nepal does not usually grant Everest permits to anyone under 16 and Romero, accompanied by his father Paul, climbed the mountain from the northern side of the mountain in Tibet.

But Sherpa said the tourism ministry had agreed to make an exception for a Nepali child seeking to break the American’s record.

Source: Himalayan Times

According to TAAN during the month of April only, it issued a total of 12,615 cards. Similarly, it has collected a total of Rs 13.716 million in April.

The government has made some changes in existing Trekkers’ Management Information System (TIMS) provisions that has been implemented from April 1. According to the government decision, NTB and TAAN will jointly implement the TIMS.

NTB and TAAN signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on March 18 to regulate the TIMS system under a new format. According to the MoU, they have introduced separate TIMS Cards for Free Individual Trekkers (FITs) and organised groups.

FITs need to have Green TIMS cards by paying Nepali currency equivalent to $20 per person, while those travelling in groups need to have Blue TIMS cards by paying Nepali currency equivalent to $10 per person. Trekkers taking the services from trekking agencies can pay fee for TIMS card in US dollar too.

Free Individual Trekkers can obtain TIMS cards at the offices of NTB in Kathmandu and Pokhara, TAAN secretariat at Maligaon and TAAN Pokhara secretariat in Pokhara upon filling the TIMS application firm. Trekking companies will collect trekkers’ data and enter it in the central database and will provide trekkers with a TIMS card after paying the fee. TIMS card is made compulsory to trekking through all the trekking routes in the country.

However, TIMS cards aren’t required for expedition members with mountaineering permits issued by the government and Nepal Mountaineering Association visitors to controlled areas having permits issued by the Department of Immigration, foreign guests invited by the government, authorities from the various diplomatic missions present in the country, who hold official letters and travel at their own risk.

Visitors on certain missions are recommended by the concerned governmental departments and foreign nationals possessing a residential visa.

TAAN and NTB under these provisions records trekkers’ details and issue TIMS card. Due to the lack of proper record system of trekkers and their exact whereabouts and the information about the trekking routes, rescuer and search mission used to face difficulties in spotting the missing trekkers earlier.

Source: http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=TIMS+card+pushed+revenue+collection+up+in+April+&NewsID=244451

Bharat Lama, chief of the tourist police department at the NTB, said they would recruit 34 additional police personnel within a few months to bring the total to 72. Lama, however, maintained that the increased number would still not be sufficient.

According to the NTB, there are presently 38 tourist policemen deployed in the Kathmandu Valley, Bhairahawa and Pokhara to serve the approximately 500,000 visitors coming to Nepal annually. It means there is one policemen for every 1,000 tourists per month. “We need a separate unit of the tourist police to bring efficiency in their work,” Lama said. The tourist police was established three decades ago.

Source: http://www.ekantipur.com/2010/05/18/business/tourist-police-to-be-expanded/314538/