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Nepal tourism industry's honeymoon with India grinds to a halt

Neena Haridas in New Delhi

The honeymoon may be over, in more senses than one. Tourists' fascination for Nepal has suddenly become a thing of the past.

The Indian Airlines jet hijack drama which started in Kathmandu, seems to have cost Nepal's tourism industry dear. Tourist traffic between India and Nepal has plummeted.

Indian Airlines has suspended all its flights to Kathmandu. The only airline service to the Hindu kingdom is its own Royal Nepal Airlines. However, according to officials at the Royal Airlines, there has been a high rate of cancellation of Delhi-Kathmandu tickets.

Indian visitors to Kathmandu have called off their visit owing to the paranoia that has spread ever since the IC-814 got hijacked. Y S Seli was to fly to Kathmandu with his family for the new millennium. "Reports state that security conditions are very poor at the Kathmandu Airport, that the callousness of the officials is very disturbing. IA has cancelled its trips to Nepal. So have we."

Nepal has been a popular honeymoon destination for India's newly weds. The tourists are not required to have passports or visas to enter Nepal. Besides, a holiday in Nepal works out much cheaper than many of the Indian destinations, thanks to the promos from Indian tour operators and the Nepalese Tourism Board.

According to figures available with the Indian Association of Tour Operators, about half-a-million Indians visit Nepal every year, most of whom honeymooning newly weds.

However, the hijack has thrown Indian tour operators to Nepal off-gear. Subash Goyal, president, the Indian Association of Tour Operators, says, "We have always promoted Nepal very vociferously among Indian tourists. But things have changed now. Most of the Royal Nepal Airlines Delhi-Kathmandu flights are flying half-empty ever since the hijack happened. There are about two-three flights every day, but there are about 25-50 per cent cancellations on each service.

"I think this will completely jeopardise tourist traffic between the two countries. In fact, the IATO has urged the government to seal the border and make visas and passports mandatory for any kind of traffic between India and Nepal. This will of course lead to a lot of revenue loss for the Indian tourism industry. But I think it is better to lose some money rather than lives."

The Nepalese government representatives in India , however, do not fear a major fall in the tourist traffic to Nepal from India. Brighu Dungana, second secretary, the Royal Embassy of Nepal, says, "Our government has taken steps to find out what went wrong at the Kathmandu airport. In fact, we have constituted a committee to investigate the incident and appropriate action will be taken, depending on the report. The security at the Kathmandu airport is also being reviewed and a decision will be taken accordingly."

Asked what implication it would have on the flow of Indian tourists to Nepal, Dungana said, "Every year, about half-a-million Indians visit Nepal. In 1997, 420,1857 Indians visited Nepal, the figure went up to 480, 000 in 1998. Of these, 32 per cent were Indians. Although I don't have the figures for this year, the figure is estimated to be around 500,000. Hence, the tourism ties between India and Nepal are very strong, and I don't think this event will make a major impact on it."

However, the Indian travel agents do not share Dungana's optimism. An official at travel agency Transworld says, "As of now, only Royal Nepal Airlines flights are servicing the route. There have been some cancellations on the route. And I think this trend will continue for a while, till Indians get over the shocking event."

MB Thapar of Transnet believes that the rampant cancellations are a panic reaction to the hijack. "I think things will get back to normal once the incident cools off."

Nightmare on IC-814: IA Jet Hijack -- the full coverage

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