NepalTOURISM, NEPAL
Porters at a rest stop along the route to Sedua
Courtesy Linda Galantin
Tourism was a major source of foreign exchange
earnings.
Especially since Mount Everest (Sagarmatha in Nepali) was
first
climbed by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tensing Sherpa in 1953,
the
Himalayas have attracted foreigners to Nepal.
Mountaineering and
hiking were of considerable interest as were rafting,
canoeing, and
hang gliding. Tourism was facilitated with the opening of
airways
to Kathmandu and other parts of the country and the easing
of
travel restrictions.
In the 1950s, there was a shortage of hotels. Beginning
in the
1960s, the government encouraged the building of hotels
and other
tourist facilities through loans. According to government
statistics, between 1985 and 1988 the number of hotel
rooms
increased from under 22,000 to more than 27,000.
Prior to the trade impasse with India beginning in
March 1989,
tourism had grown by more than 10 percent per year for
most of the
1980s. Between 1985 and 1988, the number of tourists
increased from
approximately 181,000 to about 266,000. More than 80
percent of the
tourists arrived in the country by air.
In FY 1985, more than US$40 million worth of foreign
exchange
was earned through tourism. By FY 1988, this amount had
increased
to more than US$64 million. In FY 1989, tourism accounted
for more
than 3.5 percent of GDP and about 25 percent of total
foreign
exchange earnings. The 1989 trade and transit impasse with
India
negatively affected tourism because the transport and
service
sectors of the economy lacked supplies. Beginning in FY
1990,
however, Kathmandu initiated a policy to allocate fuel on
a
priority basis to tour operators and hotels.
Data as of September 1991
|