TOURISM IN NEPAL

Tourism is an industry where facilities like feeding, lodging, entertainment and others are provided and related trade, business and production activities are conducted to serve people coming to the country with religious, educational, entertainment, political and economic purposes. People travelling to know and understand with various purposes are tourists and to a product, do business and provide facilities according to as well as managing transport are the activities that we call tourism. These are the works related to tourism industry. A large portion of a country’s population is involved in such activities. We can have a huge economic gain from this. So, Such kinds of activities kinds of activities meant for the promotion of tourism come under tourism industry. The tradition of foreigners coming of Nepal started after 2007 B.S. After that Nepal remained open to foreign countries. Before that, some religious preachers and missionaries had come to Nepal. Some of them had studied and researched about Nepal.

The tourism industry has a great potential in Nepal because of socio-cultural diversity and different natural scenarios. There are thousands of tourist spots in Nepal. Thousands of tourists come to Nepal today as a part of adventure tourism to climb mountains. Thousands of foreigners come to Nepal as a part of the religious pilgrimage to visit Lumbini, the birthplace of the forerunner of peace Gautam Buddha, and the land of Pashupatinath. Tourism has a great potential in Nepal because of Nepali castes/ethnicities, tourist spots, geographical diversity, religious places and ancient art and culture. On the other hand, Nepal is a religious center for the Hindus of India and Buddhist of China where the number of tourists coming to Nepal is very great. In addition, the mountains, lakes and nature conservation areas are also attractive tourists centers. So, there is a strong possibility of developing tourism as an industry in Nepal. Many tourists are coming to Nepal to see different religious pilgrimages, mountain ranges, natural geography, land, lakes and waterfalls. They also come to observe the ethnic groups, languages and cultures. This has a great potential too. Master plan had been revised and envisaged to promote tourism and to give priority to institutional issue for a period of ten years in 1972 A.D. It was done to make policy level reform in the tourism sector and to give clear direction to its development. In this context, the year 1998 was declared ass visit Nepal year, 2002-03 was declared destination Nepal year as a campaign for creating awareness about it. The government of Nepal Has declared 2011 A.D. as tourism year and preparation program are being held. Tourism has already been established as an industry.

There were a lot of possibilities of strengthening our economy by earning foreign currency through the development of tourism industry. It can create job opportunities for thousands of Nepali people. It can also help in promoting our skill, knowledge and art. Small and big investors can invest money. It activates the entire economy. But there are a lot of challenges for the tourism industry in Nepal due to the lack of infrastructure and peace and security.