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Don't ignore the national flag carrier

Posted by: TND | Date: June 04, 2008

Born on 4th January 1952, Manohar Rana is not a new name for those involved in travel trade business in Nepal. Director-Tours at Yeti Travels, one of the leading tour operators in Nepal, Rana has been in the trade since as early as 1970. A Masters in Economics from Tribhuwan University, Kathmandu,and Rana also holds diploma in French and German languages. Likewise, he has also received professional qualification, CMP (professional course for top executives from internationally reputed professors),from Austria. Rana is also the second vice-president of Nepal Association of Tour Operators. Throughout his stay in Yeti Travels, Rana has organized numerous WIP tours and has succeeded in bringing chartered Flights in Concorde and B747 aircrafts. He recently talked on different aspects of Nepalese tourism industry. Some excerpts:

You have been affiliated with Yeti Travels for such a long time. Tell us about the performance of Yeti Travels in recent years?

Rana: Well, I feel that the every individual have their own viewpoints on any thing. As you might be aware, our agency has been dealing with the up market clients. USA happens to be our big single country market and you all know that arrival from USA has not been that satisfactory in recent years. Unless that market shows
impressive improvement, I don't think our business will also improve. But I must say that the market is improving slowly. Earlier, we used to have around seven charter flights from there. Likewise, earlier they used to send us groups for five-day package tours. But now they are experimenting by combining the tour with India.

Under this, visitors will stay in Nepal for just three nights. Some three charter flights for such this package have been confirmed for 2008.

Likewise, upon our consistent request,they have agreed to send two Nepal only charter flights at the end of 2008. For this we have tried hard in
apprising them of present situation in Nepal and ensuring that tourists in Nepal are as safe as they are in their country. But it is still very hard to convince international tour operators because as per their consumer law they have to pay compensation to their clients even if they come across minor disturbances.
Even after the end of conflict, political situation in our country is not that stable. Besides, bandhs, strikes and other disturbances are still continuing. That is why travel advisories of some countries still advises visitors to avoid unnecessary traveling to Nepal. We have tried hard to soften those advisories. On the aegis of NATO, we even invited international media in Nepal so that they could assess the situation in Nepal themselves. Likewise, NATO also interacted with heads of diplomatic missions in Kathmandu some years back.

But we haven't received much success.If we look towards travel trends from USA, we find that visitors have shifted from culture and deluxe tours to adventure tourism. Likewise, international tour operators send visitors in small groups. Though some tour operators have started promoting Nepal, others are yet to include Nepal in their brochures. This shows that international tour operators are still
not convinced about security situation in Nepal.

After the end of conflict in the country, international visitors started showing interests towards Nepal. But air connection of Nepal to
rest of the world is far below satisfaction. We don't have direct flights to Europe. How will it affect the industry's post-conflict expectations?

Rana: I just talked about our most lucrative market from where we used to get maximum tourists. Besides USA, we have major markets in European countries and Asia as well. After many years of declining, our international tour operators have assured us of sending more groups with the end of conflict in the country. More tourists are now interested to travel to Nepal.

Besides, corporate movement is also growing at an impressive rate. This has led to the voluminous growth in the number of air travelers. But sadly, we don't have satisfactory air connections. In fact, lack of air seats has become a big problem for us. The flights of our national flag carrier are irregular and it flies
only to a few destinations. In the malfunctioning of the national flag carrier, international airlines are taking benefits and their flights to Kathmandu are always full. Though there are some big airlines flying to Kathmandu, our tour operators say that it is extremely difficult to get seats. Likewise, it is also very difficult for free independent travelers (FIT) to get air seats. That is why all Nepalese should realize that nothing can be the alternative for national flag carrier. We should all become serious in strengthening our national flag carrier if we want to promote our tourism industry. We are not witnessing significant growth in tourist arrival even after the restoration of peace and security situation in the country because of lack of air seats.

You said that a strong national flag carrier is a must for our tourism industry. But the powerful eight-party government doesn't seem to be serious about the national flag carrier. How do you see this irresponsible attitude of government towards NAC

Rana: I don't know what actually is happening. Because every time we talk with them, the political leaders say that they are very serious about our national flag carrier. They are also
aware that tourism can't prosper in the lack of strong national flag carrier. But their seriousness can't be seen in action. They only provide us lip service and hesitate to take
any concrete steps. It seems that tourism doesn't fall on the priority of the government. It might be because the eight-party government is working on to establish political stability in the country by holding constituent assembly polls. But I believe that the issue of the national flag carrier shouldn't be ignored on whatsoever circumstances.

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) was established as per the model of public-private partnership. How do you assess its performance?

Rana: The history of NTB is less than ten years so I think that it is a bit early to assess its performance. NTB was established as per the model of public-private partnership and it was a new concept during those days. Taking the public and private sectors hand in hand was a very challenging task. Despite their limitations on resources and expertise, I think thatNTB has been doing hard to promote our tourism industry.
I would like to say that NTB brought drastic changes in the way our promotional collaterals are developed and publicity campaigns are carried out. This has surely helped our industry a lot. It was never an easy job to promote Nepal during the period of conflict. But to some extent they have succeeded in doing so. I feel that it is very easy to blame and criticize and very difficult to work.

It has been nearly six months that NTB has been functioning without a chief executive officer. As some from the industry, who do you have to say?

Rana: Any organizations can't be expected to perform to, its best, if its topmost position is lying vacant, that too for such a long time. I would say that it is a grave loss to NTB and the industry as well. In the lack of CEO, not only the major works of NTB are pending, the employees are lacking a man who is supposed to guide them and steer NTB towards a better future. I don't want to blame anybody as such.
This has showed government's apathy towards this sector. It is high time the people at the policy making level realized the tourism potential of Nepal. We are so rich in natural resources that we needn't build artificial tourist attractions like other countries are doing. Tourism can be the only sector by means of which we can compete with other countries. What we need is an effective tourism policy and marketing strategy. All should set aside their personal interests and work jointly for the effective promotion of this vibrant industry. I request all concerned to sort this issue out immediately.

With the increasing tourist arrival in the country, hotels have decided to increase their room rates. Do you think it is a wise decision?

Rana: In a bid to check curtailing of room rates, NATO, sometimes back, organized a meeting with general managers of leading hotels in Nepal
and had asked them not to increase or decrease their room rates haphazardly. By reducing room rates we won't be getting more visitors but would be projecting ourselves as a cheap destination. I don't think we got more visitors by bringing down our room rates. It may have prompted some low-spending regional visitors to visit Nepal but it didn't increase the number of high-spending visitors from the Europe and America. Those high-spending visitors would come here regardless of room rates. Hotels have to increase their room rates because they are selling their rooms in a very low rate as compared to other countries. NATO has requested them to increase room rates in a planned way in different phases. Haphazard ncrease would only irk the international tour operators who are the ones that send groups to us.Furthermore, the tourism growth that we are witnessing at present can't be a sustainable one because it all epends on the success of constituency assembly polls. If constituency assembly polls aren't held on time, no one knows what will happen to Nepal.
That is why we asked the general managers of hotels to consider this fact before increasing their room rates.

It is often complained that ground handling, parking and navigation charges are very high at Tribhuwan International Airport. You have been handling many chartered flights. Do you think the charges are that high?

Rana: It is true that the chartered flight operators have been telling us that the charges at Tribhuwan International Airport are very high as compared to other international airports. After lot of complains that charges have been brought down to some extent. But still the charges are very high. These operators have been telling us that it is one of the factors that is hindering the growth of chartered flights to Nepal. I think that Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CCAN) needs to study the charges at other international airports in our neighboring countries and fixed charges accordingly. If we want to attract more international airlines, I
think this is one of the sectors that where we need to look seriously.

Any concluding remarks?

Rana: I would like to say talk less and work more. We talk high but bring it in practice. This should stop. Let\'s work together for the prosperity of tourism industry.