Nepal Now / Stories / Archive 2016
The Journey of Nepal’s Tourism Recovery
Published· Stories
As they say, for every dark night, there is a brighter day. After facing numerous spells of bad luck, things are eventually falling into the right place for Nepal, and Nepal’s tourism industry is eventually getting back on its feet.
During the ITB Berlin 2016, ATTA Executive Director of Europe, Chris Doyle, participated on the Nepal Recovery Panel and showed “Adventure Week – Rebound Nepal,” a short film produced by ATTA’s Storytelling Team during its October 2015 return to Nepal. The film showed ATTA and partnered organization contribution and involvement to convey the ATTA efforts led by ATTA President Shannon Stowell.
After an initial attempt to help Nepal by bringing in relief materials immediately after the quake, ATTA learned that wasn’t the permanent and the most effective solution to help Nepal bounce back. “We needed to ask [the Nepali people] what they needed and then to listen,” Doyle stated, “Everyone wants to do good, but unless you ask first, you’ll never know what they need. In the end, the Nepalis wanted travelers to return. So, the ATTA mobilized to help spur a return of media and traveler interest to this Himalayan country.”
After brainstorming and simply reconsidering their role, the ATTA team finally decided on doing what they were best at – supporting Nepal for responsive tourism development and promotion. “We decided we would volunteer an entire team to Adventure Week Nepal, to try to encourage travelers to return to Nepal, a destination largely dependent on the tourism industry,” Doyle stated.
According to Deepak Raj Joshi, CEO of Nepal Tourism Board, “The damage to Nepal’s perceived image was much bigger – visitors in source markets still think Nepal cannot be visited.” His goal was to deliver the truth around the globe. Though Nepal was deeply affected by the tragic event, the country was ready for tourism. Statistically, only 10 districts out of 75 districts in Nepal were affected and the only way to see how things on the ground was to assess through visit.
Tour operators are optimistic that the earthquake led chaos have also ushered in positive changes helpful for tourism in the longer run. “A lot of operators are remodeling products to adapt and get aggressive – the earthquake instigated this change. The events of last year allowed us to focus on the people, develop new products and to come out stronger! And now, everyone knows where Nepal is!” said Raj Gyawali, a local tour operator, who has been on the forefront on the tourism recovery initiatives since the earthquake in April 2015.
Talking about ATTA’s long term relationship with Nepal, Doyle said,”We envision trying to continue fueling the desire throughout our global adventure tourism community to create deeper relationships with people interested in long term investments and sustainability in Nepal’s adventure tourism industry, and to consider the same for any destination facing such challenges pressing forward.” The long term relationship with Nepal and ATTA dates back to their first association in 2007.