RURAL TOURISM FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Nepal is a picturesque nation, which smiles at the world with its snow-capped mountains and dense forest with garlands of colourful rhododendron. It is a nation where the sweet voices of cuckoos echo from trees with delicious red berries at the altitudes of seven to eight thousand feet above the sea level.
It is a country where the heart misses a beat every now and then as the breathtaking view of nature captures one’s mind and soul. How wonderful it is to feel so alive as adrenaline rushes through our veins with every step we take towards the high snow-capped mountains or cross hanging bridges with wild rushing waters down below!
Nepal is truly a unique destination that has so much to offer from adventure to nature and from culture to heritage; it is a treasure chest of nature, culture and adventure. To sum up, it is destination that has it all.
However, we haven’t been able to grasp our natural resources and market them efficiently in the global market. We have so much to offer but we have done so little to take advantage of our natural settings.
We have wild virgin forests, sites with spectacular views that have never been explored, natural settings that have been ignored, peaks that are never been scaled and paths that have never been trotted.
Beautiful villages with their traditional touch of hospitality are other attractions. The people are generous and take the guests as Gods. Their houses are constructed with stone, wood and clay that look cozy and comfortable, and food they serve is made from firewood fueled mud stoves, which are built inside the homes.
Last year’s tourist arrival trend clearly shows an increase of 4 per cent in the annual arrival figures as compared to 2007. "The total number of visitors in 2008 reached to 374,661, representing an increase of 4 per cent in comparison to the year 2007," Nepal Tourism Board stated. This figure indicates an upward trend in the arrival of tourists by air. However, arrivals from roads are not recorded and there are many tourists who arrive from inland like Europeans on tour of India, Indians, Bangladeshi, Chinese, Japanese and so forth.
Though tourist arrivals to Nepal is increasing, the rate it is increasing is really not enough--and to increase this rate of arrivals--villages of Nepal have to be prepared as tourist destinations since every village in Nepal has something unique to offer. For this, all we need to do is discover these undiscovered gems and work to develop them as rural destinations.
This may sound impracticable since we all know our villages are really not in the state to host tourists at the moment but if we include villagers in our effort to turn our rural communities into holiday destinations that offer a simple traditional life by maintaining certain standards in hygiene, security and infrastructure then it is not impossible.
The things we basically need to pay attention to are health and hygiene, the living area should be neat and clean, bedrooms should be well kept to the level of comfort, food preparation and services need to be hygienic and efficient, cultural shows and gift items/ souvenirs need to prepared so that they can be sold locally from the community level, and connectivity to the villages should be made round the year.
Apart from this, we need to educate the local community about diseases like H1N1, HIV and AIDS and make sure they know how to protect themselves from such diseases. Villagers also need to be assured that they can make a living through tourism, and that their efforts and investment surely benefit them.
For this, we need to focus on excessive marketing through various means that reaches both the domestic and international tourists. Domestic tourism also needs to be given priority since it is our local tourists who if given an affordable choice, would love to travel to various parts of the country. Ghale Gaon and Sirubari are excellent examples of this where the promotion of home-stay tourism has helped to boost their rural economy.
Village tourism should be managed at community level and all needed arrangement including distribution of guest should be equal in an average. Local level gift shop should be managed so that cottage industries will grow. Likewise, agricultural productions should be sold at the community owned business centered. This will provide employment opportunity at village level and young people will be engaging in income generating activities rather than going abroad for jobs.
Source www.gorkhapatra.org.np an article by Nima Rijal