Sun Koshi River Titled as the Best River for Rafting in the world

Kathmandu, March 5

The Sun Koshi River of Nepal has been named the world’s best rafting river by Lonely Planet, the largest travel guide book publisher in the world.

Originating near Mt Shishapangma in Tibet, the river, whose name means river of gold, carves its way through the Himalaya and into eastern Nepal. The Sun Koshi River ’s glacier-fed waters drop for five months of the year, which makes it ideal for white water rafting.

In an article entitled “Hold tight: the world’s best rafting rivers”, the travel guide book has described the

Hotels plan tariff hike as bookings pour in

KATHMANDU, AUG 17, 2012

Most of the five-star hotels in Kathmandu have been planning to hike their tariffs by up to 20 percent with the peak tourist season starting from September. Some of them have already upped the rates encouraged by increased bookings.

Hoteliers said that it was a conventional hike driven by market demand as they need to keep prices competitive to maintain a good value destination.

This season, hoteliers have received higher bookings from the American, Australian and British markets, although reservations from Spain, Greece and Russia, among other European markets, have dropped.

As hotels gear up for the peak season, they said around 75 percent of the rooms have been booked for September, while bookings have crossed 90 percent for October and November.

They said that actual bookings come only 15 to 20 days prior to the beginning of the season, and the current pace seems to make the hospitality industry delighted.

“Going by the current pace of bookings, this season seems to be arguably the best time for the hotels than the last season,” said Bharat Joshi, resident manager at the Hotel Yak & Yeti.

Arrivals reached a record high of 736,215 tourists last year, with the September-November season accounting for 33 percent of the total inbound.

Joshi said as of Aug 16, confirmed bookings for his hotel in September had crossed 70 percent, and October and November bookings are at 93.81 percent and 81 percent respectively. “We are expecting an 8 percent rise in business this year,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Hotel Yak & Yeti plans to hike its room tariff by 12-15 percent starting from September. The average room rate of the hotel is US$ 80.

The Shangri-La Hotel and Resort has reported the highest bookings of 80 percent for September while the figure is 92-94 percent for October and November.

According to the hotel, it has increased the room tariff to US$ 90 and US$ 100 for the season, up 20 percent. “The booking trend is really encouraging like during the last season,” said Shangri-La Hotel and Resort senior general manager Raju Bikram Shah.

He added that unlike in past years, hotels are not worried about cancellations. The Everest Hotel has reported confirmed bookings for 75 percent of the rooms for September while reservations for October and November have already crossed 90 percent. The hotel also plans to hike the tariff by 15-20 percent from September.

“Bookings are encouraging, and on certain dates we are overbooked,” said Amir K Pradhananga, director of sales at the Everest Hotel. Similarly, the Soaltee Crowne Plaza is also raising the room tariff by 12-15 percent starting from October.

According to Raj Bikram Shah, sales and marketing director of the Hotel Annapurna, the hotel has confirmed bookings of 65 percent for September while for October and November the reservation rates are 75 percent and 85 percent respectively.  “We are expecting a rise in the current booking status,” said Shah. The Hotel Annapurna also plans to hike the room tariff by 15-20 percent. At present, its average room rate is US$ 80.

According to the Tourism Ministry, five-star properties in Kathmandu registered a 66.11 percent year-on-year growth in occupancy in 2011.

The highest room night occupancy of 89.81 percent was recorded in November 2011 in Kathmandu hotels. Besides November’s performance, hotels saw the highest sales in October (82.31 percent) and September (61.09 percent) in 2011.

The eight five-star properties in Kathmandu produced 134,225 rooms in September-November out of which 104,411 were occupied.

Source: The Kathmandu Post

Tourism created 3.3 percent of all jobs in Nepal in 2011

 Travel and tourism has emerged as a major job provider in Nepal with the sector accounting for 3.3 percent of the total employment in the country in 2011.

According to the publication entitled Travel and Tourism Economic Impact 2012 Nepal published by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the travel trade generated 412,500 direct

jobs last year.  The WTTC report has projected that the travel trade sector’s contribution to the country’s total employment will rise to 3.7 percent in 2012.

The direct employment provided by the sector includes employment by hotels, travel agents, airlines and other passenger transportation services (excluding commuter services).

It also includes the activities of restaurants and leisure industries directly supported by tourists.

According to the report, the travel and tourism sector attracted capital investment of Rs 12 billion

in 2011. “This is expected to rise by 5.4 percent in 2012 and by 4.9 percent per annum over the next 10 years to Rs 20.4 billion in 2022,” said the report.

The total contribution of the travel and tourism sector to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stood at Rs 119.1 billion in 2011, said the WTTC.

Prachanda Man Shrestha, former chief executive officer of the Nepal Tourism Board, said that Nepal’s tourism has rebounded with confidence and that it could be a competitive advantage service sector to address the country’s trade deficit in the future. “In spite of inadequate infrastructure and other hurdles, tourism is showing positive hopes for the country’s economy as reflected in the report,” said Shrestha.

Nepal received a total of 735,965 international visitors in 2011 and earned revenue worth Rs 28.6 billion. The income from international visitors is forecast to grow by 2.8 percent in 2012, according to the report.

The report shows that both international and domestic travellers spend most of their money on leisure. It says leisure travel spending of both domestic and inbound travellers generated 80.6 percent of the direct travel and tourism GDP in 2011 compared with 19.4 percent for business travel spending.

Despite the impressive performance in 2011, Nepal’s tourism industry is way behind other tourist destinations.

The WTTC report has ranked Nepal 34 in terms of travel and tourism direct contribution to employment and 127 in terms of attracting foreign visitors among 181 tourist destinations.

Likewise, the WTTC has placed Nepal in the 120th position in capital investment in tourism and at the 127th position in tourist spending.

Source: Kantipur