Make Tourists Stay Longer


Published: The Rising Nepal,  9 July 2008
By: Paras Kharel

The rebound with a vengeance of Nepal's tourism industry indicates that the end of armed conflict has paid off. Tourist arrivals in 2007 crossed the half-a-million mark for the first time ending seven years of lacklustre performance. Were it not for the raging insurgency and political turmoil the country faced, arrivals might have been much higher. For the country had witnessed a record arrival of 491,504 tourists in 1999 on the back of the Visit Nepal Year '98 promotional campaign. It was a steady slide thereafter.

While increasing arrivals are no doubt important, prolonging the stay of tourists should also be a priority for a sustainable growth of the tourism industry. Though the goal of lengthening the stay of tourists is a regular feature in various plans, policies and campaigns, it receives little attention in practice. Part of the reason could be that an increase in the length of stay may not sound as great as a rise in arrivals. There is also a wrong notion that the length of stay of tourists in Nepal is already among the highest in the world and has hit the ceiling. Sure, the stay of tourists in Nepal (11.41 on average from 1974-2005) is longer than in most countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia--home to its main competitors--but at the same time, it is less than half of that in India and Pakistan. Moreover, Nepal's average length of stay figure is jacked up by the high length of stay of adventure tourists, namely, mountaineers and trekkers.

According to a 2005 survey commissioned by the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), whereas adventure tourists post an average length of stay of 21.63 nights, 42.7 per cent of tourists visiting the country for leisure, recreation and pleasure, accounting for over 40 per cent of total arrivals, stay for just 3-5 nights. Package tourists, making up about one fourth of total arrivals, stay for a much shorter duration than do independent tourists.

This is despite the fact that Nepal, within a small compass, boasts a dazzling variety of ecological zones, along with a diversity of flora, fauna and culture. Concentration of tourism in a few destinations is constraining the length of stay, mainly of non-adventure tourists. It is primarily concentrated in the central and western regions and has a presence limited to trekking and mountaineering in the eastern region. Even in these regions, tourism activities are concentrated in a few places. The mid and far western regions are rarely visited. The top three most visited tourist destinations are centred in and around Kathmandu Valley, followed by Pokhara and Chitwan. Political instability and other disturbances only aggravate and perpetuate such concentration.

Trend
Among the major nationalities, Indians, making up one fourth of total arrivals, have on average the lowest length of stay, which exceeded 10 days only twice between 1994-2005. They account for 18 per cent of gross tourism receipts because of their high per capita per day expenditure and high volume of arrivals, notwithstanding a low length of stay.

Same-day visitor arrivals have grown in absolute terms as well as in proportion to total arrivals.  Most of them come and go by land. Sri Lankans, followed by Japanese, form the bulk of same-day visitors. Over 85 per cent of Sri Lankans are same-day visitors. Most Sri Lankans and many Japanese come to Nepal for pilgrimage, namely, visiting Lumbini. This demonstrates the potential for increasing their length of stay by offering a package tour of prominent Buddhist sites in the country.

Word of mouth is the main source of inspiration to come to Nepal for both independent and package tourists. While there in no doubt a need to make formal channels of information on Nepal a more determining factor, the reliance on word of mouth by tourists to make up their mind about visiting the country can be utilized. Inducing tourists to stay longer by offering them more destinations and products to enjoy can inspire a greater number of prospective tourists, who rely on word of mouth, to visit Nepal.

An economic argument against focusing on prolonging the stay of tourists stems from the evidence that per capita spending is inversely related to length of stay. For example, if capacity (accommodation) is a constraint, it is more profitable to have two batches of 500,000 tourists staying for five days each with a per capita expenditure of $150 than 500,000 tourists for 10 days with a per capita expenditure of $100, though the total number of tourist days is the same (five million days). However, capacity is not a constraint on increasing the length of stay since the crisis in tourism which began from 2000 resulted in an oversupply of services because it could not grow to expected heights, and the existing number of hotels and beds is enough to accommodate a million tourists every year.

About 40 per cent of tourists are repeat visitors. It is easier to induce people who have made up their mind to visit Nepal to stay longer than attracting more tourists. It is also argued that increasing the length of stay is a difficult proposition entailing huge costs, including in marketing, since most tourists visiting Nepal have South and Southeast Asian destinations on their itinerary and prolonging their stay in Nepal is possible only by chipping away their stay in other countries. That may have been true in the 1970s. But more recent surveys show that the majority of tourists come exclusively to visit Nepal.

Even if a trade-off between length of stay and earnings is inevitable, the positive distributional implications of inducing tourists to stay longer cannot be ignored. Normally, tourists staying longer visit more places than they would otherwise do. This will contribute to balanced regional development, poverty alleviation and nationwide employment generation. That some of the most deprived parts of the country have tremendous tourism potential is one more reason why this endeavour should be made.

Way forward
Lack of diversification of destinations and products being a major problem facing Nepali tourism and a drag on the length of stay, efforts should be undertaken to promote new destinations, especially in the east and the west. Eco-tourism, in which Nepal has tremendous potential but which so far constitutes a negligible purpose of visit, must be promoted.  Activities for leisure and holiday tourists, who form the bulk of visitors and have a short duration of stay, should be expanded to include bird watching, short hiking, mountain flights, gambling (especially Indians), pony trekking, culture trek, orchid tours, village tours, meditation courses, etc. Likewise, recreational activities must be expanded to induce Indians--who have a long summer vacation, mostly visit Nepal only and have one of the highest per capita per day spending--to stay longer.
 
Connecting Hindu shrines all over the country into a circuit will induce Indians to stay longer. Buddhist sites neighbouring Lumbini and in other parts of Nepal, including Kathmandu Valley, should be linked up into a package tour, so that Buddhists coming for pilgrimage, especially from Sri Lanka and Southeast and East Asian countries, do not return the same day after visiting Lumbini. Measures must be taken to control pollution in the Kathmandu Valley. NTB must launch a publicity blitzkrieg focusing on the unique features of Nepal (e.g. the Himalayas) so that more prospective tourists start considering Nepal as a major, not peripheral, destination. The government should reset its priorities and increasing budgetary allocation to tourism. Civil aviation must be expanded to make far-flung potential tourist sites accessible. Nepali diplomatic missions abroad should be mobilized effectively in tourism-related promotional activities. Above all, political stability is a must, without which all other efforts will come to nought.