The GAZE

92 Journal of Tourism and Hospitality (No.
1)
THE GAZE
JOURNAL OF TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY
Vol. 1 No. 1 Year 2009
International School of Tourism and Hotel Management

(Affiliated to Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria)
THE GAZE
Editorial Board
Chief Editor: Prof. Dr. Ramesh Raj Kunwar

Managing Editor: Tej Bahadur Dhakal
Editor: Dr. Tika Nath Sharma
Associate Editor: Shamjhana Basnyat
Advisory Board
Narendra Bajracharya
Prof. (PH) Mag. Leonhard Wörndl
Prof. Dr. Govinda Prasad Acharya
Dr. Tirtha Bahadur Shrestha
Dr. Shree Govinda Shah
Published by
Dillibazaar, P.O.Box: 5196, Kathmandu, Nepal
Tel: 977 1 4434350, 4434185
Email: thegaze@ist.org.np
Website: www.ist.org.np
94 Journal of Tourism and Hospitality (No. 1)
THE GAZE
CONTENTS
Ramesh Raj Kunwar 1 Community Tourism, Interpretation,

Themes and Education
Roman Egger 17 Restructuring the Destination

Management System Paradigm
Pranil Upadhyaya 28 Post Conflict Tourism in Nepal:

Challenges and Opportunities for
Preventing Latent Conflict
Roman Egger and 43 Backpacking 2.0 – how backpakers
Christof Hofstatter use Weblogs
Ram Prasad Ghimire 55 Hospitality Industry at the Cutting

Edge of Globalization with Special
Reference to the Hotel Industry in
Nepal
Rajeev Dahal 68 Visitors’ Attitude towards Tourism

Development in Sagarmatha (Mt.
Everest)
National Park (SNP), Nepal
Tika Nath Sharma 84 Book Review: Opportunity and

Challenges of Tourism Financing
Editorial Note
We are very happy to offer The GAZE, the Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Vol. 1,
No. 1 to our readers. This journal is published annually in English by International School
of Tourism and Hotel Management, which is affiliated to Salzburg University of Applied
Sciences of Austria.
The purpose of this journal is to disseminate the knowledge and ideas of tourism to the
students, researchers, journalists, policy makers, planners, entrepreneurs and other general
readers.
Articles and reviews in the journal represent neither the views of the concerned publishers
nor those of editorial board. Responsibility for opinions expressed and for the accuracy of
the facts published in the articles or reviews are solely with the individual authors.
We have realized that it is high time that we made this effort for tourism innovation and
development. We strongly believe that this knowledge based platform will make the industry
and the institutions stronger.
The Editorial Board

THE GAZE
Tel: 977 1 4434350, 4434185
Editorial Policy
The Gaze is an interdisciplinary Journal which welcomes research articles, research abstracts
and book reviews for the dissemination of knowledge about tourism and hospitality. Articles
should be original and unpublished, based on primary sources or field work or reflecting
new interpretations, written in English, but not exceed twenty pages. The research work
should be based on global research methodology in which the researcher will be required
to use parenthesis or author date system. The references should be based either on APA
method, MLA method or mixed uniformity.
Manuscripts should be typed double-space on A4 sized paper with a 4 cm margin on all

four sides. The text should be not less than 3000 words. The author should underline
nothing except words which are to be italicized. Notes and references should be typed
double-space on separate pages which should be included at the end of the article. The text
should refer to notes numbered consecutively throughout the article using raised numbers.
Bibliographical references should be cited in the text by the Author’s last name, date of
publication and page number e.g. (Dhakal, 1991:110), or if author’s name is mentioned in
the text by the date and page reference only (1991:110). Entries in the references should
be in alphabetical and chronological order of authors. They should include the details in
the following order: name of the author(s) - surname first, date, title, name of the periodical,
volume number (Arabic numerals to be used throughout), pagination (for articles in
periodicals and books with several authors), place of publication and name of the publisher
for a book. Tables and maps should be submitted on separate pages, numbered with
headings. Notations in the text should indicate where these are to appear.
The research should include any area such as ecotourism; rural tourism; sustainable tourism;
community tourism; village tourism; cultural heritage tourism; agro-tourism; pasture
tourism; pilgrimage tourism; medical tourism; tourism management; tourism administration;
sociology of tourism; anthropology of tourism; psychology of tourism; geography of
tourism; economics of tourism; sports tourism; shopping tourism; tourism and corporate
culture; tourism and environment; tourism marketing; tourism and nationalities; tourism
and hospitality management; tourism and law; tourism disaster management; tourism and
hospitality education; tourism and media; tourism and conflict; tourism, conflict and peace;
and tourism and research methodology.
The Editorial Board has right to accept or reject the article for publication. If the article is
rejected, it will be returned to the author. Authors receive five offprints free, and a copy
of the issue in which their article appears. The editors welcome enquiries from readers
willing to review books
Salzburg University of Applied Sciences
Salzburg University of Applied Sciences and Technologies (FH Salzburg), is an accredited

institution of Austrian higher education, recognized by the Austrian Ministry of Education,
Science and Culture. It is one of the most modern universities for applied sciences in
Europe. In its various levels of academic programs, it concentrates on current trends in
tourism, product development and e-Business.
FH Salzburg is situated in Salzburg, Austria, one of the most vibrant tourist regions in the
world. The city at the Salzach River is the world famous for its summer and winter
tourism. Not only does it boast 22 million overnight stays, but its wide variety of tourist
attractions and offerings draws guests who come to attend conventions or music festivals
as well as those seeking adventure, culture or relaxation.
FH Salzburg aims to offer various programs tailored to the needs of current and future
demand of the labor market combined with a sound theoretical underpinning. This is
guaranteed by its qualified and highly committed staff from higher educational institutions
as well as the industry. It has collaboration with more than 60 partner institutions in
Europe, Americas, Asia, Australia and Nepal in international projects as well as faculty
and student exchange.
International School of Tourism and Hotel Management (IST) was established in the year
2003 with an objective to produce world class human resources to cater to the overwhelming
need of the hospitality industry by offering various academic degrees and training packages
as per the international standard. It is a center for excellence in hospitality education
providing an enterprising and stimulating environment in which students can learn and
develop their full potential. Hence, IST is also a suffix, which means a person with deep
knowledge, practical exposure and appropriate attitude in the particular discipline. IST
aims to add "ist" to its students and prepare professionals to become leading managers in
the various tourism and hospitality outlets.
Affiliated to Salzburg University of Applied Sciences (FHS), Austria, IST offers customized
and fast track programs to provide students maximum flexibility and opportunity for
progression. Various programs offered by IST is approved by Ministry of Education and
Sports of Nepal Government.
Since its inception it has established cooperation with numerous universities in Nepal,
Singapore, Austria, Australia, Thailand, United Kingdom and United States of America.
Likewise, FHS and Tribhuvan University of Nepal have already entered into the bilateral
agreement to promote faculty and student exchange, joint research program and accreditation
to each other's degree.
Community Tourism, Interpretation,
Themes and Education
"Stories New And Stories Old, Stories Kept And Stories Told"
(Gabriel J.Cherem,2000;303)
Ramesh Raj Kunwar *
Abstract
This paper examines the importance of interpreting culture of the community
at the tourist destinations. The communities will have a lot of stories,
myths, legends, ceremonies, traditions, symbols as part of their social
structure which are memorized by the certain knowledgeable persons of
the local area. They are believed to be the cultural preservationists. If it is
to be transferred to the academic actors such as anthropologists, ecologists
and qualified tour guides they would interpret it scientifically. This
interpretation will play an important role for presenting authenticity to
the alienated western tourists. Some alienated tourists are seeking for
authenticity. The interpretation of culture helps to reconstruct the culture
of the community also called reconstructed ethinicity. Therefore, the
‘interpretation’ as a discourse should be taught at the academia within
the framework of tourism education and ideology. The local interpreters
or storykeepers and storytellers should be encouraged by the concerned
authorities.
Key Words: eudaimonia, narrative coherence, narrative fidelity, narrative
comparison, discourse, education, ideology and themes.
Background
In this article the researcher has made an attempt to focus on one of the new areas of
tourism study, although it has already been studied in the western countries, it is still
untouched in the academia of tourism in Nepal. The theme of this paper is based on
tourism, community tourism, storytelling, storykeeping, story matrix, adornment,
symbolism,shamanism and interpretation.Over all, this subject of discussion has confined
to the key concept of interpretations and interpretators.The question comes who will
*
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2 JournalofTourismandHospitality(No.1)
interprete this? How is it interpreted? Why has it to be interpreted? What outcomes will
come from interpretation? Who will get benefit from interpretation? Why has become
interpretation more important in the field of tourism? In course of getting answers of the
above mentioned questions, the researcher has consulted with relevant secondary sources.
It is believed that the answers highlighted in this paper will be very useful to the students,
researchers, tour operators, tour guides, anthropologists, sociologists, ecologists, journalists,
and other general readers those who study and work in tourism. Whatever the theory,
concept, approaches and perspectives are developed in earlier studies have been adopted
in this study. Global research methodology and eclecticism have become the main impetus
for this study. As mentioned above when the stories are properly interpreted then it becomes
the authenticity (see in detail Bellhassen et al., 2008: 668-689). Authenticity means truth,
central of the ultimate "truths" that modern tourists search for outside of their rather
superficial home lives (see in detail McCannell,1976; Kunwar, 2002:117-121).
Authentisization of the cultural products is a process of becoming the real cultural tourism
or ethnic tourism or village tourism or community tourism or ecotourism. The nature of
storytelling and storykeeping is what A.R.Radcliffe-Brown(1952) has methodologically
used the term as nomothetic inquiry and the culture which is explained by the storykeeper
of traditional community is anthropoligacally called memorial culture.
Tourism
A challenge is often mounted to those who participate in tourism, those who manage it
and those who study it. The challenge to tourist (Pizam and Mansfield, 2001; in Pearce,
2006: 162) is why they spend their money on travels and its associated activities when
there are appealing and perhaps more tangible socially visible products to be consumed.
Managers of tourism environmentally are faced with queries about why they seek to
encourage more visitors. If they are unsure of the long term consequences of visitors
activities, tourism researches too can be challenged here the perspective is offered that
presumably talented well-educated researches might more usually contribute to their society
by applying their social sciences skills to passing issues such as those found in medicine
and social welfare (Pearce, ibid.).
A comprehensive answer to these challenges can be found in the concept of eudaimonia,
a Greek philosophical term that can be approximately translated as human flourishing (de
Botton, 2002; in Pearce, ibid.). In essence, the concept asserts that a valued purpose in
human life…. In tourism context eudaimonia draws attention to the issue of what is some
times termed' ‘the quality of life’ with the additional meaning that this involves deep
satisfaction and enjoyment of experiences as well as learning, personal growth and skill
development (Pearce, ibid.). This reveals that tourism has already become a quintessential
activities of modern man.
When the book entitled Tourism: A Community Approach written by Peter E. Murphy
came out in 1985, since then the study of community tourism became very popular in the
field of tourism. The academics have interchangeably used the term as "people tourism",
"responsible tourism", "appropriate tourism", "green tourism", "soft tourism","new
Kunwar:CommunityTourism,Interpretation,ThemesandEducation 3
tourism","alternative tourism", "cultural tourism", "ethnic tourism", "rural tourism", "village

tourism", "sustainable tourism", and "ecotourism" All these type of tourism came into existence
against of the "mass tourism," which was confined to the city or urban areas in 1960s. The
purpose of developing one of the above mentioned form of tourism is to uplift the living
standard of rural people and the development of rural areas on one hand and to send the
children or students of western countries to the rural areas or villages for providing
‘edutainment' (Urry, 2002; Kunwar,2006:231) on the other.The term 'edutainment' refers to
two different words like education and entertainment. This is a kind of recent trend of
spending holiday in Western European countries.
Community and Community Tourism

Before describing community tourism, it would be highly appropriate to define what
community is. The word community has so many connotations and usages that it is almost
impossible to define precisely. Sometimes it refers to people living near one another and
participating in a daily rhythm of collective life (Hawley, 1950; in Smelser, 1993:144).
Schnore (1973; Smelser, op.cit.) defines, community as a population rooted in one place
whose members are independent on a daily basic and performs many activities that satisfy
the population’s economic and social needs.
Sociologist Ferdinand Tonnies (1855-1936) has classified the community into two types:
Gemeinschaft (guh-Mine-shoft) and Gesellschaft (guh-ZELL-shoft). The former is typical
small of rural life. It is small community in which people have similar backgrounds and
life experiences. The second type is an ideal type, characteristic of modern urban life.
Most people are strangers and perceive little sense of commonality with other community
residents (Schaefer and Lamm,1992:146; see in detail Gulik,1997;Kunwar,2006:215-
216).Similarly, Emile Durkheim in his book Division of Labour (1933;original edition
1893) has also found two types of society known as mechanical solidarity and organic
solidarity. Mechanical solidarity implies that all individuals perform the same task .No
one needs to ask. Both social interaction and negotiation are based on close, intimate,
face-to-face social contacts.Organic solidarity involves a collective consciousness resting
on the need a society's members for one another(Schaefer and Lamm,1992:145-146).
The villagers or rural communities, Gemeinschaft, according to Gulik (1997:984, are
folk, primitive, neutral ("true"), simple, provincial, tribal society,moral inherently stable,
human in scale, particularistic, homogenous, few alternative models of behaviour, personal,
constrained, integrated, conformist, sacred, superstitious or myth-oriented. If tourism is
developed in places with the model of 'ecotourism' or 'rural tourism' or any other related
form of tourism, the destination, according to Lane (1993:15), each found comprising
much more space, settlements under 10,000, sparcely, populated natural environment,
some farm/forestry involvement, many outdoor activities, infra-structure-weak, strong
individual activity base, small establishments, locally owned business, much part-time
involvement in tourism, tourism support other interest, workers often live close to workplace,
often influenced by seasonal factors, few guests, guests relationship personal, amateur
management, local in atmosphere, many older buildings, conservation limits to growth
ethic, specialist appeal, niche marketing.

As was stressed by Fredrick Barth (1969; in Toffin, 2007: 17–18), people living within
certain boundaries choose a few cultural attributes – dress, language, aspects of lifestyle –
as overt signs of their distinctiveness. Signs such as jewellery, costumes, lifestyles, shapes
of houses and the like clearly serve as identify markers. They are culture – carrying links
that help identity to those who belong to particular groups.
According to U.K. based non–governmental organization Tourism Concern, community
tourism has been defined as a form of tourism which aims to include and benefit local
communities, indigenous peoples and in the rural south (or the developing world).
Community tourism, according to Tourism Concern. 2000, should….
• be run with involvement and consent of local communities (……)
• be given a fair share of profits back to the local community (……)
• involve communities rather than individuals
• community residents who save their culture as well as to those visiting the
communities. A benefit–based approach to managing tourism consider both the
benefits and disbenifits residents and focuses on management actions that ensures
benefits to their community. (Diver, 1996; in Besculides et al., 2002:304).
• be environmentally sustainable (…)
• respect traditional culture and social structures
• have mechanisms to help communities cope with the impact of western tourism
• keep group small to minimize cultural and environmental impact.
• brief tourism before trip on appropriate behaviour
• not make local perform inappropriate ceremonies, etc
• leave communities alone if they do not want tourism (…)
Interpretation
Academically the anthropological study was first carried out by A.R. Radcliffe-Brown
in between 1906-1914 in Andaman Island. Later on his book Andaman Islanders came out
in 1922. This book is full of myths, stories, legends, celeberations etc. of Andaman Islanders.
His objective of studying was to reconstruct the history of Islanders. But this work became
impetus only for anthropological study not for community interpretation in the field of
tourism. Likewise, in course of studying the culture of mankind, it is Clifford Geertz who
wrote one book The Interpretation of Cultures in 1973 which gave birth of new innovation
of interpretating other's culture in the field of anthropology. Though this book became
quite popular in the field of cultural interpretation, the tourism authorities could not catch
it in the field of community tourism.
According to Conservation International, a Washington DC - based environmental
non-government organization, high quality interpretation 'can also improve business by
increasing repeat visitation and occupancy rates, providing unique marketing opportunities
and allowing hotels to charge higher rates'

(Sweeting et al., 1999:27; in Weiler and Ham,op.cit.,552). Other players of tourism industry
may have expectations of the operator and /or tour guide and have little or no understanding
of what 'interpretation' is or what benefits quality interpretation services might engender for
individual companies and tourism industry as a whole. ' …where some operators and other
industry reperesentatives use the terms 'education' and 'interpretation' interchangeably (Weiler
and Ham 2001:553).
In the early 1970s, the evolving ideas and principles were assembled into a publication
specially about interpretation. There is no single definition of interpretation that has been
adopted by practitioners. Interpreting Our Heritage by Freeman Tilden was the first book
written solely to define the profession of interpretation, and contained two concepts central
to the philosophy of interpretation: that "Interpretations the revelation of a larger truth that
lies behind any statement of fact" and that " Interpretation should capitalize on mere
curiosity for the enrichment of the human and spirit (Tilden, 1977; in Lindberg et.al.,65).
Until the 1980, the most influential developments in interpretation occurred in the United
States (Machlis and Field, 1992).
Clearly, interpretation is not just one of the many roles that an ecotour guide plays;
when it is done well, it is the distinguishing feature of 'best practice' in guiding. It has
also been argued that the use of interpretation, and more particularly the application of
interpretive principles by the tour guides. There are at least five such principles:
1. Interpretation is not teaching or 'instruction' in the academic sense.
2. Interpretaion must be enjoyable for visitors.
3. Interpretation must be relevant for visitors.
4. Interpretation must be well organised so that visitors can easily follow it.
5. Interpretation should have a theme, not just a topic.
Themes are whole ideas, morals to the story, an overriding story message that a visitor
takes home (Lewis, 1980; Ham, 1992;in Weiler and Ham,op.cit.,556). The tourist decision
making process is in fact not a single decision but a series of decisions, beginning with a
decision to travel. Other pre- trip decisions can include choice of destination, season and
dates of travel, budget, choice of travelling partner(s), mode(s) of transport accommodation,
and selection of other tourism products such as packaged tour and guided ecotours.
Although interpretation involves the transfer of information about places and cultures
from guides to tour clients, guides are not teachers in the sense that visitors must master or
remember all the information (Weiler and Ham,2001:554).
Since they are not accountable to master the information, the only motivation they
have to pay attention is that it promises to be a rewarding expenditure of their time.
Ecotourists are therefore a voluntary audience. Ham termed this type of audience a ' non-
captive' audience because, unlike students in a classroom ( the classic'captive' audience),
tour clients are not held prisoner by an external reward system involving grades and
qualifications. The best tour guides know this, and they work hard to capture and maintain
their audiences' attention.
Although entertainment is not interpretation's main goal, it must certainly be considered

one of its essential qualities. Visitors who join guided tours are pleasure-seekers. Of
course, what constitutes 'fun' will vary among different types of visitors, and successful
guides pay close attention to these differences and idiosyncrasies. Some studies have even
demonstrated that the more an interpretative medium reminds an audience of academia,
the less interesting and provocative it becomes (Washburne and Wager, 1972). Experiences
in both developed and developing countries throughout the world suggest that effective
interpretation may have many qualities, but a common are everywhere is that it is fun for
its audiences (Ham and Sutherland, 1992; in Weiler and Ham,op.cit.).
As far as education and ideology is concerned, Zais (1976: 317; in Maureen et al.,
2009: 191) defines, "education is directed toward expanding ones awareness of human
environment and how to cope with this environment". "... is tourism higher education
ideological? Ideology refers to an overarching network of guiding ideas that frame direct
and inform thinking. Ideology has been defined as A structure ... structures can captures,
can impose themselves; but they can usually be entered willingly, they can be abandoned
and they can even be demolished and new ones created in their place ..." (Barnett, 2003:57;
in Maureen et al., 2009: 193). Ideology within the context of (tourism higher) education
has been analysed mainly in terms of curriculum planning and knowledge (Barnett, 2003;
in Maureen et al. , 2003: 193).
The initial flourish was largely stimulated by Ernos Mills, who worked as a nature
guide in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains between 1889 and 1922. Mills developed principles
and techniques which laid the foundation for interpretation. Mills was a keen advocate of
monitoring his visitors' behaviour and responding accordingly. He prompted guides to
concentrate on inspiring, visitors by communicating big ideas rather than masses of unrelated
information. For example, some tourism operators use interpretation as a value- adding
excersise to attract higher-yield markets. Heritage management organisations utilizing
interpretation emphasise communication conservation cultures and a conservation ethic.
Cultural tourism operators stress cultural sensitivity and occuracy.Ecotourism operators
typically attempt to positon themselves in the middle of all of these perspectives… (McArthur,
1999:64).
Nearly two decade ago, Barbara Cherem and Gabriel J. Cherem while talking about
the heritage interpretation, they put some questions "why should we confine interpretation
only to sites (Cherem,1977; 2000:303) such as parks, museums, historic sites, and zoos?
Why could not we interpret the heritage of an entire community to its residents and to its
visitor? Consequently, the concept of 'community interpretation' was created in 1980"
(Cherem, 1981; Cherem, 1982; McLennan, 1984; Cherem, 1988b).
Cherem and Cherem (ibid.) have defined community interpretation as "telling" the
natural and cultural stories of a community to its residents and visitors. "The term story is
key here, because they believe that the story is the basic unit or building block of community
interpretation programs. Indeed, psychologist Rene Fuller has suggested "that the story
may be the basic building block, the engram... of human learning" (Zemke,1990). They
have used the term story meaning a narrative of factual content embedded into "vivid
events and images that carry strong emotional coloring" (Egan, 1989).
As one result a program called "Interpret Hawaii" was initiated by Glen Grant at Kapiolani
Community College. The program was designed to empower local hosts to interpret their
own heritage. Tour guides, docents, hotel activity coordinators, and others were provided a
background in Hawaiian natural and cultural heritage.
Cherem’s discourse on community interpretation has encouraged to keep continue to focus
on the given issue in the academia of tourism studies. This study is also an outcome of
Cherem’s discourse. The term discourse encompasses multiple meanings and understandings
(Hannam and Knox, 2005) and it has multiple definitions and applications in social inquiry.
Discourses may be defined as "those practices that systematically form the objects of which
they speak" (Foucault, 1972:49; in Ayikoru et al., 2009: 200) which in turn define the limits
of what can (and cannot) be said. Jaworski and Compland (1999:3; in Ayikoru et al., 2009:
200) have noted that "discourse is reflecting social order but also language shaping social
order and shaping individuals’ interaction with society". Social reality is produced and
understood through discourse… discourses that give meaning to them.
Later on, in 1987, Cherem linked the concept of interpretation with "appropriate tourism"
(Cherem, 1988; in Goeldner et al., op.cit., 303). Appropriate tourism was envisioned as
the analog of the appropriate technology concept that was popular in the 1960s. It was
envisioned as tourism that was appropriate to the scale, values, and unique heritage of a
community or locality. It was defined as "tourism that springs from and helps perpetuate
the heritage identity of an area." The area's heritage identity includes both its cultural
heritage and its natural heritage in other words, its "sense of place." The same kind of
concept was followed by the present writer, with the help of then Department of Tourism.The
writer as an anthropologist and tourism educationist realized that the culture of the Tharus
who live in Chitwan Sauraha has not been properly interpreted to the international visitors.
Therefore, with the support of then Department of Tourism, HMG, Nepal, launched a
seven day workshop in Sauraha. The purpose of this program was to provide the cultural
features of the Tharus and the way of interpretation regarding their culture community by the
guides to the visitors. Chitwan Sauraha is located outside the Chitwan National Park where
there are more than 60 lodges who annually welcome approximately 69, 464 tourists annually.
This data is based on the record of 1997 (Kunwar,2002:82-83). The theme was the interpretation
of Tharu Culture to the visitors. The training was given to the native guides those who were
working at different lodges. However, the writer was not familiar with the literature of
"community interpretation".
The Story Matrix

Every community, area, or locality of the world has a unique heritage identity - which
includes both its cultural heritage and natural heritage, through time and into the future.
To help document and organize the cultural and natural stories of an area, Cherem (ibid.)
developed a tool called the heritage identity matrix, to more simply the "story matrix". It
is divided into cultural heritage (or cultural tourism resources) and natural heritage (or
ecotourism resources).
The cultural heritage portion of the story matrix is broken into four categories. The first
of these is "nonmaterial culture." By this is meant all of the values, attitudes, beliefs, norms,
and other aspects of culture that are held within the heads and within the hearts of a particular
group of people. Those non-material elements help define that culture and make it unique in
the world. The second category is "selected persons". By this is meant a selected individual,
either well known or not, who in some way embodies an important element of that culture.
The selected person could be a master artist or a master craftsperson. Selected persons are
embodiments of the nonmaterial culture. The third category, "material culture," is the
easiest to grasp. Material culture represents the tangible objects, artifacts, buildings and
various other structures that a culture produces. The above mentioned two types of culture
was first classified by Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski (1944). All of the material cultural
elements are totally dependent on the non-material culture. The last category is that of
"cultural landscapes," which is really an intersection category between cultural heritage and
natural heritage. Put very simply the cultural landscape is the imprint of humankind on the
land. It is another expression of the nonmaterial culture. The cultural landscape is the
configuration of building, structures, farmscapes, and other landscape features that the particular
culture superimposed upon the natural environment. The cultural landscapes category bridges
us into the natural heritage portion of the story matrix (ibid.).
Ritchie and Zins (1978:257; in Mathieson and Wall (1982:158-159) while studying cultural
tourism, have isolated twelve elements of culture which attract tourists to the particular
destinations; (i) handicrafts, (ii) language, (iii) traditions (iv) gastronomy (v) art and music,
concerts, paintings and sculpture (vi) history (vii) work and technology (viii) architecture (ix)
religion (x) dress (xi) educational system (xii) leisure activities (see in detail Ryan, 1991). It
is not clear how they have excluded story, myth, legend, ritual, symbols, folk songs and folk
dance from their twelve cultural elements.
The natural heritage categories of the story matrix are fairly straightforward. Flora and
fauna are addressed by the categories of "plants" and "animals". The category of "land"
takes in topographic elements, landform, and soils of the area. The category of "water"
takes in not only open bodies of water. Whether they be ocean coastlines or lakes or
streams or rivers, but also the situation underneath the ground in terms of the availability
of water resources in the groundwater table. The last category lf "climate" involves the
broad sun/cloud and temperature patterns, weather patterns, precipitation patterns, and
other regular seasonal variations of the area.
Storykeepers and Storytellers

The story matrix is an organizing tool to document and categorise in a balanced manner
all of the heritage identity stories of an area through time. In categorizing an area's stories,
it is further necessary to say that all areas have living stories, sleeping stories, and dying
stories. It is the purpose of community interpretation and appropriate tourism programs to
discover, to revive, to tell, and to perpetuate as many of these stories as possible - because
collectively those stories define the area's unique sense of place. Gabriel J. Cherem calls
people who are responsible for discovering, rediscovering, and reviving an area's stories
"storykeepers." These are people who are actively involved in the study, documentation,
preservation, and conservation of both the natural and the cultural stories of an area.
Traditionally, most societies have had persons responsible for safeguarding its stories.
As an example, Alex Haley in Roots refers to the "griot" as serving this role in certain
African cultures. In contemporary times, anthropologists, biologists, historians, ecologists,
preservationists, and conservationists are among those serving roles of "storykeepers."
(Cherem, op.cit., 306). The role of storytellers seem very important in ethnic, cultural,
village, rural and ecotourism.
"Storytellers," by extension then are those persons who are involved as interpreters, as
local hosts and guides, as writers and photographers in community interpretation and
appropriate tourism programs. They take the stories that have been revived and kept by
the storykeepers, and they tell those stories both area residents and visiting guests. When
the unique heritage identity stories of an area are realized, organized, kept and told to
residents and visitors alike "we have the sound basic of a community interpretation and
appropriate tourism program" (ibid.,307).
How would the story change if it were being told by other? (Jones and Brinkert,
2008:58). Stories have persuasive functions and more generally they may contribute to the
reproduction of knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, ideologies, norms or values of a group or of
society as a whole"(Van Dijk, 1993; 125; in Jones and Brinkert, 2008:47). Fishers (1989;
in Jones and Brinkert, 2008:48) argued that all human experience consists of narrative
texts. People, naturally stories, think in terms of stories and organize information into
narrative forms without consciously intending so. Stories are the creative conversion of
life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency
of human contact (Robert McKee; in Jones and Brinkert, 2008:45).
Fisher argues there are two key tests of validity of a narrative – the extent to which the
story hangs together, or has narrative coherence; and the extent to which the story rings
true, or has narrative fidelity (1987). Fisher later added the concept of narrative comparison,
or the extent to which a story is consistent with other stories about the same basic things
A coherent narrative (narrative coherence) exhibits three characteristics: (i) internal or
argumentative consistency; (ii) external consistency, which is a measure of the extent to
which the focal story matches other stories considered accurate and (iii) believable character
(Brown, 1990; in Jones and Brinkert 2008:49). A narrative fidelity its truthfulness, rests
in its ability to present values that aligned with the values of its audience. The narrative
fidelity plays a fundamental role in evaluating the quality of persuasive appeal. In addition
to coherent and fidelity, Fisher also talked about how a narrative compares with other
narratives. For, as Fisher argued "the meaning and value of a story are always a matter of
how it stands with or against other stories". As Wittten (1993:106) summarized, the narrative
form contributes further to a narrative’s credibility by imposing a sense of coherence on
the desperate elements the narrative contains. This effect occurs through structuring devices
of plot, which unifies episodes; narrative sequence which unifies time; and characterization,
which unifies action (Jones and Brinkert, 2008:48), "a plot can be seen as a theory of
events" (Ochs, 1997:193) Historian and folklorists appreciate that people become emotionally
attached to narrative and that stories are the most lasting, powerful and effective means of
cultural transmission. Campbell’s work on myth is an excellent example of scholarship that
illustrates the universal power of a good story (ibid.). Story encapsulates the narrator’s values
and reduces uncertainty about that which is being described (Brown, 1990; in Jones and
Brinkert, 2008:49). Brown also asserted that the strength of narrative fidelity may be assessed
by focusing on the "extent to which the story fits with the history, knowledge, background and
experiences of the audience members (1999:171; in Jones and Brinkert, 2008:49).
So far as shamanism is concerned, this is another important aspect of community culture.
If this aspect is also interpreted by the guide, there would be another contribution of
interpretation and will make more authenticity. Therefore, it is very important to know about
what shaman is? The shaman is a magician able to manipulate, to pacify to control or to
subjugate the spiritualistic energies resident in the environment. These energies may be
elemental, animal or vegetable, human or relating to the realms of gods, demons and spirits.
Through his magic the shaman can influence the elements responsible for rainfall, drought
and food, earthquake, avalanche and landslide, thunder and lighting. He can control the
fertility of the social, assuring bounteous crops and averting famine. He can prevent disease.
He can protect the lives of men and women and lives of their animals, the fertility of their
crops and their reproductive potency. He can foretell the future and influence family and
political affairs. The shaman’s vision is a holistic one, where the distinction between the
outer physical environment and the inner human body is blurred (Dowman, 1995:9). Though
this interpretation is based on the perspectives of Tibetan shamanism, there is not found
major differences between other forms of shamanism as well.
The challenge of dealing with the concept of ‘fashion" lies in distinguishing what is new
form what is not. One way is to use Georg Simmel’s notion of "adornment" as a common
thread from past to present, while asking how the qualities of that thread may change with
time. The question becomes, does the nature and meaning of adornment change? Simmel
stresses both the personal and social dimensions of adornment. Adornment intensifies or
enlarges the impression of the personality by operating as a sort of radiation emanating from
it …. The radiations of adornment, the sensuous attention it provokes, supply the personality,
so to speak, is more when it is adorned. [Adornment allows] the mere having of the person to
become a visible quality of its being (Simmel, 1950:39-40;in Liechty, 2008:121), Thus it is in
commanding "sensuous attention" and in enlarging and intensifying the personality’s "sphere"
that adornment becomes a means of communication . Adornment is social practice; it is the
"being-for-the-other which return to the subjects as the enlargement of his own sphere of
significance" (Simmel, 1950:432; Liechty, 2008:121). The adorn body is the social body ("the-
being for – other") though the social meaning of adornment practice is historically contingent
like identity, adornment is simultaneously about distinction and identification; it is used to set
individuals and groups apart from some and to signal sameness with others. Liechty (2008:121)
has used the term adornment in its broadest sense, to include not just jewelry and body
markings but also all items of apparel. These items of apparel also demands interpretation.
Because the markers will not be understood until and unless it is interpreted properly.
In the case of Nepal, the community tourism has been developed as an income generating
Kunwar: Community Tourism, Interpretation, Themes and Education 11
programme in Gorkha, Tanahu, Lamjung, Palpa and Nuwakot. The approach is based on
village level community institutions. This is owned and operated by local population. The
strategy lies in its people – centered approach and the integration of three pillars: education,
organization and socio– economic development. These are like the three legs of tripod
(tripod model) (see in detail Shakya, 2003:217– 236; Kunwar, 2006:234).
Community residents can realize cultural benefits from tourism in one of two ways.
First, tourism exposes the host to other cultures and can result in benefits such as tolerance
and understanding. Second, the act of presenting one’s culture to outsides strengthens the
idea of what it means to live within a community these increasing cultural identity, awareness,
appreciation, family bonding, sense of ethnic identity, pride, cohesion, and support.
As mentioned above, benefits are defined as an improved condition to individuals and
communities. They can be categorized as personal (physical and psychological),
sociocultural, economic and environmental. Stein and Anderson (1999; in Besculides et
al., op.cit.) studied the benefits to communities from two state parks in Minnesota. These
included increased pride and identity, cohesion, exchange of ideas and increased knowledge
about the culture of the area.
Interpreters
The guide is a critically important part of the ecotourism or cultural tour in the case of
non-personal or 'static' tour, the guide may be a guide book, a brochure or a specialised
publication on special site characteristics. These types of non-personal interpretation sources
are vitally important because the independent traveller may rely heavily on one source of
information, such as a guide book. The high demand for such information has led to an
industry of guide books, of which the Lonely Planet guide have become particularly
successful (Eagles,2001:614).
In this study the interpreters should be understood as tour guide who is involved in
tourism. However, the local trained guides are demanded by several tour groups in different
tourist destinations. In the case of sensitive sites, crime-ridden communities, difficult
travel situations, and highly specialised conditions, some site managers require all tourists
to be accompanied by a trained guide.
These responsible for hiring guides and interpreters usually require training in the
subject matter of environmental studies and in the techniques of interpretation. It is much
easier to teach a formally trained biologist for example, techniques for public speaking,
safety and interpretation (ibid.).
The tour guide's 'role' has been the subject of scholarly discussion and analysis for just
over a decade. Arguably the main conceptual framework used to dissect and analyse the
various roles and functions of the tour guide has been Cohen's model (1985). This model
acknowledges both the traditional 'pathfinding' role and the more recent 'mentoring ' role
of all tour guides.Weiler and Ham (2001:550) feel that the main value of this model is the
recognition that guides have accountabilities both with in the group ( i.e. to facilitate learning
and enjoyment of individual clients and to nurture and manage interaction between clients)
and outside the group (i.e. to facilitate and mediate interaction between clients and host
communities. Weiler and Davis (1993; in Weiler and Ham,op.cit.) added a third dimension to
the model for nature-based tour guides: interaction with the natural environment itself.
Like the term " ecotourism" interpretation has been plagued by a great deal of emphasize
on definition plagued at the expense of getting on with establishing authenticity, quality
and accountability. To deliver these elements it is useful to briefly explore how interpretation
evolved, how it has been used, and why it has generally not been given the chance to meet
its potential(ibid.). Good interpretation is still thought about at breakfast the next morning
or over the dinner table the following week. If properly delivered, interpretation not only
enriches an ecotourism experience, it provides the foundation for remembering and reliving
it.
Cohen defines the pathfinder as a geographical guide who leads the way through an
environment in which his followers lack orientation or through a socially defined territory
to which they have no access (1985:7), and distinguishes this from the mentor who is akin
to the leader of a religious pilgrimage –'a specialist’ (who) services as a 'guru' to the
novice, adept, or seeker, guiding him towards insight, enlightenment or any other exalted
spiritual state(ibid.,8). The former facilitates access whereas the latter builds on that to
which the traveller has access, integrating what is seen into a coherent and meaningful
image of place (Bowman,1997:123). In a territory as well developed for tourism as the
Holy Land, the pathfinder is rarely needed. Foreign visitors can, and often do, visit tourist
sites in the Holy Land without assistance. However they will rarely achieve a coherent
sense of what they visit, whereas a guide encourages them to develop a sense of having
visited the real place. With real pilgrims, guides (who are normally male) decode and
already significance, and in secular tourism they not only introduce elements of a landscape
considered by them to be significant, but also construct for tourists an interpretive
framework, 'conceptions of a general order of existence'(Geertz, 1973:90), enabling them
to share his sense of the place's significance (Bowman,1997:123).
The process involves the guides in selecting, glossing and interpreting sights (Cohen,
op.cit.,14-16). Interpretation is not however, simply a facet of the process but its entire
impetus. The guide must translate '…the strangeness of a foreign culture into a cultural
idiom familiar to the visitors(ibid.,15), thus offering tourists unambiguous signs of a
particular ideological order( Bowman, op.cit.)
Visitors satisfaction is a complex variable, influenced to some extent but not entirely
by expectations and on-site perceptions, for which it is often very difficult to obtain valid
measures ( Blamey and Hatch, 1996; Childress and Crompton, 1997; Ryan,1998; in Weiler
and Ham,op.cit.,551).
Experienced guides make their commentaries meaningful by using common language
and by employing analogies, metaphors and other methods of bridging the unfamiliar
world of the tour route, content and environment to the things already known and familiar to
the group (Ham, 1992). Similarly, when commentaries focus visitors' attention on things they
already care about an attentive audience is almost guaranteed. Ham (1992) terms this type of
communication 'personal' since it connects what is being described…(ibid).
From the tour operator's perspective, for example, a guide's duties often include:
• Ensuring the safety, health and comfort of clients;
• Providing courteous and quality customer service;
• Responding to the needs and expectations of visitors from other cultures and those
with special needs due to age, a disability or special interests;
• Managing interactions within clients groups;
• Delivering the tour cost- effectively;
• Providing high quality, informative and entertaining commentary; and
• Meeting the legal and moral obligations and expectations of protected area managers,
host communities and clients( Weiler and Ham,2001:551).
As Miller (1956; in Weiler and Ham,op.cit.,555) demonstrated nearly a half century ago,
humans can manage more information with legs effort if it is organised into no more than 5-
9 categories or units.
Skilful tour guides, according to most contemporary writers practise thematic interpretation
by imparting compelling messages to their clients about the places they visit.
Additionally, Weiler and Crabtree's (1998; in Weiler and Ham,op.cit.,557-558) study
found that despite the guides' strong performance on most evaluative criteria dealing with
site knowledge, tour management and interpersonal communication skills; they performed
the poorest on indicators pertaining to interpretation methods and conservation themes.
These include:
1. Delivering organised and thematic interpretation (e.g. evidence of a theme,
sequencing, introduction and conclusion), and
2. Providing messages on ecologically sustainable practices and behaviour and
communicating minimal impact themes on-site and post-tour.
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Restructuring the Destination Management
System Paradigm
Roman Egger *
roman.egger@fh-salzburg.ac.at
Abstract
The internet already constitutes the most important information medium for
travel planning. Destination management systems (DMOs) attempt to collect
and deliver the information available about a destination as comprehensively
as possible, frequently with the result that the abundance of information
makes it almost impossible for the guest to interpret it appropriately and to
plan his travel reasonably. In this paper, the author presents a web solution
that, through the individual networking of providers, enables destination
information to be prepared as content-to-go and made available in a
decentralised system.
Key Words: Virtual Networks, Content-to-go, Business Webs, Collaboration,
Destination Management Systems
Introduction
Sheldon’s (1997) statement that "information is the lifeblood of tourism" has rightly been
frequently quoted in the literature. Tourism is an extremely information-intensive industry,
with the result that it is only logical for information and communication technologies (ICT) to
be used along the entire tourist value creation chain. It is in particular at process level that
ICT increase efficiency and effectiveness, and differentiates at the product level. Compared
with other industries, the tourist industry has a relatively low degree of innovation. The
reason for this is to be found in the many individual providers, leading to small market
structures. This is counteracted in particular by ICT, which make a considerable contribution
to the commercial development of the market. Ideally the guest perceives the booked service
not as an aggregation of part-services but as a cohesive total product. This requires successful
coordination between the individual service providers.
Destinations are to be regarded as bundles of services, the concept "destination" being
dependent on the guest’s perception. For instance, a US citizen can perceive Europe as a
destination, a German tourist Dubai, or a passenger the "Freedom of the Seas", the currently
largest cruise liner in the world. The decision in favour of a destination is based on the guest’s
expectation that his needs will be satisfied there. Thus it is only in exceptional cases that the
hotel itself is the reason for the journey. Instead, culture and society, sites and landscape,
sporting opportunities etc are the actual motivators for travel.
*
.
, .
The need for information that is highly up-to-date and of good quality is in particular of
relevance if a large number of suppliers are involved in the creation of a total product. In this
respect, the idea of a network in tourism has always been more of a necessity than a novelty.
1. Theoretical background
1.1 Centralised structures and information deficit
The increasing competitive pressure on the international markets is forcing destinations
and their providers to ensure that they can achieve sustained success with a clear positioning
and communication of the unique selling proposition (USP) and with the quality of the
product. This is a consequence of numerous trends within the tourism industry. The development
of the low-cost carriers for instance permits travel at short notice and as inexpensive as
possible, while at the same time permitting a larger choice of destinations. The opening of
new markets, the trend towards short holidays and the continuing fall in the share of regular
customers is also intensifying the competitive pressure. Service and quality campaigns in an
information-intensive business such as tourism depend in particular on the quality of the
information available. A market that is characterised largely by small structures particularly
needs a stronger network between the participants in order to be able to prevail internationally
with a differentiated programme at a high level.
In the last years, the Internet has become the most important information medium for
travel planning. (Rosendorf 2005; Krause 2007; ACNielsen 2006) In particular, the search for
information on hotel websites is, according to the ADAC Travel Monitor (2008) the number
one source of information for 50% of Internet users. For the hotelier, this means that he must
apply a deep concept of destination and present his business in the network of the destinations
offered online. It is only by providing plenty of information about attractions and activities at
the destination that the hotelier can influence the travel decision-making process of potential
guests to his own benefit. Since this information, however, is not in the hands of the hotelier
(third-party content), there is the problem of making available the necessary content with the
appropriate quality, topicality and scope. As long as a lack of a virtual network prevents the
reciprocal and dynamic exchange of data, all the parties involved (destination management
organisations, providers of culture and leisure activities, accommodation providers and finally
the guests) will suffer from this information deficit.
The following sets out why the lack of a network between the product providers at a
destination leads to a considerable deficit of information.
Culture and leisure facilities have to some extent their own websites and are listed in
the Internet sites of tourism organisations. However, they are only found by search machines
if the guest specifically looks for them. However, since guests mostly do not know what
cultural and leisure facilities are available in the region, they do not look for them. For this
reason, niche providers are only found by visitors who already know about them. A considerable
percentage of the culture and leisure facilities thus remain unused, and the true attractiveness
of the destination remains concealed. The result is intense competition for attention on the
web, together with a lack of websites which can serve as multipliers. As a result, neither
economies of scale nor economies of scope worth mentioning can result.
Egger: Restructuring the Destination Management System Paradigm 19
Hoteliers have realised that potential guests as a rule do not come to the region because
of the accommodation but because they wish to visit a destination and for this reason are
grateful for information about possible activities in the region. Consequently, the hotel websites
describe not only the advantages of the hotel but also possibilities for excursions, museums,
theatres and skiing areas that are within easy reach. A link is usually not provided, since this
causes the guest to leave the hotel's website, and instead there is a rough description of these
programmes. The texts and images are taken from the providers when the website is created,
but only very rarely updated subsequently. Since only a part of the text is taken over, the
information content is limited. Photos are frequently of poor quality and information is often
out of date or even incorrect because price changes or new opening hours are not entered on
a regular basis. The work that this involves is too much for hotel businesses.
At present, potential guests have great difficulty in planning a holiday via the Internet.
Even the search for a hotel is difficult, but is mastered by tourists nevertheless, as the figures
for online bookings show. A greater problem for the guest is putting together a leisure
programme. The hotel websites only provide limited information. The tourism organisations
list and describe what is on offer, the result being such a plethora of possibilities that the
tourist is completely at a loss. He cannot see what programmes might be interesting in his
specific situation (family with children, senior citizens, young persons) and in addition within
a reasonable distance from his hotel. The details about opening hours and prices can be found
on the providers’ websites, which must be checked through individually.
Destination management organisations are usually subject to political and geographical
limits. However, this does not correspond with the wishes of the guests, who consider
destinations according to topographical, cultural, linguistic etc. aspects. Employees of the
tourism associations frequently themselves do not have the latest information about a destination
and for this reason suffer from a deficit when providing information and advice. DMOs are
not allowed to express preferences for any partner and must therefore refrain from making
recommendations to the guests.
1.2 ICT supports virtual networking at destinations

The use of ICT creates new networking opportunities at both the informational and the
transactional level. Numerous processes in the tourism value creation chain can be performed
virtually with the help of Internet, Intranet or Extranet solutions. The virtual value creation
chain therefore no longer consists of sub-processes conducted linearly. Instead, it represents
a freely-configurable matrix with a number of starting points (Morris and Morris, 2002).
Among the numerous descriptions and definitions to be found in the literature, the following
is especially appropriate for this paper: "A tourism network system is the one that compromises
a multiplicity of autonomous, interdependent, enterprises without physical borders of separation
from the environment, that rely on the Internet infrastructure to integrate and exchange
value" (Ndou and Passiante 2005: 440-451).
The primary objective of a Virtual Tourism Network should lie in the creation of a
sustainable win-win partnership (Hakolahti and Kokkonen, 2006), in which the partners involved
can interact dynamically, creatively and proactively. Such networks are characterised by a
healthy blend of cooperation and competition in which the provision of up-to-date content
plays an essential role. However, the desired common use of information can only be efficient
and available widely if all enterprises can participate in the network with a minimum of
expenditure and cost. This requires an innovative, but easy-to-use system. In this context, a
trend toward open platforms and standards can be observed (Ndou and Passiante, 2005). As a
prerequisite for the implementation of an innovative and successful VTN, a radical change in
thinking and acting on the part of organisations is necessary, along with the establishment of
new business models (Ndou and Petti, 2004). Increasing tendencies towards integration ensure
that even SMEs can no longer cut themselves off from these developments. The European
Commission indicated as early as 2003 that SMEs must prepare themselves mentally and
technologically for participation in virtual networks (European Commission, 2003). Particularly
organisations with complex structures, as are often found among destinations, can gain time-
related, monetary and qualitative advantages along with increased flexibility through virtual
networking (Ndou and Petti, 2004). Consequently, it is not surprising that most of the established
Virtual Tourism Networks (VTN) can be found at the destination level. Contemporary literature
regularly refers to Destination Management Systems (DMS) in this context. (Egger et al.
2007)
In recent years, most destinations have developed or introduced a DMS. Put simply, a
DMS constitutes a portal that bundles the information of relevance to the destination. As a
result, interactive access is possible to this content, the aim being to present, advertise and
market the destination as a single entity. Thus destination management systems have a
centralistic character. In contrast, true networks have a decentralised structure and have
nodes that can be interpreted as areas of greater density. Although a DMS creates economies
of scale and scope through the bundling of content, the value created through a true self-
regulating network between the individual partners is of much greater importance. To date,
the potential of VTNs is far from having been exhausted. This is due firstly to the insufficient
integration and networking of the actors, and secondly to standardisation and compatibility
problems. (Ndou and Petti, 2004; Buhalis, 2003)
2. TANDEM – not another DMS

2.1 Content-to-go as new approach
In order to counteract the information deficit and the need for networking at destination
level as described above, the Department for Tourism Research of the FHS-
Forschungsgesellschaft mbH has developed a prototypical web solution using funds from the
EFRE Innovative Measures programme. The project, originally conceived under the research
project name TIGS (Tourism Info Gate Salzburg), was, after evaluation, acclaimed by the
EU as being particularly innovative. In the course of 2007, the prototype, now under the name
TANDEM, was further developed at the departments own expense to market readiness.
TANDEM is a web solution that permits the structural decentralised networking of the
individual actors. The aim of TANDEM is not to develop a new centralised source of
information, i.e. a further DMS in the form of a web portal, but instead a platform to present
destination information and to make this information available automatically as content-to-go
for integration in third-party websites.

The key starting position and the precondition for system development was the use of the
existing infrastructure and abilities of the participating partners. The TANDEM system acts
as a virtual interface between content providers (attractions and activities) and content
subscribers (accommodation enterprises). A web interface can be used by content providers
to make available the information to the other partners. Content subscribers in turn select
from the data available the installation packages that are to be shown on their websites. The
content subscriber creates a kind of subscription with destination information according to
target-group specific, geographical or seasonal relevance. In addition, the subscriber defines
the presentation of information to be included using a few clicks in order to adjust it to the
look and feel of the site. Alongside colour, font, etc., there are now five different
representational forms available to the information subscriber.
Fig. 1: Representational forms of the subscriptions
Source: own depiction
Integrating a code line provided by TANDEM enables the selected subscription to then be
presented on the hotel's website. Fig. 2 shows an example of the integration of content using
a picture bar on a hotel website.
Fig. 2: Integrated content
By compiling the information subscription, the hotelier thus assumes a function as provider
of recommendations for his guests, as previously was only available locally at the hotel
reception. The end customer only sees the destination information collected from TANDEM
and presented on the website, and has no direct contact with the TANDEM system.
2.2 Technical specifications

In technical terms, the technology can also be viewed as a Content Syndication System. A
number of established data formats, such as RSS and ATOM exist for these systems. On the
other hand, a number of efforts are being made to develop custom data formats for information
exchange in tourism, such as Harmonize. The latter provides a semantic description of tourist
products that is modularly scaled for use as an ordering and booking system. The Harmonize
data structure is correspondingly complex. The problem area addressed by TANDEM neither
requires nor justifies this level of complexity, and so it has been decided to use an internal
data structure for the TANDEM prototype system that is as simple as possible while remaining
sufficient. (Egger, et al. 2007)
Tab.1TANDEMdatastructure
For the tourist as end user For the subscriber Internal
• Title •Address •Contactperson
• Briefdescription(Teaser) •Geographicalcoordinates •E-mail
• Description(completetext) (latitude/longitude) •Telephone
• Dynamicinformation(e.g.prices, •Categorisation •Invoice
openinghours,...) •URL Address
• Photo
• Dynamicrouteplanner(point-to-point)
• Publisherdetails
The data supplied by the provider can have two general characteristics. Either it is static
(all data that never or rarely changes, such as the service description or the geographical
location) or dynamic (such as opening hours, prices, special offers, maintenance and facility
holidays). Static information is presented in either the short teaser or a longer description
form. For dynamic information, freely configurable "dynamic lines" can be created. If the
provider makes changes to the dynamic content (e.g. changes the opening hours), these changes
will be synchronised automatically on the content user’s site.
Fig. 3: Schematic description of TANDEM
Source: own depiction
There are several alternative technical solutions available for content syndication, a
coarse distinction being possible between "push" and "pull" solutions.
1) PULL by Webclient: XML Feed, formatted via SLT and integrated in the subscriber’s
website
2) PULL by Webclient: HTML page prepared by the system, integrated in the website via
<iframe>
3) (pull by subscriber’s web server) PHP script in the subscriber’s web space collects the
data from the TANDEM system
4) (push by TANDEM) HTML pages and image files uploaded to the subscriber’s web
space, integrated via Server Side Include (SSI)

In order to minimise interoperability problems, the existing infrastructure and the
competence of potential participants were identified. Since the interviews with the content
users were not particularly profitable, due to their lack of understanding of technical details
(XML, PHP, SSI), a trial was developed, consisting of a set of files which the content users
uploaded to their web space. These files were constructed in such a way as to test various
features of the web space and provide information on them when accessed via the web server.
These studies showed that a prototype solution using XML or PHP on the content user’s
webserver was inappropriate. Instead, a decision was made to implement solution 2 (iframes).
Work is currently being done on alternative 4 (push from TANDEM). The push alternative
does present the content user with higher configuration expenditure, but at the same time, it
is the only method that allows content to be optimised for search engines. Since for the iframe
alternative the content of the iframe is loaded from the TANDEM server, it is not interpreted
as an element of the website and thus is not perceived by search machines. (Egger, et al.
2007)
Since both providers and subscribers have geographical references, TANDEM can provide
point-to-point route planning between the hotel and the point of interest (POI). For any POI
integrated in the hotel website, the guests need only click on the route planning link without
knowing the address of the hotel or of the POI. Route planning gives the guest not only precise
details of the route but also a first feeling for distances and the time needed between the hotel
and the POIs he is interested in.
3.2 Value creation through TANDEM

In order to demonstrate the potential of TANDEM, the following once again examines the
participants discussed earlier and shows how the deficits resulting from a lack of an information
network can be eliminated by participating in TANDEM.
Culture and leisure facilities maintain their data in a centralised system and present
themselves through TANDEM not only, as in the past, in the lists maintained by the tourism
organisations, but also automatically on the various websites of the accommodation enterprises,
the latter also providing access to the appropriate guest group. Each change in opening hours
or prices is entered only once centrally within the TANDEM system and is then immediately
updated on all the other websites.
Hoteliers select the leisure programme for their guests from TANDEM and present it on
their homepages, with the necessary information, capable of dynamic integration, being
automatically updated. This leads to a minimum effort in creation. There is no maintenance
activity whatsoever. The hotelier can show not only that he has an attractive accommodation
and catering programme but also that the guests will find an attractive leisure programme in
the immediate surroundings. At the same time, TANDEM can also be used to find the
integrated text elements of search machines. This increases the hotel's competitiveness,
combined with an increased transparency of the range of destinations.
Destination management organisations can also integrate the TANDEM system

information in their websites and thus have an ideal data basis in order to be able to offer
their guests a maximum of information and advice quality locally. Non-commercial programmes
such as hiking trails or natural monuments, which were hitherto only represented on the
destination websites, can be displayed on the hotelier’s websites via TANDEM, and the
existing borders between destinations are increasingly blurred.
Potential guests profit most from TANDEM. They receive a selection of culture and
leisure activities preselected and of relevance to their interests. The quality of information,
given that it is completely up-to-date, is very high. The question of local transport is clarified.
Tourists know that they can obtain further information and support on the use of the recommended
programmes once they have arrived at the hotel. They can plan their holiday with a minimum
of effort on the Internet.
Using TANDEM creates a new distribution of roles within the destination. The optimum
provision of relevant information to the guests, as can be done via TANDEM, leads to a
competitive advantage of the destination as a whole, the TANDEM system making the range
of destination information more transparent, attractive and in addition more easily accessible.
In an age of cheap flights and short stays, this is a very substantial advantage. Tourists can use
TANDEM to obtain the information they need more simply, more quickly, in more detail and
more up-to-date than for other regions. This increases customer satisfaction, which has a
sustained effect on purchase and repurchase behaviour.
The entire development of TANDEM was supported through the permanent involvement
of businesses from the field of industry in the role of friendly users. By means of polls,
workshops and test accounts, the information concerning background conditions and participants’
expectations was obtained that was needed for a market focused concept.
At present (April 2008) TANDEM is in the market launch stage. TANDEM is currently
being piloted in cooperation with the two DMOs of the City and Province of Salzburg. The
business model provides for the FHS-Forschungsgesellschaft acting as "altruistic operator".
Content providers pay EURO 300/year per product in as many languages as they require if
they are commercial programmes, while providers of free tourist programmes (for instance
hikes) can enter their products free of charge. Content subscribers pay EURO 150 per annum
for an unlimited number of subscribed programmes.
4. Discussion and Conclusion

In contrast to previous efforts to link service providers from a single destination with each
other, TANDEM does not attempt to use a centralised system to make information available
to end users. It appears to be significantly more effective and efficient to provide a platform
which enables the individual providers to connect with each other in a self-regulating process.
The approaches presented in this paper are only a few of the possibilities that a system like
TANDEM can offer. It is of course possible to consider expanding information networks at

the transaction level. This might mean that customers could reserve admission tickets to a
museum via the hotel web site, for example. Consequently the implementation of dynamic
packaging solutions would no longer be restricted to destination websites. Of course, the
system can also be used in the reverse direction. Attractions and activities could recommend
hotels in their area and offer reservation possibilities or even implement TANDEM as a
Content Management System for their own web site. The future challenges for a successful
implementation of TANDEM on the market are also multifaceted. For a system like
TANDEM, characterised as it is by a strong networking effect, there must first be a critical
mass of users and/or partners. In this respect, it is necessary to develop a business model that
can be presented simply and comprehensibly and minimises the entrance barriers. The high
value of such a system is to be found in the overriding goal of creating a win-win situation for
each and every participant. The objective of securing competitive advantages for all those
involved, combined with an exceptionally customer-oriented focus, requires a neutral system
operator. In this respect, it will be necessary to view and operate a system such as TANDEM
as a tourist infrastructure. (Egger et al. 2007)
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Post Conflict Tourism in Nepal: Challenges and

Opportunities for Preventing Latent Conflict
*
Pranil Kumar Upadhayaya
Abstract
Nepal’s tourism sector passed through a decade long (1996 -2006) armed
conflict.
On the backdrop of the relationship of peace as a precondition for tourism,
this paper first explores both negative and positive impacts of armed conflict
on the tourism sector of Nepal. This paper, through a number of case studies
argues that destination image building is largely influenced by various non-
tourist actors like media and labor relations apart of others.
It, apprehending the potential of tourism for conflict mitigation in the post-
conflict period, recommends for a major paradigm shift to sustain the survival
of Nepalese tourism from frequent irrupted manifestations of conflict during
the ongoing fragile period of transformation in Nepal.
Keywords: tourism, armed conflict, impacts, post-conflict challenges
INTRODUCTION
The Himalayan democratic republic of Nepal ranks among the least-developed countries
in the Asian and pacific Region. The landlocked position, diversified topography, geography,
climate, harsh terrain providing limited useable natural resources, distribution of people
with specific lifestyle, traditions and needs have always posed major challenges for her
economic growth and development. In this context, the Government's principal efforts are
directed toward identifying and mobilizing resources for balanced economic growth.
However, the same landscapes with mountains and flat plains in north and south areas
posses the immense natural resources for the development of tourism. The unmatched
natural and cultural heritages primarily remain Nepal's prime tourism assets. These
traditional culture and unspoiled nature are key features of tourism industry to attract
tourists from varied tourist market segments like holidays, pilgrimage, adventurous and
special interest tourists from all over the world to Nepal. (Bhatta, 2006; Boeker, 2000).
These potentials of tourism in Nepal provide her unlimited potentials and seamless
opportunities to develop this sector and provide positive impulses for economic development
(Boeker, 2000; Sharma & Upadhayaya, 2008).
*
. ,
( ) .
Upadhayaya:PostConflictTourisminNepal:ChallengesandOpportunities... 29
With the prevailing of centralized political practices for long time in Nepal, tourism
potentially a major sector of economy also remained largely in centralized form in a total
period of six decades of opening of Nepal as a tourist destination. This sector was not only
confined in limited territories like Kathmandu, Pokhara, Chitwan, Everest & Annapurna
regions with rapid progress but also dominated by limited number of people recognized as
elite class monopolistic groups (Bhattarai, 2003; Bhattarai, Conway, & Shrestha, 2005;
Upadhayaya, 2006).
But the start of a decade long (1996-2006) armed conflict waged by the Communist
Party of Nepal (CPN-M) became a noticeable turning point to deteriorate the destination
image in her short history of tourism sector development.
The escalation of this armed conflict coinciding with instable political conditions, negative
media hype, travel warnings from tourist generating countries, and other conflicting factors
compelled the dramatic fall in Nepal’s image from peaceful tourist land to an insecure
destination on the tourism map of the world. All major sectors suffered during a decade
long conflict, and tourism was no exception (Adhikari, 2005; Bhattarai & Dahal, 2007;
Grandon, 2007; Karki & Seddon, 2003). Tourism sector, as a major source of foreign-
exchange earner, has remained volatile, and tourism earnings are largely dependent on the
political and security situation (NTB, 2008a)
The present article, on the backdrop of the end of a decade long armed conflict and
continuing peace process, first explores the causes of the CPN-M led armed conflict, and
its impacts on tourism sector from both negative and positive perspectives.
With the entering of Nepal in post-conflict stage after signing of Comprehensive Peace
Agreement (CPA), tourism is passing through fluctuations on tourists arrivals in the current
fragile political transition. Conflict still continues but on different manifestation. This
paper, in this context, further analyzes the challenges and opportunities for tourism for its
desired growth and concludes with some specific coping strategies and recommendations
for its sustainability.
Study methods
The research paper is based on both primary and secondary sources of information.
Primary information is collected from a total of 70 hoteliers selected through non random
(purposive and snow-bowl) sampling from the places like Kathmandu in central Nepal,
Pokhara in western Nepal, Chitwan National Park area in central southern Nepal, and
Lukla & Namche Bazar in Everest region in eastern Nepal.
Apart of information acquired simultaneously through semi structured interviews and
survey questionnaires from these respondents, it also uses information derived from a
focus group discussion held among the representatives of tourism related associations,
executives of Nepal Tourism Board, resource persons of tourism related academic institutions
and Universities, tourism journalists, representatives from Tourist Police, and Tourism
Development Committee in the year 2008 in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Moreover, this article also utilizes one and half years of review of published and
unpublished literatures, publications, reports printed data made available by tourism related
institutions, research centers, internet sources, and university libraries on the nexus of conflict
and tourism in Nepal.
CAUSES OF ARMED CONFLICT

The reasons for Nepal's armed conflict are quite complex and interrelated. Upreti
(2009) ranges these reasons as diverse as structural (socio-economic), ideological,
geographical, international, environmental, and political.
Nepal was in unitary political system under absolute monarchy for three decades from
1960 – 1990 that could not give the feeling of collective ownership and include participatory
development approach. Nepal remained a state of elites in a situation of prolonged absolute
poverty in the wider sections of population at grass root levels.
Though first popular people’s movement in 1990 replaced three decades long unitary
Panchayat (partly less system) political system by multiparty democracy with constitutional
monarch, the one and half decade (1990–2006) of post-democracy era was a volatile
period filled with political instability, lack of structural equality in social, economic and
political systems, lack of good governance (Upreti, 2009). The changes of nine Prime
Ministers in a period of ten years (1991–2000) are well remarkable to this instability
which limited the positive amplification to all sectors of economy including tourism. Nepal
could not witness equitable economic growth for a long time even after the restoration of
democracy in 1990. These factors were barriers to include socio-economically deprived
people in the mainstream economy.
This period not only excluded the participatory development process but also marked
and practiced the culture of self-centered politics amidst the various political parties. Those
parties were by and large opposing and demonstrating each other in unrestrained manners
(Grandon, 2007). Pyakuryal (2007) quoting agreement and observation of general Nepalese
people mentions that the CPN-M movement in Nepal was guided by two major elements:
the inequalities of socio-economic structure and volatile and non – inclusive nature of
Nepali politics.
A decade long armed conflict not only destroyed physical infrastructure, but also human
capital and social fabric.
Impact of armed conflict on tourism

The decade long (1996 – 2006) armed conflict caused not only the breakdown of peace
& harmony in the country but also the loss of 13,347 thousand of lives and 200,000
displacements, damage of infrastructures including private & public properties worth billions
of rupees, and increased hardships for the poor, marginalized, disadvantaged and vulnerable
in getting access to basic needs, resources and services (INSEC, 2007; NRC, 2005).
Negative impacts
Among negative, conflicts jeopardizing the economic development posed serious threats
to the national economy in general and loomed manifolds tangible and intangible crisis on
both shorter and longer term over tourism in particular.
Table I: Fluctuating figures of tourism affected by armed conflict

relatedpoliticalactivitiesinNepal
Year Number % Change Average %Change Revenue generated % Change

oftourist length from tourism (in
arrivals ofstay USD million)
1995 363,395 11.27 116.8
1996 393,613 8.3 13.50 1.98 116.6 -1.71
1997 421,857 7.2 10.49 -2.23 115.9 -6.00
1998 463,684 9.9 10.76 2.57 152.5 31.58
1999 491,504 6.0 12.28 1.41 168.1 10.23
2000 463,646 -5.7 11.88 -3.26 166.8 -7.73
2001 361,237 -22.1 11.93 4.20 140.3 -1.59
2002 275,468 -23.7 7.92 -3.36 106.8 -2.39
2003 338,132 22.7 9.60 2.12 192.8 8.0
2004 385,297 13.9 13.51 4.07 179.9 -6.7
2005 375,398 -2.6 -9.09 -3.27 148.4 -1.7
2006 383,926 2.3 10.20 -1.22 162.8 9.7
2007 526,705 37.3 11.96 1.72 230.6 -4.2
2008 500,277 -5.0 11.78 -0.02 351.9 52.60
Source: MoTCA (2009)
The decreased number of tourists caused cut throat competitions among tourist service
providers. Many hotels could not survive due to decline in tourists numbers, lowering of
hotel rates, squeezing of night life for tourists due to the state of curfew and emergency
and were closed both temporarily and permanently (NTTR, 2006).
A total of 5 hotels in Kathmandu in central Nepal, 10 hotels in Pokhara in western
Nepal, and 21 hotels in Chitwan in southern Nepal were closed due to decrease in tourist
arrivals, and consequent shrinking of businesses and revenue (Source: Primary information
from the field, Sep 2008 – Feb 2009). Other negative affects include increment on illegal
operations of tourism activities and loss of government revenue, and illegal poaching of
Rhinos in National Parks and Wildlife Conservation areas.
This situation aggravated the unemployment situation and livelihoods resulting irreparable
damages to the tourism industry of Nepal.
Armed conflict and lack of peace was not only the reasons of ailing tourism industry.
The other crucial factors, on the backdrop of the armed conflict and the state of placeless-
ness, which compelled the lowering of tourist arrivals are namely unrealistic and negative
media hype by various visual and print medias (specially from India), negative travel advisories
issued by foreign diplomatic missions, limited number of international airlines operations
mainly after the year 2000, extortions from tourists and attacks on monopolistic elites in
tourism by CPN-M armed rebels, and attacks and destruction of state owned airports. The
mass media clearly have a role to play as a critical source of information to potential tourists
and to providers of tourist information (Nielsen, 1968, p. 183). Its role is influential for both
destination image building and deterioration during the time of political instability and
insurgency. The tourism image of Nepal has been deteriorated a lot during the period of
armed conflict in Nepal (Bhattarai & Dahal, 2007).
Positive Impacts
Nepal's armed conflict broke out on the backdrop of the multitude of interwoven
causes in complex environment leading to frustration in majority of people. Pragmatically,
this conflict needs to be seen in two schools of thoughts in context of natural resource
conflict (Upreti, 2002. p. 44). Among the two schools of thoughts one as 'pathological
and dysfunctional' and the other as 'functional means for social change' as existing
differently, the latter view accepts that conflict is a constructive social process to establish
group boundaries, develop a sense of self-identify, community building, and progressive
economic and social change.
Some remarkable positive consequences of Nepal’s armed conflict in socio- economic
aspects of tourism based on above theory of conflict can be seen as institutionalization of
collective labor movement, massive international publicity of the tangible beauties of Nepal,
and paradigm shift on the attitude towards domestic tourist segments.
Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and transformation of armed conflict to post

Conflict stage
King Gyanendra citing the need to defeat CPN-M dissolved parliament, sacked people's
elected Prime Minister, and resumed state administrative power in his hands on February
1, 2005. The Kings’ these actions of suppressing political parties bought a turning point in
Nepalese politics. This brought both political parties and CPN-M on the same table for a
new joint struggle that was materialized through a 12-points agreement signed between
Seven Parties Alliance (SPA) of political parties and CPN-M on 21 November 2005 in
Delhi, India. Upreti (2009) observes a 12-points agreement as the start of Nepal's trajectory
towards peace.
This historic fusion between CPN-M and democratic political parties in popular "People’s
movement" held on 6-24 April 2006 against King’s autocratic rule and dictatorship overthrew
him and compelled to reinstated the earlier dissolved parliament on 24 April 2006.
A "Comprehensive Peace Agreement’’ between the Government of Nepal and CPN-
M, after the removal of the terrorist tag & red corner notice on the CPN-M on 03 May
2006 and signing of the 25-point "Code of Conduct" between CPN-M and the government
on 26 May 2006, was signed on 21 November 2006 making permanent the ceasefire and
formal end of the war which had been in place after the successful April movement in 2006.
The CPN-M joined the mainstream coalition government on 1 April 2007. It is transformed
as the largest democratically elected political party of Nepal after its overwhelming victory
in the constituent assembly (CA) election held on 10 April 2008. The 601 members CA is
assigned to draft a new constitution for a new Nepal.
Continuity and new manifestations of structural conflicts as the post-conflict challenges

of tourism amidst post-conflict tourism recovery
The end of a decade long armed conflict with CPA in November 2006 and joining of
the interim government of interim parliament by CPN-M as a legitimate mainstream political
party on 1 April 2007 were milestones for peace building and re-establish the lost destination
image of Nepal on the world tourism map.
Tourism industry has taken a sigh of relief in the aftermath of the changed political
context and restoration of peace in Nepal. Tourism has emerged as one of the fastest
growing economic sectors with 526, 705 international tourist arrivals in 2007 (MoTCA,
2009) and 500,277 (though less by – 5%) international arrivals in 2008. This remarkable
recovery reflects the peace dividend to the economy that was nearly pulled apart by the
decade-long conflict (Manandhar, 2008 & Upadhayaya, 2008).
Though tourism sector in Nepal is gradually recovering in the current transition phase,
it is also facing continued challenges in the complicated transition phase in the post conflict
peace process (Bhattarai & Dahal, 2007). The recovery in tourism sector in post-conflict
stage is found threatened and confronted with new forms of conflicts that have cropped up
through the plethora of general strikes, bandha (closures) from outside tourism and labor
disputes from inside tourism as one after another posing continuous challenges to the
fragile period of transition.
A Post Editorial (2008) covering a report issued by UNDP World Food Programme
(WFP) states that there were a total of 755 bandha (closures) & strikes in the year 2008 in
Nepal.
The peace process in Nepal has become challenging and weakened at present due to
many local ethnic conflicts for political rights, little management of those conflicts by
cooperation amongst the political parties, and the growing danger of developing more &
more militia streams in Terai in southern Nepal (Ghimire & Nahikian, 2009).
The post-conflict period has witnessed a number of direct and indirect conflict related
incidences on various tourism establishments and tourists which would be relevant to
highlight.
The above mentioned incidents are deep-seated tangible incidences for the deterioration
Table II: A chronological list of conflict related incidents in tourism sector (including hotel
sub-sector) in post-conflict period
February 2009 More than dozen workers were seriously injured in inhuman attack with weapons
by the management of Hotel Beijing China in Jyatha, Kathmandu while in peaceful
demonstration and continuous negotiation with management regarding the
implementation of Labor Law.
January 2009 NepalFreeHotelWorkersUnionaffiliatedtotheGeneralFederationofnational
Trade unions (GFONT) of Communist Party of Nepal United Marxist & Leninist
(CPN-UML) closed hotels & resorts in Chitwan for 22 days demanding 10 percent
service charge in the overall package (apart of accommodation & food, drinks,
healthservices,secretarialservices,banquet&spa).
December 2008 HotellaborsaffiliatedwiththeCPN-McameoutinrallyinPokharademandingto
implement minimum wage act.
December 2008 ANHRWAaffiliatedtotheCPN-MclosedEverestPanoramaResortatDaman,situated
between Kathmandu and Hetauda in Prithvi highway alleging the non fulfillment
of minimum salary as proposed by the government and. It compelled tourists to
leavethehotelpriortothecompletionoftheirstays.
November 2008 58 hotels and resorts of the tourist hub at Nagarkot were shut down for almost
four days demanding an increase of Rupees 1,300 for all levels of workers by the
CPN-M affiliated ANHRWA. Around 800 tourists staying in 36 hotels were forced
toleavethehoteland/orcancelledthereearlierconfirmedbookingsforstayin
hotel.ThehotelswereopenedafteranegotiationatthelevelofPrimeMinisterin
presenceofMinisterofHomeAffairs,SecretaryofMinistryofTourismandCivil
Aviation,representativeofHotelAssociationofNepal,therepresentativeANHRWA.
Earlier to this negotiation, President of ANRHWU’s Bhaktapur wing received a
directionbytheMinisterofTourismandCivilAviationandfollowedit.
January 2008 ANHRWAaffiliatedtoCPN-MrestrictedtheentryoftouristsforadayinNagarkot
a hill spot with 42 hotels situated towards 32 km northeast of Kathmandu. The
agitation demanded to meet a 15 point demand1 and closed the hotel for four
days.Touristsweregivenahastythreatduetotheprevailinguncertainty.
January 2008 All Nepal Hotel and Restaurant Trade union (ANHRWA) members of hotel in Pokhara
halted works for three days on minimum wage row deal demanding a flat increment
of Rupees 1,300 for all in minimum wage given to hotel workers.
September 2007 CPN-M cadres restarted collecting forceful donations from trekking tourists by
establishingcollectioncentersinBirethanti,GhorepaniandMananginAnnapurna
inwest,inLukla,Everest,KanchenjungaineastandLangtangincentralnorthin
spiteof publiclypledgingnottocarryoutextortions.
March 2007 Mr. Hari Shrestha, the owner of Hotel Woodland in Kathmandu was beaten after
disputeswithlaborunion.
December 2006 HotelsinDhulikhelandNagarkotwereclosedforthreedaysdemandingtomaintain
minimum wage standard and ensure fair treatment.

December 2006 HotelsatDhulikhelandNagarkot,popularhillstationsfortouristsonanhour
drivefromKathmandu,wereforciblylockedbyCPN-Maoistaffiliatedlaborunion
for3days.
October 2006 Five associations related to the tourism industry showing their solidarity to
business community, announced and participated on the close down of all their
businesses on October 17, 2006 to oppose severe hardship from the rising
donation drive, extortion and the unreasonable demand of the unions. The act
was to give pressure to the government to come out from its paralyzed state,
protect the business community, and to take immediate measures to stop
unfavorablebehavior.
Feb – Aug 2006 Hotel Yak and Yeti was closed for almost 8 months due to bettering of the row
between management and labor unions, and non –cooperation movement by
CPN-M affiliated labor union and GFONT. The demands from the labor unions
includedfairwages,facilities,andpermanentstatus.
Sources: Compiled from various issues of Nepal Travel Trade Reporter; Nepal Tourism Board E-
News; The Kathmandu Post; The Himalayan Times; The Rising Nepal; Nepalnews.com; Grandon
(2007), and Primary information from the field visit (September 2008 – July 2009).
of the destination image at a time when Nepal was in the verge of media scrutiny.
Still, not a single tourist was intentionally touched, harmed, hurt or harassed, threatened,
targeted, kidnapped, and/or made hostage apart of some minor incidences against tourists
(Aditya, 2002; Grandon, 2007; TAAN, 2003; Sharma & Upadhayaya, 2008). Nepal,
defined as unsafe in general, was practically not an unsafe destination for tourists (Despatch
Reporter, 2000).
The impact of such unfavorable circumstances is well visible from the trend of the
fluctuating numbers of arrivals of tourist by air in last four years and especially in post-
conflict year 2008 when this year could not catch the momentum of growth like the previous
year 2007 as shown in table III.
Table III: Fluctuating number of tourist arrivals by air in post-conflict years

Years Touristsarrivalsbyair % Change
2004 297,335
2005 277,346 - 7.21 %
2006 283,819 - 2.29 %
2007 360,350 + 27 %
2008 374,661 +4 %
2008 (Jan – Aug) 224,679
2008 (Jan – Aug) %
The trend of growth instead of raising further or remaining stable is largely affected in the
second post-conflict year 2008.
As a result of unfavorable environments, there were continuous decreased tourist arrivals
from April to October 2008 for almost seven months (Graph I) for the first time in the past
two years after the mainstreaming of the CPN – Maoist in the peace process.
Sonmez (1998) for such a context states that the political turmoil (which in case of
Nepal is the fragile period of transitions) has lingering effects and can effectively impede
travel to affected areas and create an enduring barrier to international tourism. Ritcher and
Waugh (as cited by Kunwar, 2006) also mentions that tourism may decline precipitously
when political conditions appear unsettled.
The first three months January, February, and March in year 2009 have also witnessed
continuous decrease in tourist arrivals (MoTCA, 2009). The total international tourist
arrivals of 224,679 numbers by air in eight months (Jan – August) in 2009 is less by - 3.3
% in comparison to the total arrivals in the same period in previous year 2008 (Table III).
This reveals, as Neumayer (2004) also states, the unstable nature of tourism, which is
highly sensitive to any uncertainties, especially conflicts.
The role of both armed conflict and post-conflict environments for backstopping the
labor unions and uprising of disputes between employers and labor unions in context of
enduring political influence to and affiliations of such trade unions should also be attributed
for the subsequent consequences in hotel sub-sector from negative perspectives and fragility
of tourism as a whole. Nevertheless, it has also positive consequences in the other forms.
As the result of continuous demand and struggle of labors/workers unions like Hotel
Worker’s Association, Nepal Independent Hotel Workers’ Union and All Nepal Hotel and
Restaurant Workers Association during and after the armed conflict period, a joint agreement
was signed between Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) and these associations on December
31, 2006 (Pradhan, 2007). This agreement incorporated the implementation of 10% service
charge from January 1, 2007 in all the member hotels (non-star to five star categories) of
HAN putting an end to their more than two decade long dispute. However, there are new
and renewed demands in favor of workers are being raised which is creating time and
again conflict between employees and employers.
Though the unlimited closures and wheel strikes are homegrown concrete reasons to
affect negatively on the tourism sector of Nepal, the dependency of long haul tourists
arriving Nepal via countries like India and Thailand for transit connections, political
demonstration in Bangkok in 2008, conflict & protest and travel ban in Tibet for some
time in 2008, and terrorist attacks at Hotel Trident & Hotel Taz in Mumbai in 2009 have
also taken a toll on the negative growth of tourist arrivals in recent months. Beirman's
(2003) observation through a number of case studies demonstrates that a crisis in one
country has ripple effect on neighboring destinations proves such lag over affects happened
in Nepal.
The regional armed conflicts compounding with ethnic conflict in the Terai region of
the country erupted after the declaration of interim constitution on 15 January 2007. This,
though scattered and in small scale based on different political ideologies and principles,
has undoubtedly hampered the Terai tourism. It has aided in building negative image and
perception of the whole macro destination Nepal.
Foreign diplomatic missions of major tourist generating countries like USA, UK,
Australia, etc. even in the post-conflict stage, have issued travel advisories with highly
cautious publicity of Nepal.
The urging to the diplomatic cores to review their travel advisories by government
minister in the changed context of Nepal's politics coinciding with the occasion of the
Nepal Tourism Board’s 10th anniversary in December 2007 confirm the lack of full trust
and confidence of tourist generating countries in the existing situation of peace in Nepal.
The predisposition of US towards Nepal on political ground becomes convincing while
looking at a new travel warning to Nepal issued on May 22, 2009 which is the only
negative advisory to Nepal at present. It states:
The Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the risks of traveling to Nepal …This
replaces the Travel Warning for Nepal dated November 21, 2008 and updates safety and
security information. The U.S. Government’s designation of the Communist Party of
Nepal (Maoist) as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" organization under Executive
Order 13224 and its inclusion on the "Terrorist Exclusion List" pursuant to the Immigration
and Nationality Act remain in effect (US Department of Sate, 2009).
Most of the remote parts of the country and where majorities of poor communities live
are very potential areas for developing tourism in Nepal. Tourism needs to be developed
as the main tool for poverty alleviation. In this context, there are some interrelated
challenging tasks in tourism sector in the aftermath of the conflict like to mitigating the
possibility of the recursion of conflict and helping to enhance sustainable peace building.
Some key challenges to be met through careful planning and honest executions for post-
conflict peace building through tourism include sustaining the growth of post-conflict
tourist arrivals, bringing about a consensus between different stakeholders in the multi-
dimensional sector of tourism, building common national agendas and action plan for
tourism, forging to strengthen public private partnership, decentralizing tourism in inclusive
and participative character to correct unequal distribution and imbalance of tourism profit,
and rendering capacity building supports to local agencies in far flunked rural areas which
are exotic for the potentiality of tourism but excluded yet.
However, the timely fulfilling of these important tasks and tourism industry to grow
require political stability, and congenial environment. The practices of strikes and bandhs
(closure) have continuously adverse impacts on tourism industry of Nepal. Strong political
will and favorable and effective policies and programs of the government are the
preconditions.
Responding (Coping strategy) by seeking pledge from political parties on tourism

The Nepal Tourism Board holding a program to welcome all the political parties
represented in the CA sought a firm commitment from them on July 15, 2008 to foster
tourism. This was held on the backdrops of the lack of positive peace like increased
conflicts, uncontrolled demonstrations, strikes, and, bandas held by political parties and
their affiliated youth and social associations which are felt pushing tourism to the brink of
uncertainty (Post Reporter, 2008).
A joint media release by Nepal Tourism Board and tourism related professional
associations showing the grief concern over ongoing trend of closures and appealing for
the undisrupted movement of tourists carrying vehicles (ground transportation) proves the
gravity of the fragile situation of peace process.
Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) issuing a press release on 15 March 2009 has also
mentioned that this sub-sector of tourism has been adversely affected due to the prolonged
multiplicity of conflict related incidences like strikes, bandhs, insecurity, and labor problems.
Post-conflict tourism Opportunities

Though both national and international media intentionally covered Nepal’s crisis during
and sold insurgency stories, but some international Medias like BBC, CNN, and Deutsche
Welle, etc. also covered Nepal’s beautiful mountain topography, geography, vegetation,
climate, landscapes, deep valleys, varied ethnic people, their cultures, and collective
traditional lifestyles.
The global coverage of Nepal’s attractions while covering Nepal’s crisis during violent
conflict periods had dramatic impact on the growth of tourist arrivals on later phase.
The potential tourists’ recapping of the fascinating and beautiful image of Nepal, realizing
the saga of the armed war, knowing" homegrown" successful peace accord, and listening
about the continuity of peace process has positive affects on tourism in the aftermath of
conflict. Nepal has been able to draw the attention of international media due to the success
of its "home grown" peace process and CPA 2006. Every corner of the world knows Nepal
through the media in the changed context without Nepal’s own effort to advertise in global
channels like the CNN or BBC. This gives a vast oppetunties for tourism.
The CPN-M led government, after some amendments in old policy 1995, brought the
new Tourism Policy 2065 (2009) in March 2009.
This policy attempts to promote rural, agro, adventure, health, and education tourism.
It has incorporated the policy of participatory tourism development approach in which the
concept of home stay for tourism is major focus in incorporate the wider participations of
grassroots rural people on rural areas. However, its effectiveness is yet to be seen in
future.
CONCLUSION
Nepal’s a decade long (1996-2006) armed conflict and the recent political revolution of
2006 brought great political structural changes.
During the conflict, tourism like other sectors of economy suffered. This sector responded
stubbornly to the conflict with a number of coping strategies designed to prevent and
sustain However, there are also some structural changes and starting of the processes of
structural changes seen in tourism during the conflict.
Economic agendas, desired level of economic growth and income are further inevitable
challenges and opportunities for post-conflict peace and nation building. Tourism in Nepal
has immense potentials for socio-economic mobilization and growth not only due to the
abundant of nature, culture and heritage as gifted strong bases but also due to its comparative
low capital intensive nature in contrast to other sectors of economy.
Tourism, by nature, is also a complex and multifaceted phenomena. It can bring
prosperity through jobs, foreign investment and foreign exchange. At the same time, it
can damage environments, stress societies, erode culture & values, manifest conflict, and
heighten it. Managing this dual nature of tourism is critical and of high importance for
Nepal in a context where local participation and involvement in the promotion of tourism,
decision making powerfully dominated by the mercantile classes and educated elites, with
vested economic interests.
In Nepal, like in any other developing country, this sector is highly instable and sensitive
to various political, socio-cultural and economic factors manifested locally and also due to
international reasons. The nation was vulnerable due to such disorders during the decade
long armed conflict.
The conflict sensitiveness of tourism in the aftermath of conflict is the need of the hour
for its sustainable development and it utilization to alleviate poverty and achieve socio-
economic progress of sections where unemployment-fueled conflict has just ended. For it,
there is in the need of careful and indigenous planning and implementations framed with
appropriate guidelines.
The case study of Nepal shows that the early stage of peace process after the end of
protracted armed conflict showed rapid recovery in tourism sector. The peace process has
become complicated due to the lack of cooperation amongst political parties. However, the
complications of the peace process were, of course, not a concern for tourists as long as it did
not affect the stays of tourists in Nepal. The increased tourist in the year 2007 after the end
of a decade long conflict in 2006 again dipped in 2008, though not as drastic as the decline
during the armed conflict period, as it became evident that the political trouble that persisted
had an impact on the comfort of tourists as well. Bandhas (closures) called by groups of all
hues and colors, became a common occurrence, making it very difficult for tourist to travel
around the country.
International medias both in past and at present has projected incorrectly to Nepal as in
insecure destination for tourists. This needs to be tacked proactively by reactivating the
crisis management coordination cell in more effective way.
In context of enduring political influence to and affiliations of trade unions that has
made impact on tourism sector in general and hotel sub-sector in specific, it is crucial to
transform the Labor Act 1992 more balanced - both for the laborers and the investors and
thus seeking the durable solution of labor issues where both employers and employees can
reach a win-win situation in a cordial atmosphere.
This is emphasized to prevent the negative image of tourism, a highly sensitive service
industry, which has unwillingly experienced negative impressions during conflict and post-
conflict periods due to negative media hype and media exaggeration as well as labor
disputes in tourism sector.
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tw_927.html
Backpacking 2.0 – how
Backpackers use Weblogs
Roman Eggera,
Christof Hofstätterb
Abstract
The term Web 2.0 is currently on everyone’s lips and the phenomena and
concepts surrounding the new interactive web also present the tourism industry
with new challenges. Over the past years, weblogs have become firmly
established, especially on the subject of travel. For backpackers in particular
– according to the authors’ hypothesis – weblogs could offer an attractive
alternative to traditional information media because backpackers depend on
ad-hoc information along with authentic reports from other travellers due to
their relatively long travel times and often spontaneously chosen stopovers.
This paper examines the question of how suitable weblogs are as an alternative
source of information for backpackers, the associations that exist vis-à-vis
the various blog typologies and to what extent these are already being used
today.
Keywords: Backpacker, weblog, Web 2.0, travel guides
Introduction
For a long time, the tourism industry neglected the market for young vacationers and
students. Only in recent years have these companies begun to realise the true potential behind
this segment. According to the European Travel Commission, around one fifth of all international
tourists belongs to this group of guests. (ETC 2006 [onl.]; Richards/Wilson 2003, p. 6). As a
sub-market, backpacking tourism is characterised by budget-conscious and flexible persons
who primarily travel alone or in small groups, are often educated and usually come from
Western middle class families. (Scheyvens 2002, p. 145; Riley 1988, p. 313) Backpackers
associate their wanderlust with concepts like freedom, independence and adventure. Many
view this period as part of their education or as a rite-of-passage, marked by fun and
independence, before assuming the role of the responsible "adult". (O’Reilly 2006, p. 998)
However, this freedom requires a high level of flexibility. Depending on the situation and the
travel circumstances, travel plans may change at a moment’s notice. (Uriely et al. 2002, p.
522; 534) Consequently, a need arises for ad-hoc information on accommodations, means of
transportation or activities at the respective destination. In the process, however, backpackers
, . . @ . .
, . @ .
are often confronted with numerous obstacles. These primarily include linguistic and/or cultural
barriers as well as the limited availability of information media, all of which make the
information and coordination process more difficult. (cf. Prestipino 2006 [onl.])
Backpackers have access to internal and external information, which they can absorb
either consciously or unconsciously. (Jarvis 1994, p. 168; Crotts 2000, p. 149; Pikkemaat
2002, p. 25; Kim et al. 2007, p. 424) According to Jarvis (1994), backpackers first search for
information internally (stories from friends, personal travel experiences, etc.) before they
begin looking for external sources of information. The following sources of information are
available to them during their travels:
(1) Offline media: Personal recommendations, travel guides, travel agencies, tourist
information
(2) Online media: Travel websites and portals, weblogs, podcasts, communities/forums
In their study, Kain und King (2004, p. 207) examined the influence of individual sources
of information on the decision to buy a variety of Australian backpacking products and services
while travelling. This study showed that regardless of the product, personal recommendation
(word-of-mouth advertising) plays the most important role for backpackers. Besides
recommendations as the most popular source (Jarvis 1994, p. 96), travel guidebooks are also
a primary source of information for backpackers once their journeys are underway. (Newlands
2004, p. 227; Prestipino 2006 [onl.]; Richards/Wilson 2004, p. 23)
The desire to hold on to the experiences and impressions gained comes naturally to the
seasoned traveller (Axup 2006, p. 34), so privately run weblogs have also been enjoying
increasing popularity within the backpacking community for a number of years. Generally,
backpackers use one of the blogger services that are available free of charge (such as
Blogger.com) in order to keep family, friends and acquaintances informed as well as to
document their experiences.
Weblogs as a Media Format in Web 2.0

If the term Web 2.0 reached the "peak of inflated expectations" of the Gartner Hype
Cycle in 2006, a year later it is already in the middle of the disillusionment stage. This is less
due to the fact that the expectations placed on Web 2.0 were not fulfilled, and has much more
to do with the fact that today the term represents a new self image and increased self-
assurance on the part of the makers and users of the Internet. (Beck 2007, p. 5-17) In the
broadest sense, the "interactive web" comprises Internet applications and platforms in which
users become active voluntarily by creating their own content, managing and commenting on
existing content and using their virtual presence for networking activities with other users.
(Kilian et. al 2008, p. 3-22)
The now inflationary use of catch phrases surrounding the "interactive web" has also had
an enormous impact on the tourism industry. This is not surprising as social activity and thus
interaction and communication with members of a social system are inherent to travel, making
tourism especially suited for Web 2.0 approaches along the entire customer buying cycle.
Web 2.0 is often used in conjunction with the term "Social Software" (SSW); in some cases
Egger/Hofstatter: Backpacking 2.0-how Backpackers use Weblogs 45
authors even use the phrases synonymously. However, for the purpose of this discussion,
Social Software is considered to be a subdivision of Web 2.0. Hippner (2006) defines Social
Software as "web-based applications that facilitate the exchange of information, the
establishment of relationships and communication for human beings in a social context and are
guided by specific principles." Here, the focus lies less on the actual information and more on
the structure that grows from linking the information together. SSW is based on the fundamental
concept of self-organisation, whereby the individual or the group is the focal point and a
social reaction (social feedback) is facilitated by means of social ratings (comments on weblogs,
assigning points, etc.). (ibid)
The resounding success of SSW over the past years can be attributed in large part to
weblogs. These are simple-to-create, up-to-date websites that consist of contributions presented
in reverse chronological order. (cf. Przepiorka 2006, p. 14; Schmidt 2007, p. 13) Normally,
weblogs combine text, images and links to other weblogs and/or websites. These electronic
diaries have virtually no limits with regard to their content. They are used both in a tourism
context as personal travel journals and journalist publications just as they are for internal and
external business communications or as a tool for knowledge management or project
management. (Picot/Fischer 2006, p. 3)
In the last few years the number of travel and tourism blogs within the blogosphere has
risen dramatically. According to one study by Blogjungle, the topics "travel and tourism" are
the most important blog topics among German Internet users. (Blogjungle.de 2007)
According to an international survey of bloggers, 73 percent of the blogs can be classified
as "personal" (e.g. online diaries) and the remaining 27 percent as "non-personal" blogs (with
a focus on specific topics and content that are generally targeted at a larger readership). (Koh
et al. 2005)
From a communications-sociological perspective, customer-to-customer blogs (C2C blogs)
focus primarily on self-presentation and identity management (Schmidt 2006, p. 70). Backpackers
can reach a very large and specific audience with relatively little effort, while their objective
is to present themselves in an authentic manner. In the case of weblogs, self-presentation and
the identity construct derived from it make reference to the reader because readers are able
to comment on articles, thereby giving the authors feedback on their own personal narrations.
(ibid) In the case of online journals written by backpackers, readers tend to deem the content
as trustworthy, since backpackers have similar personal interests and personalities and resemble
one another in their temporary living conditions. News on accommodations, tour operators,
destinations, means of transportation that are recommended or to be avoided are typical for
travel blogs, along with a number of other topics. (Axup 2006 [onl.])
Corporate blogs or B2C blogs are an extraordinarily difficult subject (Bauhuber 2007, p.
4). The trouble lies in the controversial discussions on whether the corporate blogs can be
considered a part of the blogosphere or not. Pivotal here is the fulfilment of the essential
characteristics in question such as the authenticity and credibility of corporate blogs. (Alby
2007, p. 41) In practice, corporate blogs often exist in a blended form that consists of service
blogs, product blogs, customer relationship blogs and crisis blogs, and are mainly used for
image, discussion and information purposes (Röttger/Zielmann 2006, p. 39). Business are
able to make tourism products and services popular through "web-based word-of-mouth
advertising" (Du/Wagner 2006, p. 789) on the Internet and establish close customer relationships
with backpackers.
Moreover, Welker (2006, p. 158) notes the obvious link between weblogs and journalism.
The fact that postings are always written by an author, generally contain non-fictional content
and often include a date – sometimes even with the name of a place – clearly demonstrates
this connection. Since late 2006, the Lonely Planet Travel Guide, also known as "The
Backpacker’s Bible" (Axup 2006, p. 101; Richards/Wilson 2003, p. 20; Sørensen 2003, p.
860), has had its own "Travel Blog" on which 326 professional travel journalists post entries
on over 173 countries (Piquepaille 2006 [onl.]).
Weblogs seem naturally suited as a media format for backpackers because they support
simple location and time-independent creation of web content that can include both multimedia
functionality and interaction with other users. But what significance do blogs actually have
for backpackers during their travels and to what extent are weblogs used compared to traditional
Internet pages (websites and portals) and offline sources of information (travel guides, personal
recommendations, travel agencies)?
Methods
Backpackers are generally well educated and are thus highly skilled in using media like
the Internet. It therefore seemed appropriate to develop an online survey for the test subjects
to fill out (backpackers during their trips). The survey was placed on the homepages of
Internet terminals in selected hostels so that backpackers who use the Internet in the hostel
would be a part of the sample. The survey was created with "UCCASS" software and stored
on a server. This enabled test subjects to complete the survey online during a specified period
of time. Electronic data generation facilitated the export of the data into SPSS, where they
were analysed.
While developing the survey, the authors used insight gained from Richards/Wilson (2003)
who are considered to be pioneers in the field of backpacker typology. The semantic differential
method was used to determine the associations with weblogs. Research results were lacking
for the European backpacker market. This is why the authors interviewed selected experts for
quality assurance purposes during the first phase in order to present realistic response options.
In the selection of these experts, the authors made sure to take as many industry-related
aspects as possible into consideration (travel journalism, backpacker hostels, tour operators
and backpackers). The authors enlisted the help of the editors of "Packed Magazine" in order
to find suitable hostels in which to conduct the online survey. The selection criteria included
a high frequency of backpackers en route, the presence of an Internet terminal on site,
willingness to cooperate without compensation and easy accessibility for the survey manager
to perform control visits. Taking these criteria into consideration, the authors were able to
find five hostels in Vienna willing to participate as partners in the study.
The preliminary questionnaire was then examined in a pre-test. Here, close attention was
paid to the quality criteria, the intelligibility of the formulations (Atteslander 2006, p. 277 et
seq.; Burzan 2005, p. 106) along with the functionality (technical errors) (Welker et al. 2005,
p. 97) of the online survey. The pre-test was conducted with a bug tracking software that
enabled online communication between the programmers and test subjects. This made it
possible to divide the error reports into various types (feature, usability, cross-browser ability,
bugs). The final online survey was created as a result of this feedback. After the pre-test, the
field time was set at a minimum of four and a maximum of ten minutes. This would prevent
lurkers1 from "clicking through" the survey. (Welker et al. 2005, p. 78)
Criticism of Methodology
Online surveys are often criticised due to the fact that they do not reach the majority of
the population, but rather solely address active Internet users. It is extremely difficult to
determine a statistical population dependent on the research question due to the expansive
nature of the Internet. The statistical population (N) comprises all backpackers who use the
Internet during their trip. Since no exact number can be determined, or rather the individual
test subjects who belong to the population are not uniquely identifiable, a random sample was
avoided in favour of an ad-hoc test in a predefined market.
The issue with ad-hoc tests is the problematic generalisation of the results (Bortz/Döring
2006, p. 401). In this project the sample was taken in five hostels in Vienna, where international
backpackers were indeed present at the time the survey was conducted, but the results in this
constellation were only possible under the prevailing conditions. The answers regarding the
daily expenses at the holiday destination, e.g. in Southeast Asia or South America would vary
significantly due to the much lower price levels, particularly with respect to the information
included in the first part of the survey (Backpacking). The same applies to the length of stay.
This is generally shorter in Europe than in backpacking destinations like Australia or New
Zealand.
Results
According to the log file analysis conducted, 247 different visitors accessed the survey
homepage during the survey period and 121 test subjects actually took part in the survey. This
yields a participation rate of 49 percent. The figure below illustrates the number of visitors
during the survey period. It is evident that the number of visitors is higher on certain days.
This can be attributed to the fact the survey manager asked the hostel directors to inform the
backpackers about the survey when they checked in.
Figure1:Visitorstatisticsfortheonlinesurvey
1
,
( ).
Sample Profile
An equal number of male and female subjects took part in the survey. The majority of
those surveyed (55%) indicated that they were younger than 26 years of age and another 33
percent stated that they were between 26 and 30. The fact that only 12 percent of the
backpackers are over 30 years old lends credibility to the assumption that backpackers represent
a young type of vacationer. According to survey results, more than half (56%) have an academic
degree and 13 percent of that number are post graduates. Almost a third (31%) of those
surveyed came from Australia and New Zealand; together with backpackers from the USA
(20%) and Canada (4%) they comprise the majority of backpackers in Austria. It is interesting
to note the small number of backpackers from typical backpacker nations like Israel, Japan or
South Korea. Almost a third of those surveyed (31%) take advantage of the individual and
flexible travel route planning options available to them as single travellers. Almost half
(49%) of those questioned travel in pairs, although this information gives no clues as to what
the relationship between the two travel partners may be. Particularly noticeable here is the
fact that women are more likely to travel in groups than men. Most test subjects travel for a
period of 2 weeks to 3 months (47%); although even in Europe there are "long-term travellers"
en route with their backpacks for periods exceeding one year (7%).
What Sources of Information do Backpackers Use?

To enquire into the frequency with which backpackers use the various sources of information
during their travels, the authors used the classification presented by Prestipino (2006) as a
guideline. This took into account three offline media sources and four online media sources.
Figure2:Theuseofvariousinformationchannelswhiletravelling
To obtain information, backpackers mainly rely on word-of-mouth advertising (92%) and

the classic travel guide in book form (88%). The widespread use of online media is clearly
demonstrated by a usage rate of 83 percent for traditional travel websites and portals.
Considering "new" media, almost half of the backpackers surveyed use weblogs (49%)
and communities (44%). Even though these usage rates cannot compete with traditional
information channels, this underscores the significance of new media nonetheless.
16 percent of the backpackers view podcasts, albeit rarely. The authors conclude that
podcasts with improved content presentation will gain popularity – with the trend leading
away from audio podcasts and towards video podcasts.
Awareness Level and Use of Weblogs
Among those surveyed, almost 59 percent indicated that they were familiar with weblogs;
83 percent are also avid users. Of these, another 56 percent are merely blog readers, 15
percent also comment on the entries they read and 17 percent indicated that they read blogs
and also actively write their own weblog. The most active group – those that read, write and
comment on blogs – comprises 12 percent of those surveyed.
Figure 3: Active Use of Weblogs
Usage Frequency of Travel Guides and Weblogs in Comparison

Of the 121 backpackers surveyed, 45 percent use a travel guide to obtain information on a
daily basis, while only 4 percent use a weblog to the same extent. The comparative use of the
two forms is much more balanced when viewed from a weekly perspective. 34 percent of
those surveyed use traditional travel guides on a weekly basis and 22 percent of the backpackers
use a blog in the same period. Thus, with regard to usage, weblogs have been unable to
compete with travel guidebooks.
How Suitable are Travel Guides and/or Weblogs for Current Information while
Travelling?
To find the answer to this question, the random sample was divided into two groups. All
121 participants were able to comment on the suitability of the travel guide, whereas only 71
backpackers indicated that they were familiar with weblogs and were thus able to comment
on them. Although weblogs are still very far behind the traditional travel guides with respect
to usage frequency, weblogs are considered to be a suitable medium for the exchange of
current information during a trip for the majority of those surveyed.
Figure4:Suitabilityforexchangeofinformationduringatrip
What Attributes do Backpackers Associate with Weblogs?

Various studies (cf. Axup 2006 [onl.]; Muenz 2007 [onl.]; Eck 2007, p. 30 et seq.) indicate
that the current relevance, independence and authenticity of weblogs play a deciding role for
users. In the survey, the associations
of backpackers to various weblog
typologies were polled on a scale of
1 to 5 using the semantic differential
method. The survey differentiated
between privately run online
journals, corporate blogs and
journalist blogs.
In a direct comparison we notice
that the privately run blogs are
clearly ahead of the two other blog
types when it comes to authenticity
and independence. Conversely,
backpackers associate journalist
blogs and corporate blogs with more current information and a more well-structured presentation
of postings. The figure also illustrates that journalist blogs – when compared directly with
corporate blogs – receive higher marks in every category.
Discussion and Outlook

The online survey conducted gives an initial rough estimate on the significance and relevance
of weblogs for backpacking tourism. The insight gained should serve as a starting point for
further research activities. In a second step, it might be possible to perform qualitative
content analyses of weblog entries in order to reach additional conclusions about the
informational content of the postings.
The current survey has demonstrated that traditional travel guides continue to be the most
frequently used source of information for backpackers while travelling. The reason for the
clear results in support of this medium lies in its excellent portability and, consequently, the
instant availability of information. With a usage rate of 83 percent, travel websites and
portals clearly demonstrate their now significant level of penetration. Almost half of the
backpackers surveyed use weblogs and online communities, although there is still more potential
to be tapped into here.
It is a well-known adage that travel is a learning experience. According to Pearce and
Foster (2007, p. 1287), the educational value obtained through travelling is increased by
reflecting on one's own experiences – for example, by writing an online diary (weblog).
Enabled by more affordable and quicker transportation options, improved infrastructure facilities
in backpacking destinations and the information made transparent and available worldwide
thanks to ICT, backpacking trips are becoming increasingly popular. With the growing numbers
of backpackers, the critical mass is also expanding rapidly in the relevant peer-to-peer networks
in which backpackers exchange information with one another. It is therefore conceivable that
in the future conventional travel guidebooks may begin to blend with portable electronic
devices (notebook computers, mobile phones, PDAs, etc.) in order to provide the backpacker
community with detailed information quickly and in real time. The content is created by like-
minded backpackers who are already publishing the information of tomorrow today.
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Hospitality Industry at the Cutting Edge of Globalization
With Special Reference to the Hotel Industry in Nepal
R.P. Ghimire *
Abstract
Globalization has brought unprecedented transformational changes in all
aspects of tourism and hospitality industry throughout the world creating
a number of opportunities and challenges to the industry. It is apparent
that opportunities are not spontaneous which demand considerable time
and efforts to realize the benefits whereas challenges are mostly immediate
and by and large spontaneous. At present hotel industry in Nepal, with
mostly conventional outlook and 'modus operandi' does not seem well-
prepared to reap the benefits and face challenges of globalized hospitality
industry. Therefore, hotel industry of Nepal should understand the
contemporary issues and challenges of globalization and its impact on
hospitality business and prepare themselves to grab the opportunities and
face challenges with strategic move and enhanced competitiveness. For
this the government also needs to be proactive in order to develop Nepal
as a competitive tourist destination by improving the relatively low level
competitiveness indicators.
Key Words:
Globalization, Hospitality Industry, Service Innovation, Tourism
Competitiveness
Introduction
Globalization is no more a buzz word today; it is an influential part of real life.
Neither it is confined to any particular sector; it is all pervasive to every sphere of human
life. It is both a process and an outcome characterized by a greater degree of interdependence
between nation states. It leads to swift and worldwide interconnections and interrelationships
in all spheres of life which is typified by the rapid movement of people, information,
capital and goods and services across national borders worldwide. Like other sectors and
industries, globalization influences all aspects of tourism and hospitality industry. Similarly,
hospitality industry plays an important role in bringing people physically together in a
global community.
* . , &
Tourism industry as the largest export service industry and one of the largest employers in
the World is at the very core of globalization in international business. Globally travel and
tourism currently employs nearly 240 million people and creates 10 percent of world GDP
(WTTC 2008). Thus tourism and hospitality has become a major force in the rapidly evolving
contemporary global market place.
As a service industry, hospitality industry is an industry of 'intangible products’ which
differentiates it from other industries like manufacturing industries. That is why hospitality
industry is often characterized by the peculiar nature of intangible products. The nature of
hospitality service is quite different to that of manufacturing products. Hospitality services
have much to do with the feelings, attitude and experiences. In hospitality industry customers
are more involved in the production process than in any other industries. Similarly, people
are the part of service products since the quality and effectiveness of services heavily rely
on the way people interact with each other. In hospitality industry, time factor and distribution
channels are also quite important. Likewise, the services can't be inventoried.
Hospitality industry is an important feature of global interdependence. Although the
history of hospitality is very long, hospitality industry as we know it today began to take
a form in the early 1950s and 60s, leading the way for growth into dynamic industry as we
know today. Modern hospitality industry’s growth has moved almost parallel to the natural
outgrowth of globalization. International hotel chains were evolved in the early 50s, grew
in the 60s and, have been expanding in the following decades.
Hospitality is a part of life in Nepali society since long back. However, it was the
second periodic plan (1962/65) that emphasized on the need of modern hospitality industries
in the country. The 1972 Tourism Master Plan reiterated the need and significance of
modern hotel accommodation and travel facilities for tourism development in the country.
To this end, the government established Hotel Management and Tourism Training Center
in 1972 basically to cater the human resource needs for tourism and hospitality industry in
the country. Similarly, Tara Gaon Culture and Tourism Centre was established in 1974
for the promotion of Nepali type hospitality in the country. Hyatt Regency Hotel of
Kathmandu is an outcome of Tara Gaon Development Committee’s (formerly Tara Gaon
Culture and Tourism Centre) noble effort to establish unique Nepali type hotel industry in
the country. During the initial phase of the growth of hospitality industry, Nepal Industrial
Development Corporation invested a large sum of money for the establishment of Star
Hotels. It could not be that much effective and, thus did not last long. However, it is the
private sector that truly initiated developing the hotel industry in the country; and, is
continuing to lead the sector. Dwarika Hotel is a testimony of Nepali type architectural
heritage. Pioneer star hotels like Soaltee Oberoi and Hotel de’la Annapurna had really a
great contribution in establishing and flourishing hospitality industry in the country.
Global Employment Pattern

Globalization has witnessed rapid changes in the global employment trend along with
the technological advancement and a shift in labor market patterns for the last couple of
decades. However, in 2008 the financial crisis globalized from the developed countries
Ghimire:HospitalityIndustryattheCuttingEdgeofGlobalization... 57
experienced the worst job crisis ever since the Great Depression of 1930s. In 2008, an estimated
6 percent of the world’s labor force was unemployed. It is estimated that the global number of
unemployed youth increased to 76 million.
Despite the global economic downturn, the service sector continues pulling further ahead
of agriculture in contributing to employment in the world. Service sector occupies 43.3
percent of jobs against 33.5 percent of agriculture sector and 23.2 percent of the industrial
sector. Among the service industries, hotel and restaurant is one of the fastest growing
sectors. However, the scenario is different in South Asia where agriculture sector accounts
46.9 percent as compared to 30.4 percent of service sector. In the case of Nepal, the scenario
is still bleaker. At present around 60 percent of labor force is engaged in agriculture. This
signifies the need to further expand service sector like tourism and hospitality industry (ILO
2009). At the global level, vulnerable employment accounted for more than half of the total
employment in 2008 which was highest in South Asia.
While analyzing the employment trends for women, it is found that more than 60 percent
women in South Asia are engaged in agriculture as compared to 37.5 of the world and 3.4
percent for the developed countries. On the other hand, only 20.3 percent of women are
engaged in service sectors as compared to 45.3 and 84 percent for the world and developed
countries respectively. Available data shows that only 3.4 out of 10 South Asian women of
working age are working. It clearly indicates that South Asia has untapped female potential
and significant decent work deficit, so is the case for Nepal though such disaggregated data
are lacking (ILO 2008). Similarly, the vulnerable employment ratio is considerably higher for
women (52.7precent) as compared to men (49.1 percent). This situation signifies the need for
further expansion and development of hospitality industry both at national and international
level.
Trends and Implications of Modern Hospitality Industry

Hospitality industry has been undergoing a period of unprecedented transformational changes
since a couple of decades which is likely to continue in the future. It has undergone a number
of general trends in the global village. Customers are changing and a new breed of customer
has been emerged. Similarly, technology is changing too fast to embrace e-commerce and e-
tourism. Hospitality industry today is operating under a very dynamic and transparent
environment that creates pressures to enhance competitive strength and demands more effective
customer relations management through online interaction, marketing and service delivery.
Similarly, twenty first century has witnessed rapid changes in the nature and structure of
global markets. Emerging markets like India, China, Russia and the Gulf countries have
provided tremendous opportunities for the growth of hospitality industry. Values and ethics
are also changing in the direction of sustainable and responsible tourism. The concept of
responsible tourism has influenced consumer demand for certain types of tourism experiences
and products. International institutions and provisions like the UNWTO, WTO, GATS, TRIPS,
and TRIMS have been much more influential than ever before. Similarly, modern customers
are not passive service recipients; they are well informed, educated and thus demanding.
Customers are well known about the facilities and hospitality services before they reach
tourism destinations.
The general trend has specific implications. New breed of customers has caused super
segmentation of hospitality services; a shift from service to individualized unique experiences
that often challenge standardization of hospitality services for tailor-made flexibilities. For
example the leisure guests might have a quest to acquire pleasant memory to be recounted
amongst friends and family members whereas the conference guests might be more interested
on efficient handling of their conference sessions. Increased knowledge and awareness of
responsible hospitality industry demands the industries to move in line with the potential
guests and make the people feel that hospitality industry is contributing for the common
good of local populace. As in other industries, hospitality industry has focused on innovative
services and operational efficiencies to address the dynamism of this sector. Due to the
advancement in information and communication technologies, market access has also
undergone a sea change. New tourism markets like India, China, Gulf Countries etc. have
emerged and there has been wider access to these emerging markets than ever before.
However, satisfying the needs and expectations of visitors from different background is a
daunting task. Globalization has created a tough competition among the service industries
both at local as well as global level. Similarly, the demographic change that has been
recently taking place has created both opportunity and challenges to the hospitality industries.
Therefore, hospitality industries need to maintain striking balance between the aging
consumers and the youngsters since service needs varies significantly to the age group.
As in the case of other industries, branding has been extremely influential in hospitality
industries. Visitors seek predictable services through credible brands. Technological
advancement has significant impact on all types of industries. However, human touch is
more prominent in hospitality industries and thus customer relation management has been
more vital than in the past.
Despite the all-pervasive globalization, the retreat to localization is getting momentum
along with the struggle for identity and the growing concern and recognition of socio-
economic and cultural reality. That is why hospitality industry should blend global knowledge
and local realities keeping this reality in mind while designing and operating hotels in the
country. Globalization and the highly dynamic and transparent online environment of
hospitality industry demand enhanced competitive strength through research, innovation
and development.
National Scenario of Tourism Development

With magnificent natural beauty; rich culture, traditions and historical heritage and
uniquely harmonized socio-cultural diversity, Nepal has a tremendous potentiality for
tourism development. This sector has a potential to be an engine and dynamo for the
Nepalese economy. However tourism development is still far below the expectations as it
has yet to be able to attract sizable number of tourists throughout the world. While the
pace of tourism development at the initial phase was commendable, the recent trend has
not been found much encouraging. The growth in the number of tourist arrivals is also not
consistent, it’s highly fluctuating. The number of tourist arrivals increased significantly
with continuous growth till 1992. During 1990s it increased with minor fluctuations. However,
it declined severely from 2000 to 2002 and remained almost constant with slight improvement
during 2003-06. Nepal welcomed the highest number of tourists in 2007 with 526 thousand
tourist arrivals. In 2008, the number of tourist arrivals declined by 4 percent (MoTCA 2009).
The reason of this decline can be attributed to the frequent ‘Bandhas’ and transitional governance.
The level of enthusiasm in the world community of the unique peace could not sustain long.
However, compared to the decline of World tourist arrivals and the prevalence of external
and compounding intervening factors of tourism development in the country, this scenario
should not be regarded as much discouraging situation.
Tourism is a major contributor to the Nepalese economy. Travel and tourism industry is
expected to contribute directly 3 percent to GDP in 2008. The contribution of travel and
tourism economy to Goss Domestic Product is estimated to be 6.8 percent. The percentages
are higher than South Asian average and lower than the Worldwide average. Similarly,
travel and tourism economy is estimated to contribute 5.3 percent (548000 jobs) of the
total employment in the country. It generates 14.8 percent of total export earnings (WTTC
2008). However, Nepal lies almost at the bottom of the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness
Index.
The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009 shows that Nepal is ranked in
118th position in 2009 Index which was 116th in 2008. The Travel & Tourism Indicators
broadly grouped into three categories indicate that travel and tourism business environment
and infrastructure is very low in Nepal despite the very competitive price in the travel and
tourism industry (10th in rank). It lies at 120th position out of 133 countries. Tourism
infrastructure is very poor with 1.1 score out of 7 scale. The indicator for hotel rooms
ranks 116th position. Similar, is the situation with ICT which ranks 130 with a score of 1.5
points. Both ground and air transport are shown considerably weak with 2.3 score points
(WEC 2009).
The government has recently formulated a new tourism policy with a long term vision
of developing Nepal as an attractive, pleasant, safe and unique destination in the global
tourism map through conservation and promotion of natural, cultural, biological and
human-made heritages of the country that would contribute in bringing out significant
improvements in the living standards of the people through tourism activities with a
substantial contribution towards national income by sustainable use of the national assets
and heritages. Similarly the government has publicly announced its Tourism Vision 2020
with a clear vision of developing Nepal as an attractive, safe, exciting and unique destination
through sustainable use of national assets and heritages. It has valued tourism as a major
contributor to a sustainable development of the country that would contribute for attaining
higher economic growth along with distributive justice and economic transformation.
Similarly, the government has come out with more clear vision about the roles and
responsibilities of various stakeholders of tourism. Recently the government has become
more proactive in developing tourism infrastructure in the country in line with the policy
of tourism diversification. Moreover, the government has already initiated to commemorate
Nepal Tourism Year 2011 with the objective of establishing Nepal as a premier holiday
destination through collective efforts to regain Nepal’s image abroad, enhance national
capabilities to cater the needs and expectations of domestic as well as the international
tourists and to speed up the pace of infrastructure development as required by the tourism
sector. It is expected that the national campaign would create an impetus for tourism
development in the country.
Hospitality is part and parcel of tourism industry and thus the situation of hospitality
industry largely relies on the status of tourism development in the country. As per the
statistics of Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, at present there are 669 star hotels
with 13088 rooms and 26063 beds. The statistics is often questioned for its
comprehensiveness and reliability. Neither the ministry nor the Hotel Association of Nepal
has comprehensive and reliable database. However, it is a fact that no five star hotel has
been established in the recent past rather some well known star hotels like Hotel Sherpa,
Blue Bird Hotel, Hotel Yellow Pagoda and Hotel Kathmandu closed down. The government
as well as the private sector should seriously study the reasons for closing down of such
huge establishments.
Nepalese hotel industry has completed a full cycle, experiencing both downswing and
upswing periods. The industry was robust in the past. However, as tourism development
was deteriorated by the political instability and the decade long violent conflict, hotel
industry in Nepal suffered a lot during the period of crisis. The industry passed through
the hardest time ever. Undercutting rates and fostering unhealthy competition was the
biggest mistake in the history of the hotel industry that aggravated the situation. It was
simply unsustainable and the customers used to question the reliability of the services at
such a low rate. The hotels continue to suffer in the transition period with the increasing
costs and undue pressure from unions. Revenue is decreasing but the unions are forcing
the hotels to increase pay and facilities simply to gain popularity among the members and
for some other political reasons. Hotels have been made a breeding ground of miscreants,
misbehaviors and political battle field. People other than the hoteliers either could not
grasp the particular characteristics and sensitivity of hotel industry or they simply ignore
it. Hotels have to use costly generator even if there is only one guest or not at all. Forget
about the size of initial investment, there are so many other operating costs that hotels
have to bear during the period of crisis be it power crisis, political crisis or something
else. Business environment is vital for the existence and growth of any industry. Whereas
the global business environment has become very competitive and, sooner or later all the
countries including Nepal have to compete with the global competitors on equal footings,
we are yet to realize the essence of conducive business environment in the country and its
potential impact on lives and living standards of the people.
The new tourism policy has recognized the specific problems and constraints of hotel
industry in Nepal and has duly made policy provisions to provide incentives, facilities and
conducive environment to this service industry. By establishing tourism industry as a basic
industry, the government has a policy to provide different facilities and concessions to the
hotel industry. For this purpose hotel industry shall be classified as per the legal provisions,
and the facilities shall be made available accordingly. The policy has encouraged foreign
investment in tourism by introducing a provision of residential visa, as an honor, to the
foreign investors and his/her dependent family members investing specific amount at a
time in the tourism industry in Nepal, so long as the investment exists in the country. Services
such as electricity and water supply required for tourism industry shall be provided with due
priority. Arrangement shall be made to provide special facilities and concessions with due
priority and as per the necessity to hotels, restaurants, resorts and other tourism enterprises
established in the rural areas. A special relief package shall be provided to the tourism
industry during the time of adverse business environment to let the industry run with due
operational efficiency during such crisis. Similarly, the policy has clearly spelt on the
arrangements to maintain harmonious and cordial labor relations in the industry. However,
must of the provisions are indicative rather than specific and concrete that fully depends on
other sectoral policies like industrial policy, trade and commerce policy and legal provisions
corresponding to such policies. Thus, there is a challenge of getting these words converted
into actions since such policy provisions remained largely ineffective in the past mainly due
to the lack of proper coordination and due promptness on the part of policy implementers.
Opportunities and Challenges

The global demand for travel and tourism has provided unprecedented opportunities to the
hospitality industry through out the World. Despite the global financial crisis and its overall
impact on the World tourism as international tourism declined by 8 percent between January
and April 2009 compared to the corresponding period last year mainly because of this crisis,
both inbound and outbound tourism market in Asia has been expanded along with the increase
in the number of middle class in the region (UNWTO 2009). A recent NTB publication shows
that despite the overall decrease in tourist arrivals by 7.8 percent during January to May 2009
compared to that of last year, the number of tourist arrivals increased significantly from
some Asian countries like Sri Lanka (19.7%), China (36.2%), Thailand (87.8%) and Singapore
(65.1%). With the vast number of population, increased number of middle class, age-old
religious and cultural ties with the fast growing neighboring countries and tremendous tourism
development potentials backed with the repository of culture and nature and the recent policy
initiatives, there is an ample avenue for tourism development in Nepal provided that it gears
up its efforts to promote tourism in the Asian region. Similarly, the provisions of recently
formulated tourism policy have projected the rays of hope for Nepalese hotel industry. However,
a number of issues and challenges should be addressed to reap the benefits of tourism.
The new trend in tourism and hospitality industry has raised a number of issues for the
global tourism and hospitality industry all over the World. The global hospitality industry
has to come up with international expansion to reach at the critical mass required for
marketing success along with the common product and branding for predictable services.
By virtue of its nature hospitality industry is influenced by other economic and social
sectors and sub-sectors posing certain challenges to the industry. Some major issues and
challenges faced by hospitality industry today are discussed in brief in this section.
The global financial turmoil and economic slowdown originated from the US has spread
through out the World as a global economic crisis. The crisis has hit hard to the entertainment
and hospitality industry since entertainment, leisure and tourism are very vulnerable to economic
uncertainty and volatility. During times of economic crisis people tend to save money rather
than spending it in travel and tourism activities which involve optional expenses. According
to a recent Smith Travel Research Publication, hotel industry demand through out the World
decreased by 9 percent, room revenue fell by 24 percent and occupancy declined by 11.5
percent in June 2009 (www.hotelnews.com).
Customers today are not only looking for quality goods and services but also the provision
of memorable experience. Quality service is important but not sufficient. It needs to be
unique and memorable. Thus creating customer value through innovation is the first and
foremost challenge of hospitality industry today and in the days to come.
Globalization itself is a challenge to this industry since it offers comparison and increases
competition among the service providers. Attending the desired experiences of very
individualized customer has become a tough challenge of this industry. Similarly, competition
has tended the globalized industry to focus more on branding and positioning in the World
market. Some scholars believe that globalization has also devastated the lives and lifestyles
of indigenous people.
Sustainable eco-initiative in tourism and hospitality industry has become a burning
issue today. Eco-design of hotels, eco-green housekeeping, energy conservation, water
resources management and other environmental considerations are some major issues of
hospitality industry today. Similarly, climate change has posed a serious threat to the
modern society and the hospitality industry cannot be aloof from these serious challenges.
Considering the swift melting of Himalayas and glaciers and a range of other direct and
indirect impacts on natural environment, it is likely that climate change will have very
severe and far reaching impacts on Nepalese tourism and hospitality industry. The highly
fragmented nature of Nepalese tourism and hospitality industries has hindered it to assess,
identify and quantify the possible impacts of climate change on tourism, tourist destinations
and tourist's perceptions.
Accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has posed serious challenges to the
hospitality industries of developing countries like ours. General Agreement on Trade in
Services (GATS) sets up a legal and operational framework for the gradual elimination of
barriers to international trade in services. GATS makes it easier for large tourism and
hospitality transnational companies (TNCs) to invest in the local tourism industries of the
third world countries since they enjoy the same benefits as local tourism and hospitality
industries. After certain time, in the case of Nepal 2010, large transnational hospitality
industries, can create and operate branch offices in the third world countries. The agreement
on Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMS) removes the requirement for foreign
companies to utilize local input. On the other hand protection to the local tourism industry
would be an unfair practice. Tourism policy can introduce no more limitations of foreign
investment in tourism and hospitality industries today.
Low level of human resource development in this industry is another pertinent issue
especially in the case of Nepal. It is the human resource that put value to other resources.
Similarly, competitiveness can be enhanced only through effective human resource
development. Nepalese hospitality industry is still largely guided by traditional approaches,
norms and behavior. Managership and ownership mostly remain in the same place. Similarly,
there is a very close type recruitment practices in Nepalese hospitality industry posing serious
challenges on retaining talents in the country and on the other hand facing deficiency of
competent human resources in the industry.
Excessive unionism is another serious challenge faced by Nepalese hospitality industry.
Today, forced recruitment of unskilled manpower to sensitive positions under pressure to
the management by trade unions and the unruly behavior of some of the staff have hampered
overall operational efficiency and service delivery of hospitality industries. Of course,
workers/staffs have a right to organize. This right should be exercised purely for the
welfare of workers, management reforms and decent collective bargaining rather than any
vested political interest. Similarly, justification of service charge is yet to be established
since there is no significant difference in service delivery in terms of time, cost or quality.
Issue of corporate social responsibility is also getting momentum these days.
Nepalese hospitality industries are also facing the difficulty of low occupancy rates and
thus causing heavy reliance on food and beverage services to sustain the industry. Similarly,
in the absence of common code of conduct of hospitality industry there is unhealthy
competition among the industries which was more evident during the crisis period.
In the absence of database of demand and supply of human resource development there
is quite mismatch in demand - supply dynamics in Nepalese hospitality industries. Likewise,
research and development is virtually yet to be introduced in this field. Hotel industries
including the Hotel Association of Nepal are often challenged for confining themselves
within the boundaries of their hotels.
Hospitality industry suffers from different unfortunate events, episodes and incidences
from time to time whether it is September 11, Oil crises, Tsunami or Bird or Swine Flu.
Recently, the hotel industries suffered a lot from an awkward situation created by the
outbreak of Swine flu. Hotels would wish to put rigorous checks in place to wean out the
flu suspects, the fact that they can not be hard to their guests. Similarly, given the rate of
environmental degradation and the stress on unplanned and unfettered urbanization, it is
possible that tourists may not like to stay in hotels in such poorly managed locations.
Recommendations:
Globalization has brought both opportunities and challenges to the hospitality industry
through out the World. Opportunities are not spontaneous and very often take considerable
time and efforts to realize the benefits whereas the challenges are immediate and by and
large spontaneous. Therefore, the opportunities should be tapped for the benefit of Nepalese
tourism and the image of the country whereas the challenges should be faced meticulously
to prevent further difficult situation as well as address the difficulties. It is apparent that
there is a myriad of challenges in front of the hospitality industry in Nepal. These challenges,
if not addressed properly in time, might cause Nepalese hospitality industries especially
the hotel industries severely marginalized. Ultimately that would hamper tourism
development in the country. Against this back drop the following measures are suggested:
a) As globalization has become a major force of international business, hospitality industry
should understand the visible and underlying current and future trends of globalization and
its impact on it and prepare itself accordingly to grab the opportunities and face challenges
of globalized hospitality business. Hospitality industries unprepared for the opportunities
and challenges are bound to be left behind. Therefore, hotel industries in Nepal should
foresee the situation that hotels have already reached a point in which there is no other
viable option than to enhance competitiveness, expand across national boundaries, reach
the critical mass required for marketing success and benefit from the economies of scale
that accompany such expansion and growth. Competition with the internationally oriented
hotels is inevitable since there will hardly be any space and working measures to protect
the domestic industries.
b) Information technology is a major factor influencing economies of scale and operational
efficiency as well as shaping the opportunities for hotel industries to organize themselves
so as to address the need of very dynamic and transparent online business environment.
Therefore, tourism and hospitality industries should update themselves in order to
catch up ever changing information and communication technology which is getting
smaller but with high and far-reaching effects.
c) Nepal as a tourist destination should be made more competitive. Without developing
Nepal as a competitive destination by improving the relatively low level of tourism
competitiveness indicators as shown by the World Tourism Competitiveness Report,
hotels alone can not gain competitiveness in the international market. Branding is also
very important as it is expected to surpass location as deciding factor in hotel choices.
Similarly, Nepalese tourism and hospitality industry have to exert every effort to enhance
quality and competitiveness through customer engagement and personalized services,
innovation and development of new products and services, adoption of information
technology, concentration on the areas of comparative advantage and standardization,
monitoring and continuous follow ups. Systems approach should be adopted in service
management. Due attention should be paid to create customer value through innovation
and dedicated service. The World class famous hotels' networking and personalized
touch to the potential customers through email messages with details of their booking
status, facilities and services may be quite interesting to the star hotels of Nepal.
d) Nepal needs to amplify the richness of Nepali type tourism and hospitality recognizing
the relativity of other places. We have to understand relativity of other places to enrich
endogenous values not to abandon it. To this end, we have to seek every avenue to
balance between modern technology and endogenous treasures that would produce
standard quality service as well as unique personalized experiences to the guests. The
government should encourage Nepali type of hospitality by providing incentives to the
entrepreneurs.
e) There is a need to specialize and develop expertise to strengthen Nepal’s strategic
positioning in tourism and hospitality industry by establishing uniqueness in the hospitality
services. On the other hand, we have to enhance quality by developing standards like
trade skills, service, business and professional standards. Similarly, we need to formulate
common code of conduct to promote fair competition among the industries. While
implementing these standards we should not abandon flexibility. Demographic characteristics

and service segmentation are vital to balance service standards and flexibility. Similarly,
we need to move far ahead to promote our brand, to form strategic alliances and to
practice mergers as and when it is necessary to strengthen our industries in order to
compete with foreign companies and industries.
f) Responsible tourism and hospitality management has become a buzz word these days that
demands considerable efforts and resources to realize in the real life situation. However,
there is no alternative or place to maneuver this trend. Therefore, hospitality industry
should adopt multi-pronged strategy in time with environmental considerations, equity
considerations and diversification and sustainability considerations that would promote
responsible hospitality management in the country. The hotel industry in Nepal should
strive its best to enhance its image as child friendly, labor friendly and environment
friendly hotel.
g) Distance between the employers and employees should be narrowed down for maintaining
harmonious relations between them that would provide an opportunity to the management
and the staff to jointly move closer to the guests. In this connection, hotel industry,
with modern outlook, positive thinking and friendly behavior, should seek political
support in order to inculcate reasonable degree of rationalism and decency among the
staff since they are seen highly influenced by political parties. Similarly, since staffing
with necessary skills and capabilities to run the hotel industry in an international
competitive business environment is the key challenge in front of the hotel industry,
the industry should move ahead in forging effective partnership with the hotel
management institutions in the country.
h) The issue of melting Himalaya due to climate change has become a serious challenge
for Nepal. Therefore, it requires integrated but swift actions on the part of the government
and tourism stakeholders. Responding climate change requires two pronged strategy:
adaptation to climate change and mitigation of climate change. Adaptation to climate
change can be achieved through risk management plan, appropriate building structure,
environment friendly hotel designs, proper treatment of sewage, awareness program
and carbon trade. Similarly, mitigation measures include energy efficient buildings,
awareness program, enforcement of environmental management system, use of
renewable energy sources and tree plantation.
i) Globalization has posed a serious threat to national tradition and culture. With the
influence of global media the young generation is not much interested in national
culture and tradition. Culture is vital for Nepal tourism. Therefore, tourism trade
associations like Hotel Association of Nepal should make joint efforts on continuous
basis to preserve age-old arts, culture and other national heritages. People should be
made aware that culture may be linked with the identity of particular ethnic groups.
However, it is a national asset and it is the responsibility of every citizen to promote
and preserve national heritages with cultural and historical value.
j) Nepal should be able to effectively communicate to the target market and based on the
promises of product strength that it can actually deliver. Tourism promoters should constantly
review the messages they are sending to the potential visitors. Therefore, destination
marketing that is designed to influence visitor behavior including the type of products and
activities they choose, times of the year they visit, types of accommodation they stay in
and their expenditure patterns, should be jointly carried out by both the destination marketing
organization, Nepal Tourism Board, and individual operators like hotels and travel and
trekking agencies. In this connection hotel industries should be more proactive and extrovert
in joining hands with Nepal Tourism Board and airlines and tour operators to fully reap
the tourism benefits of tourism potentials of the country. Similarly, tourism marketing
should focus on Nepal’s emerging tourism generating markets like China, India, Malaysia,
South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and the Gulf countries.
k) Modern hospitality industries need to address transformational issues like the increasing
importance of branding, demanding educated customers, shrinking but very influential
information and communication technology that is being extensively used in hospitality
industries and emerging new tourism markets varied with different needs and
expectations. Therefore, hospitality industries should move strategically for survival
and thriving. They should prepare strategic plans by foreseeing the trends and adopting
appropriate strategies specific to the context and the country. Practice of alliances,
franchising, management contracts, joint ventures, mergers and acquitions might be
helpful in strengthening their position and competitiveness. Establishing networks and
connection to the national, regional and international industries would contribute to
accelerate innovation in this industry.
l) Given the highly seasonable characteristics of Nepal’s tourism business, the hotel
industries should adopt a two fold strategy of forging partnership with the major players
and stakeholders of tourism business to reduce the impact of seasonality factor by
promoting Nepal for all seasons and seek alternative use of its infrastructure during off
season. This requires high degree of professionalism and entrepreneurship as well as
effective partnerships and coordination among the tourism stakeholders.
m) Tourism research should be geared up with joints efforts of the government, pioneer
educational institutes like NATHM, trade associations like Hotel Association of Nepal
and the national tourism organization Nepal Tourism Board to understand the needs,
motivations and expectations of the potential visitors periodically and focus on the
ideal visitors since the type of visitors make huge differences. In this connection,
relationship especially between the educational institutions and hospitality industry should
be managed, developed and nurtured so as to create a solid foundation for tourism and
hospitality research in the country. Relationship management approach can be helpful
in enhancing such relations. Similarly, a well functioning tourism information
management system should be established as tourism research is constrained by the
relatively weak tourism information system in the country.
Bibliography
Angelo, R.M. and Andrew N. Vladimir. 2004. Hospitality Today: An Introduction. Michigan:
American Hotel and Lodging Association.

Cooper, Chris, Rebecca Shepherd and John Westlake. 1996. Educating the Educators in
Tourism: A Manual of Tourism and Hospitality Education. United Kingdom:
World Tourism Organization and University of Surrey.
ILO. 2008. Global Employment Trends 2009. Geneva: International Labor Organization.
ILO. 2008. Global Employment Trends for Women 2008. Geneva: International Labor
Organization.
Lockwood, A. and S. Medlik. 2001. Tourism and Hospitality, in the 21st century.
Delhi: Butterworth Heinemann.
Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation. 2009. Nepal Tourism Statistics 2008. Kathmandu:
MoTCA.
Powers, Tom and Clayton W. Barrows. 2003. Introduction to Management in the
Hospitality Industry. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Sufi, Tahir. 2008. "Hospitality Industry: An Overview of Strategy, Structure and
Globalization" in Journal of Hospitality Application & Research. Mesra Ranchi:
Department of Hotel Management BIT.
UNWTO, 2009. UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, Vol. 7, No 2, June 2009 (http:/
/www.unwto.org/facts/eng/pdf/barometer/UNWTO_Barom09_2_en_excerpt.pdf )
World Economic Forum, 2009. The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009.
Geneva: WEC
World Travel & Tourism Council, 2008. The 2008 Travel & Tourism Economic Research:
Nepal. United Kingdom: WTTC.
www.hotelnews.com, access: August 22, 2009
Visitors Attitude Towards Tourism Development in the

Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park (SNP), Nepal
*
Rajiv Dahal
Abstract
Visitors are important stakeholders of the tourism development in the
Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park (SNP) 1. Much of the economical
activity in the region is out of such visitors`. Their action and attitude to
a larger extent has contributed both positively and negatively in the region.
Visitor`s motivation to travel in the region and the satisfaction out of such
trips significantly contribute to the viability of the tourism in the region in
the longer run, thus ensuring sustainable tourism development in the region.
This paper is an outcome of the survey conducted in the SNP region in the
year 2008. This paper attempts to assess the visitors’ attitude towards the
state of tourism development in the region and identify the impending
issues that threaten tourism development in the region.
Keywords: Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park, tourism development,
visitor satisfaction
Introduction
Tourism, from its early days, has provided an alternative to the normal place of living
which usually resulted in travel to the exotic and fragile places. Mountains have lured that
kind of traveller from early days of Vedic Ages to this modern hi-tech age. Most of the
rishis (sages) travelled to mountain in search of eternal soul, which had very character of
mysticism, calmness and spirituality (Shrestha, 1995; Chauhan, 2004). Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO, 2005) states that mountains are an oasis of spiritual calm and peace,
where one can rediscover the simple pleasure of life. FAO (2005) highly characterises the
importance of mountains to travellers worldwide, with more than 50 million tourists visiting
such region every year. The main reason behind such travel owes to the clean environment
and natural beauty of these areas. Mountains equally provide recreation opportunities
along with the traditional lifestyle of the people residing in those areas. Though it provides
alternative to the urbanised world, conversely, less has been done to tap the potential
benefits out of tourism development in these region.
Mountain areas cover a significant part of the world’s surface. Particularly, the mountains
of Nepal and India often referred to as ‘Himalayas’ had and still have that sorts of mystic
* . ,
,
Dahal:VisitorsAttitudeTowardsTourismDevelopment... 69
aura embedded in their vast diverse landscape and topography. Mountains cover about 39.3
million km2 (26.7%) of the Earth’s total land surface excluding mountainous areas in Antarctica
and Greenland (Blyth, Groombridge, Lysenko, Miles and Newton, 2002). Similar comparison
can be found in Table 1 (Kollmair, Gurung, Hurni and Maselli, 2005), which shows the
proportion of protected areas in mountains and non-mountainous areas with respect to the
total land surface of the Earth.
Table1: Proportion of protected areas in mountains, 2005
Area Protected area in 2005 Percentage protected%

1000 km2 % 1000 km2 %
Mountains 39,300 26.8 4490 27.6 11.4
Non-mountains 107,600 73.2 11,803 72.4 11.0
Totallandsurface 146,900 100 16,293 100 11.1
Source:Kollmairetal.(2005)
Similarly, about 10 per cent of the world’s population live in the mountains, while 40
percent occupy the watershed areas below them. Thus, half of the world’s people depend
directly or indirectly on the mountains. Mountains provide water, energy, minerals, and
forest and agricultural products and are areas of recreation. They also store the biological
diversity necessary for the sustainability of human life. In this sense, it can be safely said
that mountain environments are essential to the survival of global ecosystems (Challenge,
Vision and Mandate, 2000).
Mountain ecosystems are fragile (Sharma, 1998; Banskota, Papola and Richter, 2000).
Biophysical condition of the mountain ascertains certain distinctive characteristics such as:
higher degree of fragility, marginality, limited accessibility, diversity, specific niche
resources/products, and specific human adaptation mechanisms (Jodha, 1997). The
geological and geomorphic processes at work make mountain areas inherently unstable
and prone to soil erosion, landslides and mass wasting (Sharma, 1998). In the same vein,
Nepal and Chipeniuk (2005), while analysing the conceptual framework for mountain
tourism states that improper and undeveloped infrastructure has resulted to the isolation of
these mountain region and has created difficulty not only in accessing these areas, but
cutting off the external linkages of these mountain economies. This physical and economic
isolation has excluded the mountains and their populations from development, resulting in
political and economic marginality (Sharma, 1998). Mountain people suffer from
unemployment, poverty, poor health, and insufficient sanitation. In contrast to popular
perceptions, however, some mountain areas have not only improved their economies
radically, but they have also preserved their environments, biodiversity, and cultural heritage
("Fragile Mountain Ecosystems: The Hindu Kush Himalayas", 2000).
Tourism is the fastest growing industry worldwide and in view of the development
needs of the mountain economies of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region2, Sharma
(1998) strongly opines that tourism is bound to grow. HKH countries use a diversity of
approaches to tourism. In the context of Mountain tourism, Shrestha (1995) opines that, it has
become prominent to its increasing significance throughout the world. On the outstanding
attractions of the mountain environment with special reference to the Himalayas, Shrestha
(1995) has stated that Mountains have a mystic aura, not only for explorers, scholars, and
mountain climbers, but also for the general public.
Nepal, for the most part, has encouraged ‘mass tourism’ mainly through private sector
initiatives and largely remained demand driven (Sharma, 1998). Until the early half of the
nineteenth century, the mountains of Nepal still had both the charm and challenges to be
conquered. It was only after the historic ascent by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
Sherpa in the 1953 that completely changed the pattern of travel to mountain areas thus
showing a sign of mass tourism that was evident elsewhere. Now, people started travelling
to mountain areas in search for alternatives from the usual 'hustle - bustle' living. This
resulted in the greater concern for the impacts in the mountain areas ranging from littering,
garbage problem to the acculturation of the local culture, furthering the complete
transformation of the traditional local economy. These changes have made tourism as the
only means of living in these Himalayas (Sharma, 1998). This research aims to assess the
state of tourism development and identify the possibilities of developing ecotourism in the
region.
Tourism trend in the SNP

Though mountaineering in the Everest region started in the early 1950s, it was not
until the late 1960s that trekking tourism began to show steady growth. From a mere 20
trekkers in 1964, this area now sees more than 20,000 trekkers per year. During the peak
season, tourists exceed the local population by a factor of five. Similarly, the number of
lodges increased from 7 in 1973 to 17 in 1980, 74 in 1990, reaching 225 by the end of
1997 (Mattle, 1999, cited in Nepal, 2003). Total accommodation capacity in these lodges
is close to 4000 beds per night. Lodging provides direct employment to some 757 persons,
and at the height of the tourist season, more than 8000 potters may be employed. There
has been a remarkable progress in the services and facilities available to trekkers and
mountaineers (Nepal, 2003).
Tourism development followed an upswing path in Khumbu as a result of two main
events; one was the construction of Lukla airfield in 1964 and the other being the
establishment of the first tourist lodges in the late 1960s and early 1970s. With the
government’s decision in 1992 to allow private airlines to operate domestically, tourism
development intensified, increasing in number of visitors and lodges. More medium sized
and up-scale lodges were opened, while numerous tea-shops sprouted along the main
trails, as well as specialized shops such as bakeries. The supply of uninterrupted electricity
in 1995, which originated from a new power station at Thame, added a new dimension to
the quality of life in several villages. By the late 1990s annual visitors in Khumbu numbered
three times the local population (Nepal et. al., 2002).
With regards to the type of tourism in the SNP, Rogers and Aitchison (1998) have
distinguished 4 types of tourism, namely - general trekking; trekking-peak tourism;
mountaineering; and cultural tourism. They note that the four are not mutually exclusive, but
differ in terms of their significance and the issues that arise for resource managers. Regarding
the effect of tourism development on the settlements and the resulting effect on the growing
number of lodges along the trekking trails, Nepal et al. (2002) explain that tourism has
brought about significant changes in settlements and housing and has led to the expansion of
developed areas in the main tourist's destinations, a tendency which is especially visible in
Khumbu. There are clear motives for people to abandon their houses in the center of the
villages and construct more spacious buildings, usually lodges, on the periphery. This trend
can be seen in villages like Namche Bazaar. Lodge construction has been propelled by the
increasing number of individual trekkers, and above all, the high incomes tat can be generated
by operating such establishments. The first lodge in Khumbu was constructed in 1971. By
1980, there were a total of 17 lodges in Khumbu, a figure which rose to 225 by 1997, representing
a 13-fold increase between 1980 and 1997/98. Lodges have been built in more and more
villages in Khumbu, for example, 12 villages had lodges in 1980 but 38 villages and settlements
had them by 1997 (Nepal et. al, 2002). On a positive note, this has significantly improved the
economical conditions of the locals mainly through employment, but so has intense competition.
This has resulted in decrease in the profit out of such ventures to meet the growing competition.
Even though tourism is remarkably well integrated into the local economy, its development
has come at a price. Environmental and social changes have transformed the natural environment
and the cultural heritage of the Great Himalaya regions. Income disparities – although not a
new phenomenon – have increased in contemporary societies. The impact on forests is clearly
felt in some locations, such as tourist centers and high altitude areas. Accumulations of
garbage and trail degradation are additional impacts resulting from high visitor numbers
(Nepal et. al., 2002).
Methodology
The remaining part of the paper reports on research that focused on tourist`s experiences
of the tourism and the other developmental state at Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National
park, Nepal. Survey questionnaire were administered to tourists to ascertain their views
on the state of tourism development in the region. For the visitor survey structured, semi-
structured and unstructured interviews were used to get an insight into the visitor experience,
reaction and opinion on the state of tourism and ecotourism in the region. Open-ended
questions were incorporated so that participants could express their personal thoughts
about the development and developmental needs of the region. Similarly, ‘closed’ and
‘Likert scale’ questions were used to collect data on: visitors’ demographics, choices and
preferences of services, opinion on existing facilities and services; perceived role of
governmental and non-governmental organization in the region. The data collected was
statistically analyzed by utilizing SPSS Version 17 to complement respondents’ descriptions
of their experiences.
A total number of 250 tourists were handed the questionnaire along the trail to the
Everest region. A response rate of 96% was achieved with the return of 240 valid
questionnaires. The high response rate may be attributed to the continued presence of the
researcher at the hotel or lodges. At times the tourists would take time to fill-out the
questionnaire and hand over to the lodge owners. That could be the probable reason where
10 tourists did not submit the questionnaire to the researcher neither to the lodge owner.
Few responded with loosing the questionnaire. There were few visitors who refused to
participate usually declined because of time constraints or they preferred to trek rather
than participate in survey. The survey responses provided depth of information related to
respondents’ interest, intention and about the various facets of development in the region.
Survey findings
The survey findings include: trend of visitors flow to SNP; respondents’ demographic
characteristics; their purpose of visit to SNP; analysis of trip pattern; respondents comments
on park resources, existing products and services, state of infrastructures, role of
governmental and non governmental organization and local population; respondent’s
comments on state of nature conservation in the park; and the feedback and suggestions.
The general trend in SNP shows that male visitors exceed the number of female.
Similarly, this research also shows the same trend, where male visitors are by large
predominant in SNP. The finding shows that out of total number of respondents (n = 240)
the male percentage constituted to be 65.83 percent and the female to be 34.17 percent.
Majority of the respondents were students representing 28 % of the total respondents,
followed by consultants 3.8 %, mountain guides 2.5% and teachers with 2.5 %. The
majority of the respondents reported to hold or are pursuing universities degree
(undergraduate degree, Master degree and PhD), accounting for nearly 70.1 % of the total
respondent.
Most respondents were aged in their late 20s to late 50s (81.3%) and resided in Britain
(17.1%), Germany (12.5%), Australia (11.7%), United States (8.3%), Canada (5.8%),
Asia (12.1%). The average length of stay at SNP was found to be 16.52 days, and is
similar to mode (14 days) and median (16 days). This is far higher than the national
average, where the average length of stay in 2007 was recorded as 11.96 days (MoT,
2008). When asked about their starting point of their trek, 83.3% stated that they took the
Lukla route, while 4.2% took the Jiri route and rest 7.5% took other routes, namely
Phaplu.
Important factors while choosing a holiday

Respondents were asked to rank the five factors (destination, price, popularity,
conservation interest, referrals) using the numbers 1 to 5 (where 1=most important and
5=least important). Majority of the respondents choose "destination" as most important
factor (81.7%) while choosing a holiday, while least important factors (45.8%) was found
to be "popularity" of the destination. "Price" was another important factor with 43.8% of
the score. Surprisingly the factors those are very important for the sustenance of the
region such as "conservation interests" and "referrals" received more on the less important
scale, with scores of 42.1% and 38.3% respectively. Low ranking of "Conservation
interests" factor should be of particular interest to people who have been vocal of the
development of ecotourism and sustainable development in the region. In the absence of
such conservation oriented tourists, the region possesses challenges of meeting the needs
of the future tourists. This provides an opportunity to policy planners and park managers
to adequately disseminate information about the vulnerability of the resources of the region
and the conservation activities undertaken to mitigate such challenges. Probably this could
enlighten those tourists upon the possible negative impacts that such tourists may bring
about. This would at least serve as a "shot-gun" approach in mitigating such challenges
brought about by tourism to the exotic, fragile and vulnerable natural resources the area
possess.
Also regarding the benefits one seeks on holiday, respondents were asked to rank
factors using numbers 1to 7 in the order of importance. Majority of the respondents
ranked "experiencing remote and unspoiled nature" to be the most important factor (30.4%),
followed by "visiting uncrowded destinations" (25.0%) and "increasing confidence through
challenging activities" (23.8%). Similarly, the most response for least important factor is
"see unusual plants and animals" with responses counting for 22.1%. This could be probably
because of the image of the destination. Many know this region because of Mt. Everest.
Trekking and mountaineering activities with the Sherpa people have been the prime
attractions for many tourists. Many are unaware of the existing flora and fauna of the
region. This could be because of the too much focus on Mountain and Sherpa. Marketers
need to package and disseminate about this so that people with this particular interest can
travel to the region. Moreover, this segment is not much affected by the weather condition
which is of main concern to mountaineers and trekkers. This would ultimately affect in
reducing the challenge of seasonality.
Analysis of Trip pattern

Majority of the respondents were travelling first time (74.6%) to the SNP and the rest
are the repeat visitors (14.2%). It was interesting to find that most of the respondents
(89.2%) were highly satisfied with their trip to the region, while there were very few
respondents (1.3%) who were dissatisfied with the trip. Similarly, most of the respondents
said that they wanted to revisit the SNP: 89.2% wishing to return, while 2.5% were not
interested to revisit the region.
Purpose of visit
People have different interests and tend to indulge in activities best suited to their
recreation pursuit and maximize satisfaction out of it. With regards to the SNP region,
primary motivation of travelers since the early days of the expedition and exploration has
been the Everest and the Sherpa people living in the region. The research attempted to
understand the motivations behind their travel to SNP, and the responses are as follows:
59.6 % solely for trekking; 17.9 % for mountaineering/expedition; 12.1% for observing
local people and culture; and 7.9% for exploring flora and fauna. As anticipated majority
of the respondent were there for trekking and mountaineering, but it can be seen that
people and culture and the wildlife viewing are also getting relevant, particularly for the
marketers and product developers.
Travel arrangements
Regarding the travel arrangements, visitors were asked if they travelled in group or
individually, and also whether the trip was guided or not. It can be found that 43.3 % of
the respondents had organized tea house trekking with a professional agency, followed by
24.6% indulging in Independent trekking without a guide, 20% had self arranged trekking
with a guide, and 10.4% had organized camping trekking through a professional agency.
The main concern for park managers and development could be the travelers travelling
without a guide. In absence of the interpreter or guides, chances are higher where their
activities would have an adverse effect on the local resources and people. Lack of able
guidance and interpretation, chances are higher that the activities of the travelers go
unnoticed, uncontrolled and not monitored. This could further lead to confrontation among
the locals. Furthermore, there are cases of missing travelers, and also threat to their safety
and security. Proper advice should be given to the travelers on this issue and the agency
should convince such tourists to travel with the help of guide. This on the other hand will
create employment opportunity for professional guides. One other major issue here is the
use of camping. During the research, it was seen that camping trekking is getting unpopular
these days. This is because of the availability of hotels or tea house along the trail. With
the increase in tourist flow, it can be seen that most of the locals along the trails to the
Everest Base camp and on the other routes are converting their home into hotels or building
new ones to accommodate them. This on the one hand should be very important in economic
terms, but what should be of great concern is the use of forest wood for development, or
use of alien materials while building these entities. Also, with increasing affluence because
of tourism, it can be seen that people are competing on building bigger and bigger entities.
This clearly undermines the local traditional tools and technologies, and if seen from the
pollution terms, this is creating more and more visual and architectural pollution in the
region. This can be particularly seen in Namche Bazaar and Lukla. Opportunities of
unhindered views have been threatened by such increasing settlements. Furthermore, this
trend is closely associated with mass tourism, rather than ecotourism. This should be of
particular concern to policy planners and park managers who find the conservation to be
of satisfaction level at SNP, despite this fact of concrete build-ups and urbanization of
once isolated regions. If the choice is to be made for sustainable tourism, then this should
be controlled and measures should be formulated and adopted to control these developments.
Purchase of trip to the SNP

To better understand how the trips are organized, questions were asked on visitors’
travel arrangements. The results show that international agencies are playing important
role in arranging trips to SNP (41.7%), but those organizing their trip through a Nepali
agent are larger than through international agencies (47.9%). On an average, respondent
stated that they spend around USD 1199.18 per person. This question got 73 responses
only, many shied away stating that this is personal question and did not fill this out.
Although, there were few who responded, many answered it vaguely, adding up even
their international flight fare. Also, the question clearly asked to quote the figure in US$,
many responded in different monetary notations. This could be because they did not want to
answer it rightly. Those other than US$ were converted into US$.
The spending on the trip to the Everest can be linked with the prices of the trip
arrangements, airfare, and fooding and lodging expenses. With this respect, most of the
respondents viewed that the price of the trip to SNP to be moderate (60.8%), while 19.2%
respondent viewed the price of the trip to be expensive. 15.8% of the respondents viewed
the price to be cheaper than other destination.
Respondent’s feedback
Questionnaire had several issues related to the park management and the state of the
existing products and services. A Likert scale of 1 to 5 was used for this section of the
questionnaire, where 1=very dissatisfied; 2=dissatisfied; 3=neither satisfied nor
dissatisfied; 4=satisfied and 5=very satisfied. Data have been rearranged summarizing
information collected. To facilitate the analysis, the scale of the evaluation has been reduced
to three options. Responses on these issues are described below:
Flight Frequency
Flight frequency to the region is affected by the weather conditions and the number of
fleets by the operators. Despite the fact that there are only few operators who operate on
this route, 23.3% of the respondents were very satisfied with the flight frequency. Similarly,
35% of the respondents were satisfied, 24.2% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with
the flight frequency. On the other hand, 14.6% of the respondents were not satisfied with
the flight frequency.
Facilities at the airport (Domestic)

Forty-seven percent of the respondents were dissatisfied with the facilities at the
Kathmandu Airport. Only 13.4% of the respondents were satisfied with the facilities at the
domestic airport in Kathmandu. Thirty-eight percent of the respondents were neither satisfied
nor dissatisfied with the flight frequency. There are several reasons behind unsatisfied
respondents, such as information on flight availability, information on weather conditions,
inadequate facilities and services at airport. At many times, travelers are denied information
about the flight availability when they have been waiting for hours since the early morning
wee hours (at 6am in the morning) till mid day. The single source of information is the
Television, which plays Nepali programs most of the times, occasionally the English
News Broadcast by those Television station. Agony of the travelers can be easily understood
over these issues. Researcher had witnessed this every time during the flight to Lukla for
the field visit. Moreover, the airport staffs including the security staff have to be professional
to deal with the situation, with politeness and dealing tourism as a sensitive issue rather
than just any other commons travelling in the packed-busses in the cities. Tourists pay
more than double in every flight they board, but the service they receive is not satisfactory,
rather services are not provided at all. When the neighboring destinations are getting more
and more professional to ripe the benefits tourism brings about, it is high time that all
concerned took issues more seriously. This is a high time to think beyond the traditional
concept of hospitality at villages or mountain regions or at specific tourism entities like
hotels. The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (responsible for the management of airports
in Nepal) should focus more on this issue and move ahead with facilities and services up
gradation at the domestic airport. The impression a tourist gets at the airport will last
longer and creates good impression of Nepal.
Similarly, majority of the respondents (52.9%) were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
with the facilities at the Lukla airport. There is a narrow difference (4.6%) between those
who were satisfied (22.5%) and those who were unsatisfied (17.1%). The reason behind
this could be the inadequate facilities at the airport, same as that of Kathmandu airport.
Accommodation facilities and other services

With regards to accommodation facilities and other services that of guides and porters,
it was found that respondents were highly satisfied with the availability of rooms and the
cleanliness and sanitation of such rooms. Similarly, most of the respondents were satisfied
with the services provided by hotel staffs, guides, cooks and porters. The responses have
been summarized in three categories of satisfied, dissatisfied and neither satisfied nor
dissatisfied in the table 2.
Table 2:Quality evaluation of facilities and services
Facilitiesandservices Satisfied Neithersatisfied Dissatisfied

nordissatisfied
Availabilityofrooms 88.0 6.4 5.64
Cleanlinessandsanitationofrooms 71.7 9.6 15.8
Toiletfacilities 42.5 27.5 25.8
Food and Beverages served 46.7 24.6 1.6
Servicesofthehotelstaff 79.2 11.7 3.4
Hotwaterfacility 33.3 43.8 20.8
Heatingfacility 27.5 40.8 23.0
Locationofcampingsite 17.1 40.4 1.6
Guideservices 69.6 7.5 1.3
Cookservices 50.0 18.3 1.6
Porter’sservices 64.6 2.9 1.7
Quality of camping equipment 20.9 25.0 0
However, there are few aspects such as – toilet facilities, hot water facility, heating
facilities which require immediate attentions. It is commendable to find the modern toilet
facilities and the other facilities such as heating and hot water facilities, but it seems that
tourists are not happy with the state of these facilities. Most of the hotels with heating and
hot water facilities use solar energy for its operation. And in that altitude, which is
characterized by extreme cold and uneven sunny days, the solar panel cannot store the heat
required to meet the demands of the tourists. Since, tourists pay for these services; they are
not convinced with the facilities they receive. The problem here could be short term monetary
gains. Tourists usually opt for hot bath, since they see that being usually mentioned in the
hotel premises or in the hoarding boards. Furthermore, upon enquiries, the people working at
hotels say that tourists will get "hot" shower. In fact, they should be cautious in saying so,
with giving due consideration on the weather condition. Also, in absence of nice sunshine,
they tend to use firewood to heat the water, which takes a longer time to cater to the needs of
tourists. This is one of the reasons behind tourists being dissatisfied with the state of hot
water facility and heating facility.
Also, it can be seen that responses on the "camping site" and the "quality of camping
equipment" are few, because most of them stay in tea houses than camps. Those who
responded were few, who are not sure of the facilities available, so choose to answer
neutral (i.e. neither satisfied nor dissatisfied).
Role of Government and non-governmental organizations

It was found during the research that most of the respondents (more than 40% in each
case) were "neither satisfied nor dissatisfied" with regards to the role of government and
non-governmental organization. This could be because most of these organizations are not
that active in the region, except the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation
(DNPWC). People are aware of the role of this department, because they are there at the
entry points to SNP where the permits of Tourists are checked and are made to those who
don’t make it from Kathmandu. Also, at times the hoarding boards with maps of the parks
or rule to be followed in the Park, heightens the role of DNPWC. Except these, not much
can be seen done by these organizations. Responses have been presented in the table 3.
Table 3:Role of Government and non-governmental organizations
Organizations Satisfied Neithersatisfied Dissatisfied

nordissatisfied
MinistryofTourism 23.3 41.3 4.6
Department of National Parks and
Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) 25.9 43.3 2.9
Department of Immigration 22.1 43.3 10.5
Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) 29.2 41.3 4.2
Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) 24.2 42.9 1.7
Trekking Agents Association of Nepal (TAAN) 22.1 42.5 2.1
Responses on infrastructure development and other issues

Majority of the respondents are satisfied with the state of communication facilities,
trail conditions, hospitality of local people, safety and security and authentic sights. These
issues are very important for a destination to lure tourists. Improved communication facilities
over the years have certainly contributed to the improved satisfaction of the tourists. These
days the region is well connected by the modern telecommunication facilities like mobile
networks, e-mail and internet. This gives tourists an opportunity to talk to their loved ones,
and even continue their day to day work with the help of internet. This area is one of the safest
regions in Nepal. This is a proof to the fact that despite the insurgency in Nepal for 10 years,
there has been steady growth in the number of tourists in SNP. SNP region has been famous
for two reasons, firstly because of Mount Everest and secondly to the Sherpa people residing
in the region. These people are famous world over not only because of their climbing skills
but equally because of the hospitality they show to their guests whether foreigner or anyone
from Nepal. Hospitality has been part of their lifestyle, traditions and culture. Table 4
summarizes the infrastructure and other issues.
Table 4: Responses on infrastructure development and other issues
Infrastructure development Satisfied Neithersatisfied Dissatisfied

and other issues nordissatisfied
Communicationfacilities 38.0 40.8 13.3
Health/medicalfacilities 13.3 55.0 15.0
Trailconditions 85.4 5.8 4.6
Availabilityofdirectionsignsonthetrail 25.4 35.4 33.8
Garbage disposal and waste 18.3 30.0 48.4
management in the region
Hospitalityoflocalpeople 89.2 6.3 3.3
Safetyandsecurity 76.3 17.9 1.7
Museumsandculturalattractions 46.3 39.6 3.3
Festivalsandevents 40.4 39.6 1.3
Customsandtraditions 68.8 20.4 0.8
Culturaldistinctregion 67.9 20.4 0
Transportation/traffics 43.3 30.8 13.4
Local services and products being expensive 31.7 34.6 20.9
Litter/Garbage 22.5 22.5 44.8
Garbage bin 13.4 30.4 45.0
Entrance fee to SNP being expensive 42.6 43.3 3.7
Informationavailabilityfortourists 28.0 47.9 13.8
Although many of the services are considered by tourists to be highly satisfactory,

there are few other issues like – medical and health facilities, availability of direction
boards along the trails, availability of information to the tourists, litter, garbage, garbage
bins, garbage and waste management in the region were of particular concern because of
the low level of satisfaction amongst tourists. Health and medical facilities are the most
important issues in the region. Tourists are not that concerned of the health issues because
of the information available about the Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) at Namche and
Pheriche. That is the reason why 55% of the respondents were neither satisfied nor
dissatisfied with the health issues.
With regards to litter, garbage and garbage bins, majority of the respondents (each of
these items recorded more than 40% of the responses) stated that they were dissatisfied
with these issues. These are relevant to the state of garbage and waste management in the
region that could be one of the reasons where nearly 48.4% of the respondents stated that
they were dissatisfied with the state of garbage and waste management.
Other important issue that recorded low level of satisfaction is the availability of
information to tourists and the direction signs along the trail (33.8%). Most of the tourists
were unaware of the attractions besides Mt. Everest trek and about the Sherpas. Most of
the tourists were unaware of the local festivals like Mani Rimdu and Dumje. Similarly,
many were unaware of the flora and fauna in the region. Also, there are no direction sign
with adequate information at many of the places. One such example could be seen at the
information board situated in between the route to Everest Base Camp, Khumjung Valley
and the Gokyo region. This board provides the information to Gokyo region to be 7 hours
trek, but in fact it is a two days trek for visitors. This route is particularly vulnerable route
than Everest Base Camp trail, because of the elevation one has to gain in just one day
(more than 1000 meters has to be climbed in one day). This makes the area more vulnerable
to the altitude sickness, for which this area is famously called as the "death valley". This
kind of misinformation or no information at all does affect the level of satisfaction amongst
the tourists.
Respondent comments on state of nature conservation in the park

Majority of the respondents (50.8%) opined the state of nature conservation in SNP to
be in good condition, followed by 29.6% to be in fair condition. Six percent of the
respondents found the nature conservation to be in excellent condition, while only three
percent of the respondents viewed it to be in poor state.
Conclusion
This study has reported on the state of tourism and ecotourism development in the
Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park (SNP) and provided analysis of a survey
investigating tourists’ experiences of the region. Tourists are an important aspect of
ecotourism development, their needs and demands usually shape the state of tourism in the
region. Since the early days of tourism inception in the region, tourism development in the
Everest region has been demand-driven rather than supply-driven. That is why it is important
to look at the tourists’ perspective of tourism development. This research found out that
many tourists are not aware of the consequence of the activities they undertake in this
region, thus making them directly or indirectly responsible for many of the undue problems
in the region, such as that of garbage, litters and drug abuses. There are several reasons
for this. Firstly, tourists’ activities are largely unchecked or not monitored, thus no control
over the activities they perform. Secondly, even if tourists are accompanied by guides,
they depend upon these guides to take care of the results out of such activities. When these
guides are themselves unaware of the do’s and don’ts, the adverse effect on the resources
of the region is far reaching. It was found during this research that availability of information
to tourists and guides could play a greater role in mitigating such undue effects out of their
activities. Although it was found that majority of the tourists were highly satisfied with
their trip to the SNP, there were few issues that needed immediate action. Some issues that
were identified and that need immediate attentions are – medical and health facilities,
availability of information, availability of direction boards along the trail, toilet facilities,
hot water facilities, heating facilities, litter, garbage, garbage bins, garbage and waste
management. Tourists were greatly dissatisfied with the above mentioned issues. Improving
the above stated issues will not only better the tourists’ stay in the region, but equally
benefit the locals residing in the region.
Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park (SNP) has important ecosystems that
are important to Nepal and to the whole world. The scant resources of the Everest region
need urgent consideration from all stakeholders so that the resources are not spoiled and
tourism remains a mainstay of the economy in the longer run. However, with the present
state of tourism, it is highly improbable to preserve and conserve the natural and cultural
resources of this region. That is why this researcher strongly argues the development and
adoption of ecotourism model as an alternative to the present state of tourism so that the
sustainable tourism development is ensured and its benefits could be shared among all
concerned.
Notes:
1 – The Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park (SNP) extends over 1150 km2 and lies
in the northeastern highlands along the China-Nepal border. SNP region boasts with the
world’s highest peak Mt. Everest (8,848m) and other mountains along with the hardy
Sherpa people.
2 – The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region, refers to a mountain chain extending
over 3,500 km encompassing the mountain areas of parts or all of Afghanistan, Bangladesh,
Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan ("Fragile Mountain Ecosystems:
The Hindu Kush Himalayas", 2000).
Acknowledgments
This research would not have been possible without the support from Fuji Xerox
Kobayashi Setsutaro Memorial Fund. The author expresses sincere gratitude to the Fund
officials for providing me this opportunity to conduct research. The researcher is greatly
indebted to Supervisor Professor Malcolm J.M. Cooper, for his vision, inputs, suggestions,
continued support and above all his tireless effort in editing my research work. Furthermore,
the author wishes to thank the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation
Officials and staffs (both at Kathmandu and Namche Bazaar, Nepal), Nepal Tourism Board,
(R & D Director - Mr. Kashi Raj Bhandari), Trekking Agents Association of Nepal (TAAN)
staffs, Mr. Gyaneshwor Mahato for assisting and supporting this research.
Correspondence
Any correspondence should be directed to Rajiv Dahal, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific
University, Beppu-shi, Oita-ken, Japan (r.connect@gmail.com).
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48 pp.
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Weaver, D.B. (eds.) (2001). The Encyclopedia of Ecotourism. Oxon: CAB International,
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Book Review
Tika Nath Sharma *
Book Title: Opportunities and Challenges of Tourism Financing (A Study on Demand

and Supply, Status, Structure, Composition, and Effectiveness of Tourism Financing in
Nepal.)
Author: Bishnu Prasad Gautam, MBA, Ph.D.
Publisher: Dissertation.com, Boca Raton, Florida, U.S.A., 2008.
Year of Publication: 2007
The fact that this book is published by Dissertation.com at Boca Raton, Florida, U.S.A.,
I can infer that it was a doctoral dissertation completed at an unnamed university. The
Acknowledgement section of the book shows names of professors in the Faculty of
Management Studies but does not indicate the name of the university. Perhaps, the name
of the university would have been raised by the excellent academic exercise the author has
produced.
Written as a doctoral dissertation, the book is systematically organized in a research
format in seven chapters, with the exception of Appendix. This reviewer was puzzled to
read "see Appendix A.1, A.2", etc., many of them, but the book had not a single Appendix,
thus confusing the reviewer. It would have been better not to refer to the Appendix in the
book, which was probably omitted due to the length of the Appendices.
Chapter 1 starts with the concept and scope of tourism in general and then the scope of
tourism financing, which is the main theme of the research (now book). "Overview of the
Nepalese economy" establishes the connection with tourism industry, its share in the
Nepalese economy, reasons for slowdown during the last decade and quarter. The book
goes on to clarify rationale and specifies 17 objectives of the study. Research Methodology
is also summarized in Chapter 1. Both secondary and primary data were used in the study.
The secondary data were collected from the publications of Nepal
Rastra Bank, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Nepal
Tourism Board, and Central Bureau of Statistics. Primary data were collected by the
author by using preliminary survey, interviews, and questionnaires distributed to a sample
of tourism business enterprises, banks, and financial institutions.
Compiled data were tabulated by using microcomputer software such as Microsoft
Office Excel, SPSS for Windows and E-views. Primary data were analyzed by applying
mathematical models such as ANOVA, t-Test, Phi-Coefficient and Chi-square.
* . ,
, , .
Sharma: Book Review 85
The main objective of the research (book) was to analyze the impact and effectiveness of
tourism financing in Nepal, detailing its structure, status, pattern, and composition.
In Chapter 2 Dr. Gautam reviews the literature on tourism and tourism financing. The
established procedure of research is to review previous publications and to show relevance
of information and data to your own research. The author has done that very well. On
page 19, paragraph 3 he writes, "Despite of increasing importance, tourism has attracted
relatively little attention in the literature in Nepalese perspective". Although saying a
"little attention", the author has quoted numerous articles, books, speeches, studies, reports,
and doctoral dissertations of Nepalese as well as foreign writers written from early 1960s
to the time of his research undertaken in 2005.
Based on Dr. Gautam’s literature review, Mr. Georges Lebrec, the French government’s
advisor on foreign affairs seems to be the pioneer in Nepal’s tourism planning. Mr. Lebrec
had visited Nepal in 1959, 1964, and 1966, recommending the establishment of Nepal
Tourism Office as well as the preparation of tourism promotional materials such as posters,
brochures, postage stamps, and documentary films to show Himalayan peaks, Flora and
Fauna.
No wonder why planned tourism had not started in Nepal until the 1980s. Statistics on
foreign tourist arrivals in Nepal was recorded first in 1962 and then in 1970, 1980, 1985,
19990, and 1995. Only since 1995, foreign tourist arrivals were recorded and published
every year.
The doctoral study of Dr. Viet Burger conducted in 1978 was cited as the first and
important academic research work in Nepal’s tourism. That study reported several features
and benefits of tourism for Nepal. Among them were employment opportunity, income,
foreign exchange earnings, seasonality, capital-intensive nature of the industry.
A number of research findings, including doctoral level ones, have been reviewed in
Chapter 2, showing growth patterns, problems, challenges, economic impact, opportunities,
policies, and planning of tourism sector.
Literature was also reviewed on tourism financing and investment. A study conducted
by Oliver Bennett in 1991 showed that Nepal had very similar visitor numbers to Fiji,
exceeding those of Sri Lanka but proportionately far below those of India. The study cited
a number of reasons for Nepal’s weak performance. Among them were lack of hotel
demands by domestic tourists, limited involvement of government, many hindrances for
obtaining relevant permission by foreign investors, small budget for marketing tourism,
the role of tourism department as "Controlling" rather than "supporting" agency, failure
of Nepal to attract significant foreign investment, and Nepal’s dependency on foreign aid
and its lack of share in the tourism infrastructure. Reviewing all the reviews of the book is
not the purpose of this article.
In Chapter 3 the author has given a profile of tourism industry in Nepal. From what
the book author termed as "Ancient Tourism" through the landmark Master Plan of 1972
to the ups and downs of tourist arrivals up to 2004/05 have been displayed.
Tourism products were created with photographs of key items such as Mountain
Climbing, Trekking, Rafting, Jungle Safari, Bird-watching, and Mountain Flight.
In the areas of tourism policies, plans, and programmes, the following reports were
written:
• General Plan for the Organization of Tourism in Nepal, 1959, by Georges Lebrec.
• Nepal Tourism Master Plan, 1972 by joints Cooperation of Government of Germany
and HMG Nepal.
• Nepal Tourism Market Strategy, 1976-1981 by Joseph Edward Susnik, marketing advisor
from Yugoslavia.
• National Promotional Committee Report, 1983 by HMG Nepal.
• Nepal Tourism Master Plan Review, 1984 by HMG Nepal.
• Tourism Policy, 1995 by HMG Nepal
• Second Tourism Infrastructure Development Project, 1995 by HMG Nepal
• Tourism Sector Development Programme, 1997 by HMG Nepal.
Although various policies, plans, and programmes were formulated through the years,
very slow progress was evident in Nepal’s tourism sector.
Nepal government institutionalized tourism by forming Department of Tourism in 1962,
Ministry of Tourism in 1978, Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation in 1982,
Tourism Council in 1992, Nepal Tourism Board in 1997, and Nepal Tourist Organization
in 1998. As bewildered as I (the author of this paper) am, the trend of merging and
separating various sectors in Nepal government’s Ministries seems to be a part of creating
political positions for party members even at the present time. However, establishing
Hotel Management and Training Centre in 1973 to prepare skilled manpower in tourism
was a fantastic programme of HMG/Nepal. Renamed as "Nepal Academy of Tourism and
Hotel Management" in 2004, this institution produced nearly 19,000 skilled manpower
from 1984 to 2005.
Tourism related business enterprises are operating mainly in the form of hotels and
resorts (accommodation), travel agencies, trekking agencies, and rafting agencies. Starting
with the democratic movement in 1990, the numbers of these tourism enterprises gradually
grew over the years. Of these, hotels/resorts and travel agencies represent 70 percent of
the total number.
Despite formulation of various legislative acts related to tourism, Nepal was not able to
develop long-term vision, planning, leadership in the tourism industry although some
progress was evident.
Chapter 4 is full of statistics concerning tourism financing, starting with the theoretical
framework. The chapter is divided into two parts. Part one describes sources of tourism
financing. The main sources of tourism financing in Nepal included government, foreign
aid and loan assistance, commercial banks, financial institutions, and contractual saving
organizations.
The role of Nepal government is minimal, allocating only one percent of the budget
for tourism development. Foreign aid and loan are important sources of finance for the
development of Nepal in general but the allocation for tourism sector experienced ups and
downs due to international and domestic situations, ranging from 2.5 percent of the total in
1979/80 to 21.8 Percent in 2003/04.
Another tourism financing sources is commercial banks. Loans given to the tourism
sector on an average represented only 1.1 percent of the total loans extended by commercial
banks. The amount was less than that of foreign aid/loan for tourism.
Nepal Industrial Development Corporation (NIDC) also played an important role by
extending an average of 29.4 percent of its total loans to the hotel sector. Financial
institutions played a nominal role in loan disbursement to the tourism sector.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is an important financial source in many countries. In
the case of Nepal, FDI environment could not be successful because of political instability,
lack of incentives, lack of legal environment for foreign investors, and labour practices.
Part Two of Chapter 4 displays an empirical analysis of tourism financing by applying
simple linear regression analysis to show the relationship of foreign exchange earnings
from tourism as independent variable to government internal revenue, tax revenue, trade
volume, and gross domestic product as dependent variables. Findings suggested positive
impact of foreign exchange earnings on most of the development indices. The coefficients
were at 1 percent level of significance. Further analysis showed that tourism development
had significant impact on GDP at nominal price, especially on economic growth of the
country. Also, various sources of financing such as government, banks, and financial
institutions, foreign aid/loan acting alone and in combination had significant impact on the
growth of Nepal’s economy.
Chapter 5 is an analysis of tourism investment financing based on the survey of tourism
business enterprises. Data were collected distributed questionnaires from the following
representative sample:
Accommodations (hotels, resorts, lodges) ………………………………… 48
Travel agencies ……………………………………………………………. 28
Adventure agencies (trekking, mountaineering, rafting) ………………….. 38
Other businesses (curio shops, restaurants, cyber cafes, retail
craft shops, retail garment shops) …………………………………. 16
Total ……………………………………………………………………….. 130
Three of these enterprises were public limited companies. A total of 107 (89%)
enterprises were Nepalese and 13 (11%) were foreign owned (6 Indian, 2 Japanese, 2
Chinese, 1 Thai, and 1 Canadian, operating from 3 to 31 years.
Types of equity financing were predominantly Nepalese promoters’ shares (82%),
foreign direct investment (12%), and public issues (6%). There was a gradual increase in
the private sector equity investment and satisfactory increase in public shares.
Debt financing included loans from banks and financial institutions, comprising 96
percent of the total, and the other loan obtained from the informal sources (promoters,
relatives, money lenders, etc.), comprising only 4 percent.
The average composition of tourism financing between 2000 and 2005 was Capital
Financing (30%), Debt financing (47.8%), and Financing of Current Assets (23%).
The aggregate balance sheet of tourism business enterprises was presented in the book
from the year 2000 to 2005. Borrowing constituted 54 percent of the total Liability,
followed by Share Capital representing 33 percent. On the Assets side, Fixed Assets
accounted for 82 percent compared with 16 percent Current Assets. It is natural that
tourism enterprises obtained money from share capital as well as borrowing and invested
in asset development such as buildings, cable cars, etc. Among the tourism business
enterprises, Accommodation sector spent the most amount of money in Fixed Assets,
showing an average increase of 27 percent per year.
Dr. Gautam has simplified technical accounting terms into common person’s language
by terming capital/liabilities as "sources of funds" and assets as "uses of funds". This is
followed by detail analyses of "Sources and Uses of Funds classified by types of Tourism
business enterprises, namely, namely Accommodation, Travel Agencies, Adventure
Businesses, and Other Tourism Businesses.
The presentation in tabular form is then statistically compared among various tourism
business enterprises by employing ANOVA. The results were found to be significant at 5
percent level. In layman’s terms, this means that various enterprises differed in the size of
sources and uses of funds.
Additionally, t-Test analysis for Two Sample means was performed to compare sources
and uses of funds. Comparing Accommodation with Travel, significant differences were
found on all sources and uses of funds at 5 percent level. Significant differences were
found in 24 of 36 comparisons between one tourism sector and another.
The book author has compared sources and uses of funds among ownership types,
namely, Proprietorship, Partnership, Private Limited, and Public Limited by applying
ANOVA and t-Test. The overall results showed significant difference in the sources and
uses of funds for a period of six years. Differences were also noted in the average amounts
compared based on ownership as well as types of tourism businesses.
Continuing on in Chapter 5, the book author presents and discusses the Essential Aspects
of Financing based on the survey as:
A. Financial Planning
B. Cost of Capital
C . Selection of Financing Sources
Respondents on the Financial Planning indicated that 68 percent of the tourism
organizations do their financial planning within the organization only while 29 percent of
them do so both within and outside the organizations.
Interest rates being the major factor in the cost of capital, the rates for accommodation
sector declined from 13 percent in the year 2000 to 11.5 percent in 2005. It was interesting
to note that rates of interest charged by lending institutions were higher for travel agencies,
adventure agencies, and other tourism businesses than those charged for accommodation
sector. The book author gives the reasons for this discrimination/favour as the ability of
hotels and resorts to provide collateral for the loan.
According to the survey, tourism businesses in Nepal are using various sources of
financing their enterprises as internal, external, domestic, foreign, formal, and informal.
In terms of operating performance, sales revenue of tourism businesses did not show
impressive growth, registering even negative figures in 2002 and 2005. Tourists drastically
decrease if there is a recession and if there is physical insecurity to travel.
Profit margins provided by the respondents were in the negatives. This is an area in
which a researcher can never receive accurate response.
The book author examines various analyses used in accounting terms to determine the
strengths and weaknesses of tourism businesses, such as ratios and capital turnovers.
These were found to be generally on the weaker side.
Respondents were asked if it was easy to raise equity capital and borrow money. The
responses were mixed. The majority (65%) of tourism businesses did not receive loans as
they had proposed. An overwhelming majority (88%) of those who received loans had
utilized the loan while impact of the loan was average. The project dropout rate was only
18 percent, which was a good news. The most prominent reason for the project dropout
was "Strikes and Bandha (closure). Only a small percentage (9.2%) of tourism projects
had time and cost over-runs.
Only one-third of tourism enterprises had other businesses to look after, hence, not
able to pay full attention to their tourism enterprise. Nearly three-quarter of the enterprises
surveyed had no immediate plans for further investment. Those who plan would raise
funds from various sources.
In terms to human resources, 72 percent of the tourism enterprises were found to be
small with less than 30 employees, 30 percent of which had less than 10 employees. Sales
per employee was the highest for travel agencies (Rs. 532,000) and the lowest for adventure
agencies (Rs.112,000). Hotels and resorts had a disappointing sales figures of Rs.122,000
per employee but highest amount of assets per employee at Rs.735,000.
In terms of labour relations, only a small number (17.5%) of surveyed enterprises
had trade unions. Those who had reported to have excellent to average relations with the
trade unions. Due to psychological factor, such a report from the management side is
understandable.
Problems of tourism enterprises in rank order as recalculated by this reviewer were:
1. Lack of promotion budget
2. Insufficient infrastructure
3. Lack of new products
4. Strikes and Bandhas (closure)
5. Lack of quality products
6. Lack of trained human resources
Hindering factors for the development of tourism businesses were (recalculated by
the reviewer):
1. Cost of land and rent

2. Related service facility
3. Credit facility
4. Community attitude
Of these, community attitude was not a very strong hindering factor. A Chi-square test
proved the differences in the intensity of the four hindering factors.
The final point covered in the survey of tourism enterprises was to determine the
intensity of importance of factors affecting the development of business. The ranking of
these factors as recalculated by this reviewer were:
1. Level of competition
2. Market potential
3. Business prospects
4. Availability of funds
Chapter 6 is the analysis of survey of banks and financial institutions concerning
their financial practices in general and in relation to the tourism sector. It was found that
most of the banks and financial institutions used specific format for loan, requiring feasibility
report or project proposal. For most of them, loan processing was not different for the
tourism enterprises.
From the point of view of the lending institutions, factors to consider in the credit
proposal in the order of importance were:
1. Management of the company
2. Business prospect
3. Market position
4. Relation in the affiliated company
5. Labour relation
6. Collateral/security
In order to determine the degree of importance between and among the above factors,
Phi-Coefficient statistic was applied. Results indicated the relationship at 5 percent level
of significance for the first three factors. Labour relation had significant relation with
Affiliated Company but not with the other factors.
For the lending institutions, cash flow and borrowers’ ability to pay were the most
important factors to consider for offering credit, followed by profitability, capital structure,
liquidity position, and working capital. Phi-Coefficient was used to determine the relationship
of each variable with the other for various degrees of importance. Significant relationships
were found between some variables but not between all of them.
Concerning the effectiveness of tourism financing, repayment habit was found to be
average for 71 percent of the borrowers and poor for 25 percent of them. Most (75%) of
the lending institutions did not practice restructuring loan.
The impact of loan to the tourism sector was considered by 57 percent of banks and
financial institutions as "average" and by 29 percent of them as "poor".
Chapter 7of the book presents summary of findings, conclusions, limitations, policy
implications and suggestions. The book author hopes that the tourism business in Nepal in
coming years will grow and that proper financing practices will be followed. He recommends
for further research.
Impression of the Book

This book Opportunities and Challenges of Tourism Financing is one of the rare books
on Nepal’s tourism, specializing in tourism financing. It is a common practice to publish
articles based on Master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation in journals. Research abstracts
are also published, but complete thesis are rarely published in a book form unless the writer
himself does so. This book published by Dissertation.com and printed in the United States is
in itself a proof of the value of the book. The book is systematically organized, well written,
and covers plenty of facts and figures. Language errors are unnoticeable. The book is an
excellent academic exercise. Practicality of the information depends upon the user.
The strength of the book is its use of noted statistical analyses for proving differences,
importance, and relevance between and among finance related variables. Such a use can
establish confidence in an educated reader. This book is useful to tourism or finance
students, teachers, researchers, entrepreneurs, government policy makers, politicians, and
interested readers alike if they can interpret the data. Full credit of the book goes to Dr.
Bishnu P. Gautam to have disbursed the knowledge.
Published by
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92 Journal of Tourism and Hospitality (No.

Vol. 1 No. 1 Year 2009

International School of Tourism and Hotel Management

Vol. 1 No. 1 Year 2009

Chief Editor: Prof. Dr. Ramesh Raj Kunwar

Vol. 1 No. 1 Year 2009

Ramesh Raj Kunwar 1 Community Tourism, Interpretation,

Roman Egger 17 Restructuring the Destination

Pranil Upadhyaya 28 Post Conflict Tourism in Nepal:

Ram Prasad Ghimire 55 Hospitality Industry at the Cutting

Rajeev Dahal 68 Visitors’ Attitude towards Tourism

Tika Nath Sharma 84 Book Review: Opportunity and

The Editorial Board

Manuscripts should be typed double-space on A4 sized paper with a 4 cm margin on all

Salzburg University of Applied Sciences and Technologies (FH Salzburg), is an accredited

International School of Tourism and Hotel Management

Ramesh Raj Kunwar *

tourism","alternative tourism", "cultural tourism", "ethnic tourism", "rural tourism", "village

Community and Community Tourism

ethic, specialist appeal, niche marketing.

and allowing hotels to charge higher rates'

Although entertainment is not interpretation's main goal, it must certainly be considered

The Story Matrix

Storykeepers and Storytellers

……………….,2000, "Community Interpretation: The Key to Appropriate Tourism" in Charles

1.2 ICT supports virtual networking at destinations

2. TANDEM – not another DMS

for integration in third-party websites.

Fig. 1: Representational forms of the subscriptions

Source: own depiction

Fig. 2: Integrated content

2.2 Technical specifications

Fig. 3: Schematic description of TANDEM

Source: own depiction

space, integrated via Server Side Include (SSI)

3.2 Value creation through TANDEM

combined with an increased transparency of the range of destinations.

Destination management organisations can also integrate the TANDEM system

4. Discussion and Conclusion

TANDEM can offer. It is of course possible to consider expanding information networks at

of personal computers. In: Retailing and consumer Services 9: 97-105.

Post Conflict Tourism in Nepal: Challenges and

CAUSES OF ARMED CONFLICT

Impact of armed conflict on tourism

Table I: Fluctuating figures of tourism affected by armed conflict

Year Number % Change Average %Change Revenue generated % Change

Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and transformation of armed conflict to post

Continuity and new manifestations of structural conflicts as the post-conflict challenges

minimum wage standard and ensure fair treatment.

Table III: Fluctuating number of tourist arrivals by air in post-conflict years

Source: MoTCA (2009)

Responding (Coping strategy) by seeking pledge from political parties on tourism

Post-conflict tourism Opportunities

Weblogs as a Media Format in Web 2.0

What Sources of Information do Backpackers Use?

To obtain information, backpackers mainly rely on word-of-mouth advertising (92%) and

Usage Frequency of Travel Guides and Weblogs in Comparison

What Attributes do Backpackers Associate with Weblogs?

Discussion and Outlook

Vol. 28; p. 423-433.

Global Employment Pattern

Trends and Implications of Modern Hospitality Industry

National Scenario of Tourism Development

Opportunities and Challenges