Kathmandu, July 15: Prime Minister Balendra Shah has urged the hotel entrepreneurs not to worry, as works are being carried out in a prompt manner for promoting tourism industry in the country.
In discussions with the officials of the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers in Singha Durbar today, he requested the private sector to work with the government as a strong partner, since the government has given high priority to the private sector.
PM Shah on the occasion urged businessmen to follow the law and fulfill their business responsibilities, asked small and medium hotels to register with the tourism department and come under the tax system, and suggested studying potential collaboration under the public–private partnership (PPP) model.
In the discussion attended by Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation Khadak Raj Paudel, HAN officials informed that the country’s hotel industry is capable of serving 4 million tourists annually.
Stating that currently only about 1.2 million tourists are coming to Nepal each year, the hotel entrepreneurs said that as tourist arrivals increase, it will boost domestic employment and the hotel industry will become a strong means to prevent young Nepalis from going abroad for work.
Pointing out that the country has great potential to develop as a destination for health tourism, ‘wedding destination,’ and cross-border tourism, they have presented some policy demands to the government.
They urged the government to give the hotel industry the same electricity tariff concessions as provided to other manufacturing industries and to extend the brief environmental impact assessment study for small and medium hotels from 25 beds to 50 beds, as the current limit was impractical.
Similarly, the hotel entrepreneurs called for fully operating Pokhara and Bhairahawa airports and improve services of Nepal Airlines.
They also requested the government to amend the Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act, 2018, to adjust the provision that limits the ‘royalty’ for using ‘trademarks’ under technology transfer to not exceed five percent of the total sales price excluding applicable taxes, so that the price can be set by mutual agreement, and to review and amend other laws related to the hotel business.
They urged the government to make the process of bringing in jewelry for wedding purposes easier in order to promoting the country as a wedding destination and to promote medical tourism by not limiting it to just one-time ‘photo–video’ session, but packages with ‘full storytelling’ along with experts.
HAN Acting chairman Dinesh Tuladhar, general secretary Sajan Shakya, treasurer Yuvraj Shrestha, committee members Jayadin Shrestha and Ashlesha Karki, and secretariat chief Tek Bahadur Mahat participated in the discussions.
