This has injected capital worth Rs 120 million in the travel trade industry of the city, according to Tourism Office Pokhara, whose records show 35 new hotels came into operations last year. [break]
With their commencement of services, the number of standard tourist class hotels in Pokhara has jumped to 475. And by 2009, total investment in the hospitality industry has soared to Rs 2.45 billion.
“It is good thing that hospitality industry has once again emerged as strong investment avenues and created opportunity for investors,” said Giridhari Dhakal, chief of the Tourism Office. “Otherwise, with the manufacturing and other sectors shrinking, investors were being discouraged to put in fresh capital in the market.”
Hospitality industry of Pokhara has witnessed an encouraging expansion especially after the country embarked on peace process. In 2008 also, 41 tourist class hotels were opened in Pokhara.
“Manufacturing and other sectors are yawing due to insecurity and labor stir. Therefore, more investors feel secure and are attracted towards tourism industry,” said Dhakal. Investors also prefer to put their money in the industry because it generates good return over investment, he told myrepublica.com.
The expansion in tourism was not just limited in hotel industry. Fourteen new travel agencies and four new trekking agencies too were opened in Pokhara in 2009, according to the statistics of the Tourism Office.
With their operations, the number of travel agencies in Pokhara has soared to 83. The number of trekking agencies too has jumped to 67.
This injected an additional Rs 54.2 million in the travel and trekking business of the city, raising the total investment in the sector to Rs 427.7 million in 2009 from Rs 369.3 million in 2008.
In 2008 also travel agency and trekking agency business had received about Rs 70 million of fresh investment.
“Such expansion of hospitality and travel-trekking industry is good news for tourism industry as a whole,” said Govinda Bahadur Pahari, president of Western Regional Hotel Association.
He further disclosed that investors were adding 50 new tourist class hotels in 2010. Also the hotels operating along Lake Side too were expanding their capacity.
The association says that the latest expansion has been done also keeping in mind Tourism Year 2011 and the need to increase capacity of the industry to cater to more visitors.
The government has set a target to bring in a million tourists during the year and the association is aiming to bring half of them to Pokhara.
Pokhara hotels fix room rate
The Western Region Pokhara Hotel Association (WRPHA) has fixed Rs 500 as the minimum rate for one night stay in rooms in hotels affiliated with the organization.
A recently held meeting of the association fixed the minimum rate after finding the hotels charging arbitrarily fees from the clients. This is the first time that the association has fixed the room rates.
Talking to myrepublica.com, Executive President of the association and Coordinator of the Room Rate Fixing Committee Hari Sharma said very low rates had sent a negative message to tourists. The association has about 400 hotels and lodges as its members.
According to Sharma, some hoteliers had offered rooms at as low as Rs 200, and thereby causing problems for other members. The association has not set any figure for maximum rate for the rooms, however. To monitor the decision of the association, a 20-member committee has been formed under the coordination of Sharma himself.
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