Kathmandu, January 12
Onlinekhabar caught up with Sirjana Rana, executive director of Hotel Annapurna and vice-president of Hotel Association Nepal, to talk about the Madhesh movement, the Indian blockade and their impact on the tourism industry in general and the hospitality sector in particular.
Excerpts:
- Hotels have been passing through a very serious crisis. The blockade and the Tarai movement have caused a fuel shortage. Because of this, we have been finding it hard to serve occasional tourists. If this situation continues, almost all star hotels will close. How can we keep running hotels at a time when there’s no cooking gas, no diesel in the market? As if these shortages were not enough, there’s load-shedding. Despite these factors, we have been running hotels by removing items from the menu and cutting down our services. But we cannot continue like this for long. During the emergency in 2002-2003, 10-12 hotels like Narayani, Sherpa and Blue Bird, closed. These hotels had been operating for about 40 years. We have been trying to alert the government that a similar situation may arise.
- The tourism industry experienced a slump after the April 25, 2015 earthquake. The indefinite blockade and the Madhesh movement that followed have caused extensive damage to the industry. Some hotels closed during this period. Even those hotels, which are still operating, are not in the pink of health. We have not been able to provide services that tourists checking into five-star hotels expect. We have had to cut down services and remove items from the menu because of the load-shedding and the fuel shortage. Somehow, hotels have been operating so far in limited capacities. If this situation continues, most of the hotels will close.
- Earlier, our hotel used to have 50-60 on our menu. Now, this has come down to 10-15, thanks to the cooking gas crisis. We have not been able to prepare food items as per guests’ demands; we have been offering whatever we can. We have not been able to operate A/C round the clock. A five-star hotel should have round-the-clock hot water supply. We are in no position to welcome guests, for we cannot provide services to them. We have no option but to cut our services daily. We have been running hotels somehow, thinking that better days will come.
