Recently, the government declared a halt to all the international promotional activities scheduled for the Visit Nepal 2020 campaign considering the increasing threat of the coronavirus outbreak. The tourism sector has been severely affected by the virus with all the scheduled programmes for the VN 2020 campaign being dropped. In this context, Sujan Dhungana and Arpana Ale Magar of The Himalayan Times caught up with Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai to know about the new plans of the government for the campaign and how he will address these issues. Excerpts:

The government has halted all international promotional activities of VN 2020 campaign after the coronavirus outbreak and there is no certainty when the campaign will be rescheduled. What do you have to say about this?

Sometimes some incidents that occur in the world are out of the control of anyone. The current issue of coronavirus is also an unfortunate situation for us, especially when the country was all prepared for the VN 2020 campaign. Due to the virus a lot of our scheduled plans have been affected badly. We had inaugurated the VN 2020 campaign in a grand way and till January the tourism sector was all set for the grand success of the campaign. However, the incident became more critical from February and started spreading across the world. After that we had no option other than to cancel all international promotional activities following the direction of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Now we are in a ‘wait and watch’ situation. We are waiting for things to settle down. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has directed all stakeholders to be ready to take advantage of the situation after the virus is contained. The ministry has also formed several teams to prepare plans and programmes for the future after the virus is contained. As an immediate measure we have to now focus on how to prevent the virus from spreading in the country and the government is also working on that effectively.

According to a recent report of the Asian Development Bank, the virus can reduce the country’s economy by $36 million and a major portion of that figure is covered by the tourism sector. How is the government preparing to recover that loss?

The virus has not only affected Nepal but the global economy and tourism is perhaps the industry that has been hit the hardest. We are aware of the situation and the government is sensitive towards it. The MoCTCA has directed Nepal Tourism Board, private sector and experts to analyse the situation and the losses that the tourism sector will have to face due to the virus. The concerned stakeholders have also been directed to recommend the government on the initiatives that need to be adopted to recover the losses. Meanwhile, Nepal Rastra Bank has also introduced some significant policies to help recover the losses caused by the virus. We are also having frequent discussions with the Ministry of Finance as it plays a major role in recovering from the economic loss. Moreover, we will soon publish our plans on how we can reduce the effect of the virus on the tourism industry. We will do our best to minimise the losses of the private sector. We are currently preparing plans and programmes.

Will the VN 2020 campaign be cancelled or rescheduled?

We have not yet taken any decision to cancel the campaign. As the Cabinet has to take that decision and the prime minister is currently under treatment, we are unable to take any decision regarding the campaign. As soon as the prime minister recovers we will hold a Cabinet meeting and make a decision on the campaign. Meanwhile, I would like to remind all that when I took the responsibility of the ministry I had urged the stakeholders not to focus only on 2020 and that we should rather think of a decade for tourism development. Currently, the average length of stay of tourists and their expenditure have been declining each year. So, we have the responsibility of bringing quality tourists and we need to take effective measures for that. For this purpose, the first thing we have to focus on is infrastructure development. The second aspect we need to look into is increasing tourism products and thirdly based on the two aforementioned measures we have to increase our international promotional activities. And this can’t be done overnight. That’s why I said we need at least a decade to be fully prepared for tourism development. So, now we are planning to form a committee to prepare a work plan for the tourism decade. We plan to promote one product every year in the decade in a major way.

The government is being criticised for allowing foreigners from any country to enter the country while other countries are banning tourist arrivals and several have also banned flights from virus-affected countries. What is your say on this?

Each country has their own priorities and experiences. And in such a situation it is genuine for the public to present their views on such issues as it concerns their health. However, what really matters are the steps we have taken to prevent the virus from spreading to save our people. And the government always has to take a rational decision that addresses the needs of all instead of being emotional. Hence, at present we are following the regulations of WHO. The organisation has requested all to be cautious while travelling via land or air route and till date it has not asked any country to ban flights and arrivals at present. The government is sensitive about the issue and making decisions by taking into account various priorities of the country. We are providing updates of the situation every day. Even in other countries the airline companies themselves are halting flights and it is not the governments. However, if we do need to take such a decision then we will do so.

Tribhuvan International Airport is also being criticised for not installing high-tech health check-up equipment?

This is not true. We have embraced the same technology used in other countries. We are currently doing regular health screening of passengers and have also increased our capacity. At present not a single passenger travelling from anywhere can cross immigration without having their health screened. We have adopted precautionary measures to prevent the virus from spreading through the airport.

The national pride projects associated with the tourism sector have also been affected as they are being handled by Chinese contractors. At the moment there is lack of both human resources and construction materials. What do you have to say on this?

Indeed this is a very serious issue as we are in a hurry to complete the projects. Since the construction of Pokhara International Airport was going on smoothly previously there is no need to worry about it. However, construction of Gautam Buddha International Airport has been seriously affected by the virus. Meanwhile, Chinese workers have started coming to the construction site now. However, we have arranged a place to quarantine them for 14 days and then only will they be allowed to start working. The project has also been affected due to the unavailability of construction materials that are brought from China. But once things settle down then we will have to start working at a rapid pace. We may have to increase the work shifts of workers or think of other alternative measures. I would like to assure that once normalcy returns construction activities will gather pace.

The private sector has been seeking discounts and subsidies to recover their losses due to coronavirus. Has the government planned anything in this regard?

Of course, the government is ready to provide incentives that the private sector needs to recover their losses. However, I would like to request the private sector not to create havoc by disseminating false information. No one should seek incentives or other forms of support if they have not faced any losses. For instance, I have heard that the airline operators have stated that they are in a loss as they have not been getting passengers. I do agree with the fact that mountain flights have been affected as many foreigners have cancelled their trips to Nepal. But I do not think that airlines have to ground their aircraft due to lack of passengers because of the coronavirus. The government will provide support to those who have faced genuine losses.