Kathmandu, April 26

Despite many efforts made by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, works related to the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) are yet to gather pace.

With an aim to set up an authentic database of the tourism industry, the ministry had initiated the process for TSA last year. Although the committee has completed all the preparatory works, further progress has been hampered due to lack of technical assistants.

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) had already sent a request to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) for technical assistants, who would be working under the supervision of the ministry. However, the UNWTO is yet to give its final decision.

Under the coordination of Tourism Secretary Mohan Krishna Sapkota, NTB is working on this project along with the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) and Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).

“After we sent the request letter, UNWTO had given a positive response in terms of helping Nepal to set up TSA. And we also had frequent discussions with them regarding this. However, we have not received any update from them recently,” said Ghanashyam Upadhyaya, spokesperson for the ministry.

Aiming to complete the work within two years, NTB, NRB and CBS had started the work on TSA in March last year. Late tourism minister Rabindra Adhikari had declared that the works would be completed within one year though.

According to NTB, the difficult part of setting up TSA is related to data of domestic tourism. As the government does not have a mechanism to keep records of domestic tourism, it will be a bit difficult at first to collect the data, said Kashi Raj Bhandari, senior director of NTB.

According to Bhandari, they have to conduct a sample survey to collect data of domestic tourism, for which they need technical assistants. Moreover, they also have to prepare the entire database based on the guideline formed by UNWTO. Thus, before collecting any data and analysing it, NTB requires technical assistance, he informed.

The TSA will compile data of all inbound, outbound and domestic tourism. Likewise, it will measure the contribution of the tourism industry to the national GDP, tourism’s ranking compared to other economic sectors, number of jobs created by the sector, the amount of investment in the industry, tax revenue generated by tourism industry, tourism consumption, tourism’s impact on Nepal’s balance of payments, among others.