Kathmandu, June 28

Even while hoteliers claim that they are not getting guests as per their capacity, the number of hotels is going up every year.

According to data compiled by the Department of Tourism (DoT), the number of star-rated hotels reached 135 in fiscal year 2018-19, while it was 125 in fiscal 2017-18. Among the total number of star-rated hotels, number of five-star hotels has now reached 14.

After the DoT provided five-star rating to Kathmandu Marriott Hotel, the number of five-star hotels has reached 14. Likewise, there are eight four-star hotels, while there are a total of 37 three-star hotels in the country. Similarly, there are 43 two-star hotels and 33 one-star hotels currently serving tourists.

Altogether now the country has a capacity of 40,856 rooms to accommodate around 2.5 million guests, as per Hotel Association Nepal (HAN). Since the government has announced the Visit Nepal Year 2020 campaign aiming to bring two million tourists, hoteliers are pouring their investment in the hotel industry.

Although tourism stakeholders have been claiming that the country lacks infrastructure to welcome a large number of tourists, HAN has stated that investment in the hotel industry has been rising looking at the future benefits. As infrastructure development is gradually improving and the government is also coming up with new plans for the industry, investment is going up, said Binayak Shah, first vice-president of HAN.

Not only star-rated hotels, the number of tourist standard hotels and homestays is also growing rapidly. As per data compiled by DoT, the number of tourist standard hotels reached 1,125 in 2018 while the number stood at 977 in 2017.

Similarly, the number of homestay businesses reached 1,006 in 2018, while there were only 948 registered homestays being operated across the country in the previous year.