Meaning of Tourism, its scope, status and challenges in nepal

Meaning of Tourism

The people who travel from one place to another within country or beyond the country for pleasure, adventure, spend holidays, pilgrimage etc are called tourist and the activities which are associated with tourist and conducted systematically to earn profit is known as the tourism. It is the service oriented industries in the world and an important service industry in Nepal. Tourism sector is an important and major source of earning foreign currency in Nepal. It covers 7 % gross domestic production and 5. 5 people are directly or indirectly involved in tourism. Foreign currency equal to Rs58 Arab 52 corer and 70 lakh was earned in the fiscal year 2073/ 74 BS.

Different national parks, Mountains and hills, cultural heritages, lake and water fall, religious places are the major destination place in Nepal and attractions of for the foreign tourists. Nepal has set a vision 2020 with a target to bring in 2 million tourists and create employment opportunity to 1 million people by 2020 by developing Nepal as an attractive, recreational and safe tourist destination in the world map by preserving and promoting natural, cultural, biological, as well as man-made heritages of Nepal. To meet the targets of tourism sector, Nepal has set objectives such as building infrastructures, creating favorable investment environment, enhancing local levels’ people’s capacity, exploring and expanding potential tourists destinations, enhancing airports’ capacity and strengthening air safety.

Tourist from other countries in 2017

Situation of Tourist in 2017

Lumbini is regarded as the major tourist destination of Nepal. In 2016, the total number of tourist visiting Lumbini stood at 12 lakh 26 thousand and it was increased by 21 percent in 2017 and the number of visitor reached about 15 lakh 52 thousand and of this 12 lakh 51 thousand were Nepalese, 1 lakh 55 thousand were Indian while 1 lakh 45 thousand tourists were from other countries.

Scope of tourism

Tourism is an important sector of economy of Nepal. There are various probability in tourism for the economic development of the country. There are various places and culture that can attract the tourists. There are a lot of possibilities of earning foreign currency through the development of tourism as industry. Similarly thousands of foreigners come to Nepal for the religious purpose as pilgrimage to visit different holy places. National parks such as sagarmatha and Chitwan national park, Hill and mountain, trekking, religious tourism, various tangible and intangible cultural heritages, Attractive places for birds and animals etc. are important places in tourism.

The following are the major prospects of tourism in Nepal:

• Climatic diversity
• Cultural diversity
• Beautiful natural places
• Mountain climbing
• Different religious places like Pashupati and Lumbini
• Sports tourism such as Haatti polo
• Eco tourism etc.

There are various scope of tourism in Nepal: 

• It is the major source of earning foreign currency and development of economy
• It creates the employment opportunities
• To develop the social awareness
• To contribute significantly in GDP of the country.
• To develop social relation with other countries.

Challenges in Tourism

• Lack of transportation
• Lack of conservation of different tangible and intangible cultural heritages
• Insufficient entertainment facilities in the country
• Lack of Hotel and Lodge in remote area.
• Security
• Lack of publicity of our cultural as well as natural property which are the matter of attraction to the tourists.
• Lack of other physical infrastructure.
• Lack of organized tourist centre
• Lack of expert tourist guides
• Lack of sanitation of the tourist site etc.