Tourism contribution to GDP to be raised to 10 per cent

Kathmandu, Dec. 21:

Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Rabindra Adhikari said on Friday that the tourism sector's contribution to the national economy would rise to 10 per cent by the end of the 15^th Periodic Plan.

He was confident that the target would be met within two years by the end of 2020.

Currently, the share of tourism in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is about 3 per cent, and the National Planning Commission (NPC) has envisioned raising it to 10 per cent by the end of next five-year plan which starts from the coming fiscal year 2018/19.

"We believe that the contribution of tourism to the GDP is under-reported as the World Tourism Council has put the tourism's share to Nepal's economy at 7.5 per cent. So, with little adjustment in the figures and growing number of tourists and tourism infrastructure, we can achieve the target within a couple of years," Minister Adhikari said.

According to him, the government is going to implement the tourism satellite account system to evaluate the status of tourism industry in the country and its contribution to the national economy.

A committee led by Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) Krishna Prasad Devkota, including the representatives from the Central Bureau of Statistics, Nepal Rastra Bank and Nepal Tourism Board was formed in August this year to make initial preparations for the satellite account.

Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA) in Bhairahawa will be completed by the end of the next year and will contribute to the increased number of tourist arrivals, added the Minister.

Adhikari said that international studies had shown that it would not be difficult to increase the number of tourists once the country achieved the target of one million tourist arrival. "Since we have already met the one million target and are heading for 1.2 million this year, we have to focus on creating better tourism infrastructure in order to cater good services to the visitors," he said.

He directed the departments and agencies under the MoCTCA to complete every project within the deadline.

"Projects should have time-bound execution. Find alternative way or method if the current modality is not working properly. I found that no officer was ready to put extra efforts to complete the delayed projects within its given schedule," he said.

According to Minister Adhikari, the rationale of announcing the early budget has failed since the bureaucracy refused to change its sluggish working style. The bureaucracy should change its working style to produce impressive results.

Member of the NPC Dr. Ram Kumar Phuyal said that Nepal was among the top countries who failed to spend the capital budget. He asked the ministry to update statistics such as the contribution of the growing number of tourists to the productivity, employment and economy.

"Development of infrastructure, human resources, skill and attitude should be the first priority of the government and other development stakeholders. Promotion is a secondary thing," he said.

Secretary Devkota said that the ministry would coordinate with the NPC and local levelsto facilitate the smooth flow of land filling materials to the GBIA. The local levels have levied taxes on the filling materials.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 22 December 2018.