Valley’s heritage sites await tourists’ return

In the second week of June, about two months after the April 25 earthquake, the country reopened its temple-filled durbar squares to the public. The reopening of durbar squares, the major tourist attractions in the Kathmandu Valley where much of the monuments and heritage structures were levelled by the quake, was a significant move, as the country heavily relies on tourism. The aim was to attract tourists to give a fillip to the tourism sector.

But according to the Hanuman Dhoka Area Conservation Programme (HDACP), Hanuman Dhoka Durbar Square has failed to see tourists in numbers that it was expecting. The number of foreign visitors has decreased by around 60 percent, said

the HDACP.

Compared to 500 visitors a day during this time of the year, the World Heritage Site greets only about 200 now.

An unofficial blockade imposed in September following the promulgation of the constitution also came as a setback.

The decline in number has greatly affected revenue collection—entry fee for international tourists at Hanuman Dhoka is Rs1,000 per person and for those from Saarc countries, it is Rs150.

According to the HDACP, the revenue from entry fee has gone down from Rs500,000 a day to around Rs200,000 a day now.

“The earthquake had dealt a devastating blow and the blockade only complicated the problem,” said Narendra Bilas Bajracharya, chief of the HDACP. “Tourists have also stayed off Nepal due to rumours of another major quake.” 

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