For the last seven months, Kathmandu Living Labs has been working to document the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as felt by tourism industry in Nepal.
We met with individuals working in tourism, individuals who own or used to own tourism-related businesses, and individuals working for the sector’s recovery in some capacity (government officials, etc.). We listened to them, and gathered information around their lived experience, through informal interviews, through focused group discussions, and through surveys. When doing this, we focused on the economic and psychosocial impacts that the pandemic has had on them. We also tried to capture their needs for the next few months, in the hope that this information would be useful for future decisions made for the industry.
Through this report, we want to share some intermediate findings and recommendations, based on the data we received through interviews, and through our ongoing surveys targeted at tourism workforce and tourism businesses. These surveys, for which data collection started in the month of April 2021, have so far been filled by 206 individuals working in the tourism sector, and 106 individuals who own or manage the operations of different tourism businesses in and around the capital city of Kathmandu.
Analysing the data we recieved so far, we think that the information gathered can already provide useful direction to lobbyists, decision-makers, and well-wishers of the tourism industry, as they take next steps to mitigate the effects, and support the recovery of a very important sector in Nepal.
The Cities’ COVID Mitigation Mapping program (C2M2) builds on global networks of geospatial experts to analyze second-order impacts of COVID-19. The goal of this program is to increase identification and understanding of the distribution and gaps in resources available to vulnerable populations in urban communities. This program has three regional hubs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where select local organizations, with regional geospatial and community development expertise, identify and work with local project partners to develop and guide C2M2 projects in each region.
C2M2 projects build local capacity to utilize open data and geospatial technologies, strengthen international partnerships, and create new data and analyses to inform data-driven decision making for planning to mitigate COVID-19 second-order impacts. Project partners focus on key themes: food security, informal economy, tourism, health, and mobility to address second-order impacts of COVID-19.
A lot of people have helped us in our effort. We are very grateful to Mr. Deepak Raj Joshi, former CEO of Nepal Tourism Board and presently the member of World Tourism Council. As an advisor to this project, he helped us navigate the tourism landscape and guided this project’s course, introducing and connecting us to some key individuals and groups in Nepal’s tourism industry.
We also thank Nepal Association of Travel Agents (NATA), Trekking Agency Associations of Nepal (TAAN), Restaurant and Bar Association Nepal (REBAN), Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) for their support in designing this survey. We’d like to extend our special thanks to Tekendra Mahat (COO of HAN), Suman Parajuli (President of UNITRAV) and Kapil Kafle (President of JOTTUF) for their support in helping us reach out to the nearly 300 members of tourism businesses and workforce.
This work is supported by the U.S. Department of State.
The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency of the U.S. government. Assumptions made within the analysis are not a reflection of the position of any U.S. government entity.