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Nepal’s hotel industry, badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, is trying to recuperate and is getting ready to welcome tourists with the arrival of the Gregorian New Year. In the previous years, a big mass of tourists entered Nepal from India and other countries to celebrate New Year, making December-January one of the busiest periods for Nepali tourism.

Nepali hoteliers have adopted elaborate physical distancing and other health protocols in the hope of attracting more tourists to New Year celebration events. Hotel entrepreneurs from Pokhara, Chitwan and Kathmandu have unveiled attractive packages targeting the New Year. The star hotels Soaltee, Hyatt, Yak & Yeti and Shangri-La in Kathmandu valley are all preparing for an increased number of guests. The recent closure of Hotel Annapurna—one of the oldest five stars in the country—highlighted the vulnerability of Nepal’s hotel industry.

“Until last year, the number of foreign tourists coming to Nepal to celebrate New Year was very high,” says Vinayak Shah, senior vice-president of the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN). Shah informs that this year hotels plan on welcoming mostly domestic tourists, with international arrivals not expected in the immediate future. Hoteliers had made similar preparations for Christmas, but the returns were not satisfactory, Shah adds.

Despite the failure of Christmas to boost their businesses much, hotel entrepreneurs are still pumped up for New Year. They have introduced multiple discount packages to cater to all types of domestic tourists. Shah hopes people who have stayed at home all through the year will come out to celebrate—on the New Year day, and weeks thereafter.

Of late, the Gregorian New Year is celebrated like a festival in all major cities of Nepal. Families have made it a custom to go out to celebrate at hotels, restaurants and picnic spots. Hence New Year is considered a lucrative time for hotels and restaurants. So despite Covid-19 destroying most business opportunities this year, the New Year is still expected to bring some respite.

“The young generation no longer fears Covid. They have started going around and they have also added to the vibrancy of night life,” says Araniko Rajbhandari, president of the Restaurant and Bar Association Nepal (REBAN). Rajbhandari adds that the hotel and restaurant businesses have greatly benefitted from the withdrawal of odd/even vehicle rule. There is also more hope with almost all private and government offices coming back into operation. For restaurants, Christmas-time sales were satisfactory, Rajbhandari says, hoping the same is the case for New Year.

Rajbhandari also informs that entrepreneurs expect around 60 percent occupancy in the New Year. However, the Thamel area—the main tourist attraction in Kathmandu—remained quite deserted on Christmas Eve, making otherwise hopeful entrepreneurs a little skeptic. So REBAN has requested police administration to be more lenient to late night businesses with New Year celebrations in mind. On New Year Eve, most events and activities are conducted till late night or early next morning.

Domestic flights in the country are still short of passengers. Nepali airline operators suspect prospective passengers might not be ready to travel in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. In previous years, Dashain bookings were done at least a month in advance but now there are only a few enquiries and not many passengers. There is the case with under two weeks to the start of the festival.

Regular domestic flights across the country only began on September 20 after six months of suspension. In the 15 days since daily flights resumed, there has been an occupancy rate of around 85 percent of capacity. Right now, only a quarter of all regular flights have resumed. Occupancy is said to be increasing on the trunk routes (flight to the lowlands) rather than the stall routes (high altitude areas). There are more cargo than passenger flights on stall routes.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal currently allows about 80 daily flights from airlines such as Buddha, Yeti, Simrik, Shree, Sita, Tara, Summit, and Nepal Airlines. Buddha and Yeti Airlines have been flying on the trunk routes while Sita, Tara, Summit and Nepal Airlines have been plying the stall routes. Simrik Airlines informs that it will start two daily flights to Pokhara alone from October 15.

According to CAAN’s flight schedule, Buddha Air gets to fly 30 flights a day. At present, it has around 85 percent flight occupancy, spokesperson and marketing manager for the airlines Rupesh Joshi informs.

Even now, bookings are made only one day before the flight, Joshi informs, adding that nothing can be said for Dashain yet. “There may be some excitement in passengers from Ghatasthapana [October 17]. If passenger pressure decreases, airfares may reduce, but if the pressure increases, the current fares remain. But we have no plans targeting Dashain yet,” says Joshi.

The occupancy of Yeti Airlines is currently around 90 percent, informs Sudarshan Bartaula, flight safety chief and spokesperson. Yeti Airlines, which is flying about 18 flights a day on trunk routes, has not started bookings for Dashain. “We have not introduced cheap fares for Dashain as yet. We are in a wait-and-see mode. It is impossible to foresee passenger pressure in Dashain,” says Bartaula.

Bartaula attributes lack of booking to the common mentality that seats will be easily available till the last moment. Stating that flights are currently being operated at cheaper rates, Bartaula adds the airlines are struggling to raise operating expenses. He adds that there is no possibility of further reducing fares. Even though there are no advance bookings, Yeti Airlines hopes daily flights will be filled by Dashain.