FREE VISA, TICKET AFFECTS TRAVEL AGENCIES

KATHMANDU, July-20 Airlines operating flights to Nepal from the Gulf states and Malaysia are now flying with empty seats after the government implemented free visa and air ticket in foreign employment. This has affected even the business of travel agencies inside Nepal. Travel companies, that were involved only in ticketing, have now started to look for alternatives.

Those who depended solely on ticketing of workers going abroad for employment have started to offer tour packages now. The tourism sector sluggish after the earthquake, however, is expected to gather momentum with travel agencies focusing on tour packages. The government had implemented free visa and air ticket for Malaysia and seven Gulf states—Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait and Malaysia—from July 6. Manpower agencies and travel agencies had opposed the decision.

Over 700 travel companies doing only ticketing were hit by the decision. “We have now focused our business on tour. We cannot survive merely on ticketing. We must change our business according to time,” President of Society of Travel and Tour Operators (SOTTO) Yam Bahadur Khadka said. Around 2,300 tour and travel agents have been registered with the Department of Tourism, and only around 1,200 of them are in operation. Around 700 of them do only ticketing and were dependent on Nepali workers traveling to the Gulf states and Malaysia. Over 1,500 youths leave Nepal for foreign employment every day.

Over a dozen travel agencies have started the process of update in a way to sell even tour packages after the government made free visa and air ticket mandatory. They now do research on tour packages, and prepare websites and packages. “Even those who did not know much about tour packages have now started to promote packages by hiring consultants,” Khadka stated. He revealed that a 25-member team of those doing ticketing have scheduled a program to go to Malaysia and meet tour operators there within a few days. Their team is also scheduled to visit a few Indian and Chinese cities in the next week.

Promoter of Ace Travels and SOTTO General Secretary Madhusudan Upadhyaya also said that the provision of free visa and air ticket has made those doing ticketing focus on tour packages. “The government’s hasty decision may not be right but those doing ticketing have now started to look for alternatives,” he stated. They have started to focus on packages not just for foreign tourists but even domestic ones. They have started to announce tour packages,” he added.