In uplifting news for Nepal’s tourism, the country has seen one million tourist arrivals in 2023. According to the Nepal Tourism Board, this is the third time the number of tourists has exceeded one lakh, the other two occasions being in the years before the pandemic. The actual number for 2017 and 2019 may be more than one million, as Indian tourists entering Nepal by road are not accounted for in the current statistics. But stealing the statistics of the arrival of Indian tourists through more than two dozen border crossings is not the only example of their invisibility.
Indian tourists coming through the road have to be checked repeatedly, vehicles are being searched again and again. Furthermore, Nepal has banned Indian tourists from bringing more than INR25,000 (NPR40,000) in cash, which is a gross underestimation of their spending power. Although the government has collaborated with India to operate a cross-country online payment gateway, it has not made much progress. This puts Indian tourists, especially those who do not use ATM cards, at a disadvantage. Tourism professionals from Lumbini, Pokhara, and other places say that they are losing a lot of income due to this.
The fact that Nepal shares an open border with India makes it the most likely tourist destination for Indian tourists. But to realize this tourist potential, Nepal needs to bring a special package suitable for them. The first may be religio-spiritual tourism. Over the past decade various governments have flirted with the idea of tapping into tourism programs initiated by the Indian government, one example of which is the Ramayana circuit. If this program goes well, innumerable religious tourists coming to Sita’s birth place Janakpurdham Ayodhyapuri (Thori, Chitwan), Valmiki Ashram can benefit Nepal. Although Lord Ram is said to have been born in Thori, which is near Parsa and Chitwan, locals say that the 900-year-old architectural materials in the Madi area can shed light on where Lord Ram was born.
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Lord Rama of Hinduism was born in Nepal. Evidence of Lord Rama’s birthplace near Ayodhyapuri Nagar Thauri of Madi Rural Municipality of Chitwan District has been found. First of all, the Chairman of CPN and former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has claimed that Lord Ram was born in Nepal and not in India. He inaugurated a small temple there in 2020. He also said that there is enough proof and evidence to accept and convince the birthplace of Rama in his claim.
The Indian claim of Ayodhyapuri in Uttar Pradesh as the birthplace of Ram is facetious and less credible than Nepali Ayodhyapuri. There is a beautiful saying in Nepal that history is written after winning. The loser loses both victory and truth. Goddess Sita, the daughter of King Janak, was found in the soil as mentioned in some scriptures.
At that time, the claim of the former Prime Minister of Nepal was very convincing as to how people could come from far away from Ayodhyapuri in India to Janakpurdham in Nepal for marriage. This is how Nepali Ayodhyapuri Ram married Sita in Janakpurdham.
The idea of the birthplace of Ram came to the world and was discussed and people started to know the truth. In this regard, Oli said that Nepal is a victim of cultural encroachment and history has been manipulated.
This usually happens when your neighbors are more powerful and wealthier in the economy. In history, some Indian media and leaders claimed that Lord Buddha was born in India, which was completely false. Buddha was born in Nepal then he attained enlightenment/enlightenment while in India. This is a fact.
Rumors from Indian media and some leaders have made Nepal sad and they think that this is because Nepal is smaller in terms of geography, population, economy, and army compared to India. It was a matter of faith for the Nepali people. India should not play with the faith and feelings of Nepalis.
But there is one caveat, that Nepal should be aware of. The Indian government under the leadership of Narendra Modi can use the Ramayana circuit as a vehicle for its Hindutva political project. However, if we can do it judiciously, apart from the Ramayana circuit, we have a great potential to attract Indian tourists to Pashupati, Lumbini, Muktinath, Manakamana, and other places. However, Nepal has miserably failed to attract tourists even from India. For example, South Indians visit Nepal much less often than North Indians. At the beginning of 2023, after China lifted the ban on foreign travel of its tourists, although the arrival of Chinese tourists has increased, the arrival of 60,000 tourists from a country with a population of more than one billion in 2015 is not worth celebrating.
We also need to be clear about what kind of tourists the country needs and how it can manage them. The government plans to welcome 2 million foreign tourists by 2024. But do we have the infrastructure to handle such a large number? On the one hand, the condition of our roads connecting the major tourist spots of Kathmandu, Pokhara, and Chitwan is pathetic. Domestic flights are still expensive for foreigners. All this shows the lack of clarity on how to realize the country’s tourism potential. Until we get this clarity, the country cannot rely on stable and adequate income from this sector.
