Adventure Tourism in Nepal

Nepal is one of the most adventurous destinations in south Asia. Each adventure activity stimulates people’s mind, body, and soul.  Nepal is the land of the Himalayas since  8 out of 10 world's highest peaks lie in Nepal; Mt. Everest(8848m), the highest peak of the Earth along with Kanchanjanga (8586m), Lhotse (8516m), Makalu (8485m), Cho Oyu (8201m), Dhaulagiri (8167m), Manaslu ( 8163m), Annapurna (8091m). Similarly, thousands of alpine peaks are recorded, among them, Amadablam, Tseko Ri, Island peak,  Langtang Lirung, Ganesh Himal, Gaurisanker, are amongst the most popular peaks in Nepal. Some of the peaks, hills, vallies and villages are still unexplored and far from human settlement. Therefore, one his loves adventures and wants to explore  Nepal in an adventurous way will in Nepal always be welcomed as a visitor.

Nepal organizes various adventure activities. Among some of the popular activities are mountaineering, Climbing, Trekking, Bungee Jump, Zip line flying, Paragliding, Mountain flight, Sky diving, etc. Besides these activities, thrilling white water rafting, unique terrain, cultural experience, and exotic wildlife experience are attractions for adventure seekers.

Opportunity for tourism

We have a lot of opportunity to develop our country through the proper utilization of tourism resources. The following are the some opportunities that can be benefited by developing adventure tourism which as  below :

1.    Development of rural areas

2.    Development of infrastructure (Proper roads, electricity, water supply, hospitals, communication etc.)          

3.    Development of economic status of people

4.    Opportunity of Proper research and development of tourism product

5.    Increases employment opportunities
6. Environment conscientiousness
7. Develop the country throughout the responsible tourism

Challenges of adventure  tourism

We have many challenges and threats of adventure tourism that are being the major barrier to development in the tourism industry of Nepal , which are:

➢    Lack of proper infrastructure and resources

➢    Lack of qualitative human resource

➢    Destination getting expensive due to service charge and VAT

➢    Lack of proper tourism Training centers and equipment

➢    Lack proper monitoring mechanism for tourism field and tourists

➢    Negligence in responsibilities by concern tourism bodies

➢    Lack of proper tourism planning and implementation 

➢    Risk of sex tourism and prostitution

➢    Political instability 

Feedback

Although there is a high potential for development in the tourism industry, Nepal is still in the shadow, even we didn't succeed to satisfy the targeted market, which had negative consequences for Nepali tourism. By the unstable government situation also another factor that sending negative information about Nepali tourism so political stabilization and peace are crucial to develop adventure tourism in Nepal.  We have still the traditional idea, strategy, and promotional tools, which can be analyzed as passive tools of publicity in adventure tourism. We have time to move up and get familiarized with advanced technology using the digital marketing tools.  Because every country is now accessible by Internet, if we conduct Internet marketing, we can easily have access to our potential customer. Regarding the tourism bodies NTB, PATA, NATTA, they have to appear in actively and responsibly with far sighting vision.

When the tourist lands in Nepal, the most important thing is to the travel operator have to maintain the quality services. Quality service comes under hospitality, cost determination, package inclusions, skills of human resources, satisfaction by the services etc. On the other hand, unnecessary VAT, taxation, royalties are also barriers of adventure tourism, the government has to impose taxation, ideally in a feasible way.

If we act on the weaknesses and threats of the present adventure tourism market of Nepal, and would work together (private and public sector) with a proper plan and vision it is possible to build Nepal into a Prosperous country by developing Adventure Tourism.