Tourism entrepreneurs recently asked the government to reduce the trekking fee to pave the way for wooing tourists in larger numbers for trekking. They said that the existing fee was too high and unpractical, and that many tourists were discouraged to embark on trekking in the mountainous regions. "A package trip to Tibet has been selling in the capital at prices ranging from US$ 200 to 250. But interestingly, a tourist willing to trek in Mustang has to pay US$ 700 as permission fees," they said, speaking at the 26th annual general meeting of Trekking Agents Association of Nepal (TAAN). "How can tourists be attracted to these Nepali trekking areas while charging such high fees?" they ask. Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Culture, Civil Aviation and Tourism, Deep Kumar Upadhaya said that the government was serious in solving the problems afflicting the tourism industry. Stressing the need on bringing tourism to rural areas, he said that the government was devising a strategy to promote village tourism.

He, meanwhile, said that after going downhill in recent times, the tourism industry has begun to recover. Deepak Mahat, president of TAAN came down heavily on the government for failing to create initiatives to help tourism during the crisis period. "Crisis Management Cell constituted under the tourism ministry is unable to do anything whenever tourism suffers under any unpredictable crisis. It becomes a mere spectator," he said. Referring to undercutting in the tourism sector, Ambika Shrestha, former president of TAAN, said that though hotels are engaged in a practice to substantially cut rates to woo tourists, such practice is doing nothing to provide them any benefit. "As hotels as well as the tourism industry as a whole has become the loser, they should immediately halt such worthless practice," she added.

OTHER NEWS

• Airlines tickets sold out; Massive demand for Dashain flights: With Dashain round the corner, almost all the seats of domestic airlines have already been booked, while a substantial number of people are trying frantically to get advance confirmed tickets. Airline operators say that though pressure is increasing for air seats, they are not in a position to cope up with the chronic shortage. "There is nothing much we can do when most forward flights are already fully booked," they said. "It is sad to be unable to provide tickets as per the demand, but we have no option, as we can not arrange extra flights to meet the demand for Dashain."
  
  
• Japanese biker looking to scale Everest: Japanese biker Keiichi Iwasaki is to scale Mount Everest before heading for Pakistan and other Arab countries. Iwasaki, who started his world biking tour two years back from Japan, had arrived in Nepal in July 2003 before visiting several parts of India and Bangladesh. Now he is back in Nepal and looking to scale world's highest peak Mount Everest. "I want to observe the nature and scaling Mount Everest will be a dream come true for me," said Iwasaki who has already started mountaineering training. "For us (Japanese), climbing Everest is something very prestigious," he added.
  
  
• Clean up campaign at Manaslu planned: As part of a campaign to clean up all the 14 peaks above 8,000 meters, Han Wang-Yong, a South Korean mountaineer, is all set to run a clean up campaign at Manaslu from October 8 to 22. Wang-Yong, who has scaled all these 14 peaks, has already led cleaning campaigns in Mt Everest and Mt K2 in Pakistan. According to a press statement distributed at a press conference organized here recently to disseminate news about the campaign, a team of 11 Koreans will also accompany him in his campaign at Manaslu, the world's seventh highest peak. Wang-Yong said that as the beauty of the Himalayas has been deteriorating due to garbage discarded by mountaineers and trekkers, he has embarked on a cleaning campaign.
  
  
• Nepali boy claims place in Guinness Book: Sagun Khatri, a 12-year old eighth grader of Little Angels' High School set a new world record for memorizing 100 random objects on Thursday. He broke the record held by Justin Hartely of the United Kingdom since October 28, 2002. Hartely had then set a record for memorizing 75 random objects and numbers. Sagun's stunning achievement will be submitted to the Guinness Book of World Records, the global authority on record-breaking achievements. If confirmed by Guinness, this will be first record to be held by a Nepali. The son of Geeta Khatri and Ram Krishna Khatri, Sagun has a gifted brain and can recall as many as 125 words.
  
  
• Kirloy's awarded: The French Society of International Jury of Quality has awarded K-too Beer and Steakhouse, as well as Kirloy's of Kathmandu the best restaurant team of the year because of its excellent professionalism and its warm friendly reception. During the press briefing organized by the Kirloy's group of restaurant, Ek Raj Adhikari, Managing Director of the group said that both the restaurants were awarded the gold medal from the French Society on 22 of September. "Kirloy's restaurant as well as K-too Beer and steakhouse were selected for the award after a survey amongst the large number of other restaurants in Thamel," added Adhikari.
  

By Hari Shrestha, Resident Representative in Kathmandu