Gavar Valley tempting more tourists

• Bheshraj Basnet

There has been an increase in the number of domestic tourists visiting the Gavar Valley community homestays, one of the top 100 destinations of Nepal for visit year 2020, located in Baijnath Rural Municipality of Banke.

According to Krishna Lal Chaudhary, president of Gavar Valley Community homestays, the number of tourists visiting the Gavar Valley homestays are increasing.

More peoples are arriving from Banke, Bardiya, Karnali, Far Western province and province no. 5 for visiting Gavar Valley which lies within the intermediate area of ​​Banke National Park. The panoramic view of the Chure Mountains seen from the Gavar Valley has become one of the main attractions for the tourists said Chaudhary.

About 500 tourists are reaching daily in the homestays run by Tharu and Mughali communities. Chaudhary said there was no decrease in the number of tourists even during the Dashain festival. He said that the local people, who returned to Banke to celebrate the festivals, along with the peoples from other districts visited the homestays.

Naresh Shrestha of Nepalgunj – 2, who is teaching engineering in Kathmandu, said that he came to visit Gavar during Dashain vacations when he returned home, to experience the taste of homestays after getting the information about this place in Kathmandu.

President Chaudhary says that the operators of the homestays are very excited due to an increase in the flow of guests even during Dashain festivals. The old homestays have been renovated while three private homestays and two hotels have been added.

The number of homestays has also have been expanded in the Chyama area of ​​Gavar Valley. Ganesh Chaudhary has constructed a convenient resort-type homestay for tourists wanting more facilities with an investment of about 1. He said that there are plans to develop convenient hotels in a slightly different way than the regular homestays.

The Gavar Valley homestay, which began in 2013, is now considered as one of Nepal’s unique Homestays. Chaudhary said that the homestays have become a source of income generation, cultural promotion, and nature conservation in Banke.

“Gavar Valley homestay has become a forefront in domestic tourism promotion and is launching a new dimension in the tourism industry. Since the establishment of the homestays in the village, the dialect, lifestyle, economic condition of the village has changed drastically,” said Choudhary.

At Banke’s first Community Gavar Valley homestays, 17 homes have been welcoming tourists by operating the homestays.