Govt urged to declare tourism industry as crisis-ridden

Kathmandu: Tourism entrepreneurs have collectively called upon the  government to declare the tourism industry as a crisis-ridden, following the negative impact of the second wave of COVID-19.

Gopi Bahadur Bhattarai, chairman of Pokhara Tourism Council, said the increasing trend of the coronavirus  witnessed recently has hard hit the tourism industry which was recovering from the previous wave shock of Covid-19

“Since the government opened the tourism sites for touristic activities last November, it has started slowly picking up. However, the current situation has given another big jolt to the recovering business” said Bhattarai.

Nepal Rastra Bank, in its monetary policy, has put the tourism business in the list of industries suitable for receiving refinance loan schemes under which tourism entrepreneurs will receive loans from the banks at a maximum of five percent interest rate.

The tourism entrepreneurs complained that the banks were not implementing the banking rules enforced by the central bank.