In the first assignment we discussed the key attractions in Nepal. The demographics and the key markets were discussed. The major factor affecting the Himalayan country of Nepal is global warming, With Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world located here, and the snow-capped mountains occupying the highest share in tourism revenue, the changes in global temperatures are bound to affect the tourism industry here. The other factor is the lack of tourism infrastructure. Being one of the poorest countries in Asia, Nepal is finding it hard to keep its infrastructure at par with Western countries [IMF16], It has also been affected by natural calamities in the recent past, affecting the inflow of international tourists. Literature Review. As per the findings from assignment one, the country of Nepal faces lot of problems that can affect tourism industry.
This ranges from the global warming affecting the snow covered mountains to the political instability and refugees from Tibet after being attacked by China. The study of climate foresees that earth’s climate will change at an extraordinary rate. The sequential and longitudinal pattern of tourism exigence can be expected to get attuned to this mostly as a consequence of direct effects of climate change, like rise in temperature, seal level rise, loss of snow from mountains etc. Regardless of the economic implications of the Travel and Tourism Industry, accounting to 9.1% of GDP (gross domestic product) worldwide, there hasn’t been significant research on implications of climatic change of tourism industry. Tourism is reliant on the climatic settings of the said destination. Climate of the area plays a key role in the tourism activity of the territory.
Virtuous climatic conditions venerate the tourists looking for outdoor activities and thus play an important part in opting for the given destination. In reference to Eurobarometer, half of the European citizens make their return decisions based on the weather of the location. Stern articulates that the climatic conditions that have a far reaching influence on human perception are temperature, humidity, sunshine, radiation, precipitation and wind This determines the flow of international tourists, Numerous statistical assessments have shown that the climatic conditions are the determining factors for the tourist demand. The role of perceptions is inadequately empathised due to the intricacy and might land up with precipitous changes and long-drawn-out reformation in the tourist behaviour [Gole]. Furthermore, it is strenuous to measure the influence of climate change on tourism due to its time—consuming frequency compared to other socioeconomic elements like political and economic stability, trends in fashion and others.
Even though the effects of climate on tourism may be hard to quantify, it is the cause and the long term alterations are guaranteed in the fluctuating climatic world [Ame06]t Global scale simulation model of tourism demand are remarkably abridged and they have significant constraints which include an extensive list of tourist-reaction associated ambiguities [Wea11]t For example, as ‘temperarure’ is observed to be quantifiably significant in econometric studies on climate and tourism demand, it has been used as a substitute for climate, But on the other hand, a number of studies have shown that, ‘climate’ is a byzantine term than just temperature as the tourists take a variety of meteorological factors into consideration and base their decisions accordingly [RuthL With relevance to tourism in the area, Prideaux [PriOO] defines the transport system as “the operation of, and interaction between, transport modes, ways and terminals that support tourists into and out of destinations and also the provision of transport services within the destination”.
The tourism infrastructure is responsible for the movement of tourists from the place of origin to the tourism destinations and also for providing them services within the tourism destination. A destination has to have ease of access, and easy means to move around socially if the destination country is geographically scattered [KhaOB], The developed countries are the major origin tourist generating regions (TGRs) These people are used to modern infrastructure that facilitates high quality of services. The tourists rather choose to maintain the same level of comfort while they travel. The tourism infrastructure consists of a variety of services provided for the comfort of tourists. Amongst all, there are three main types of infrastructure that are considered to be of significant importance to the tourists and affect their movement to the tourism destination. The first one relates to the public facilities which are the facilities and services that are to be provided for the benefit of public in general.
These services include access to public toilets, telephone booths, recreation, ATM machines, currency exchange, drinking fountain, rain shelters and other factors. This kind of infrastructure is usually shared between the tourists and the residents alike. It has been observed by Gunn [GunBB] that the facilities and services must be made available by the local government organisations for the benefit of tourists travelling to the destination, Whenever the tourist visits the tourist places such as museums, monuments, heritage buildings, local markets and while travelling, these public facilities provide the much needed comfort. The next element of the tourism infrastructure is the accessibility. This is of high importance as it involves the movement of tourists from one place to another. Oppenheim [OppBS] expresses that the transportation is the essence of destination accessibility.
There is a direct relation between accessibility and transport means for a tourist destination. Prideaux [PriOO] notes that “the relationship between long—haul transport, such as aviation, and tourism is well understood, but the relationship at the destination level is less clear”. The general assumption is that the majority of population will take the shortest possible route or the most-efficient route to the destination [Mey84]. Rurco, Stumbo and Garnarcz have observed that gruelling public transport acts as a barrier in promoting tourism of an area, On the other hand, Page [Pag94] asserts that only the “more adventurous tourists wish to travel on local public transport systems”. Lew [Lew06] divides the vehicles into automobiles which includes the rented vehicles, travel company transport which comprises of the organised travels, public transport services like buses, taxis, trains, trains and ferries and walking. These infrastructure facilities help lower the transport costs and make the travel easier.
Eventually helping increase the inflow of tourist to the area. The third element is the services and tourism products. There is incorporation of many other sectors and this enables the tourism industry to continuously grow. The supporting industries include package tours, the information centres, tour guides and travel publications. Smith [Smi94] asserts that the tourism services and products play an important role in enhancing the tourism experience. As veiled by Pookaiyaudom the tourists use these products and services during and after the trip, which give rise to higher tourist satisfaction. The other major factor affecting tourism in Nepal in its location. Nepal sits on the boundary of two massive tectonic plates — the Indo—Australian and Asian plates. There have been earthquake incidences all over the world where the tourism industry has been drastically affected.
The greatest natural disaster in 20‘“ century took place in Taiwan on September 21″, 1999, The earthquake juddered the island. The local economy was devastated There was catastrophic loss of life and property. This earthquake had a calamitous effect on the tourism industry since most of the natural sites and popular destinations were destroyed. The worst effect of the earthquake was on the Taiwanese tourism industry. The international tourism inflow decreased drastically. The post-earthquake rescue operations weakened the aspirations of people to travel to the region. The media played a negative role and misguided the international tourists that the earthquake had swamped the whole country and this eventually frightened the potential tourists as well [Hua02]r The number of tourists plunged by 27% post-earthquake The room occupancy rate of international tourists slumped by an average of 60% thanks to the international airline reservation cancellations.
The products in the tourism industry are perishable [Ath92], so the annulments of hotel rooms, airline seats, concert hall chairs, coaches, dining and banquet amongst other things caused a humungous forfeiture in tourism revenue. For the tourists to regain faith in Taiwan as a destination, the Tourism Bureau has embraced countermeasures to rejuvenate the tourism industry, On the other hand, tourism salvage from a natural disaster does not happen in a forthright It’s a process that takes quite a few years as the reconstruction and maintenance works are time-consuming. The crumbling tourism facilities have to be brought back into operations [Dur94]. Tourists will slow down if proper means and facilities of transport are not available [Tze98], and if the target destination is not accommodating to their demands, they will look for alternatives.
The earthquake in Turkey in 1999 and the one in Japan in 1995 also showed similar impacts on the tourism industry in the region. The Turkish government, enthusiastic to draw American guests back, promptly concentrated ahead its target market of North America. The messages of “Safety” and “Turkey, the centre of world history” were noticeably propelled through the link systems in New York and Los Angeles. The accomplishments of this campaign are strong. The figures from the Turkish tourism office confirm that the inflow of tourists from North America has drastically exceeded the pre-earthquake period. Conclusion Nepal is a landlocked country with most of its supplies coming from neighbouring countries. This literature review examines the problems faced by Nepal on a global context. Global warming has been affecting the tourism industry these days With most of the tourist attractions in Nepal being climate dependent, the rising temperature remains the most important threat to tourism in Nepal.
The country also lacks in tourism infrastructure which has been a point of concern for most tourists. The recent earthquakes in April 2015 have had a devastating effect on the already struggling country From this literature review we have observed how countries like Taiwan and [taly have been affected by earthquakes. Also, the efforts of Turkish Tourism Department to bring back the lost tourism revenue have been discussed Nepal has lotto learn from these cou ntries. Nepal has many other tourism related problems too, but it is important to resolve major problems before concentrating on the minor issues, In the next assignment we will use this literature review to solve the tourism related problems for Nepali.
