In terms of origin, it is estimated that 31.9 percent came from Western Europe, 7.
7 percent
from North America, 3.1 percent from Australia and the Pacific, 1.9 percent from Eastern
Europe, 1.0 percent from Central and South America, and 0.4 percent from Africa during the
period between mid-December 2002 and mid-December 2003. Tourists from Asia shared
54.0 percent including 24 .0 percent from India alone.
There are a total of 108 Star category hotels in the Kingdom, 4 of them added during mid-
December, 2002 through mid-December 2003. Nonstar hotels totaled 858 including 19 added
during this period. Number of beds in the Star-level hotels increased by 2.4 percent and by 1.5
percent in non-star hotels. The total number of beds in the star and non-star level have reached
10,535 beds and 27,735 beds respectively. There was 2.4 percent increase in the number of
hotels and the number of beds increased by 1.7 percent during the review period.
The year 2004 has been a year with ups and downs for Nepal. The first eight months of 2004
showed a continuous growth in visitors’ arriving to Nepal. The first quarter in particular grew
by 50% where as the second quarter went up by 25%. Nevertheless, visitors arriving to Nepal
by air in 2004 reached a total figure of 288,356, showing an increase by 9% compared to last
year, 2003. Year 2005 is expected to perform easy double-digit growth in the light of increasing
travellers confidence to Nepal and increasing air links and subsequently bolstered promotional
effort in the major tourism generating countries with special regional tourism promotion campaigns.
4.2 IMPACTS OF TOURISM
Tourism has been regarded as a smokeless industry and the most fruitful industry in the world.
No coin has a single face. Tourism have both positive and negative impacts . “Tourism is a goose
that lays golden eggs, but it can also foul its nest.” (Gurung and DeCoursey 1994), a phrase
widely used to explain the present state of tourism in Nepal. “The Himalaya are the highest
rubbish dumping sites on the earth,” “Trekking is wrecking,” and “Good-by to Shangri-La,” are
some of the examples of catchy headlines that have appeared in national and international
media which have linked tourism to pollution and deforestation problems in Kathmandu and
Pokhara valleys, the Everest, Langtang, Chitwan and Annapurna regions. Tourism is the largest
industry in the world and is of economic importance to developing countries in providing
employment opportunities, increased quality of life, education opportunities, improvements in
infrastructure and promote development and economic growth (Khan 1997:989). However, in
recent years, tourism’s contribution to environmental the improvement of living conditions,
employment generation for less educated and less-skilled people, has been recognized. The
positive and negative aspects of tourism is given below:
Positive Impacts:
Economy: The role of tourism as an important source of foreign exchange has been well
established the world over. “Tourism has reshaped the economy of some of the countries like
Japan, Hong Kong, Spain, Italy, Mauritius, Yugoslavia, France and so on” (Negi, 1990: 80). “Newly
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CHAPTER 3 : CONTRIBUTIONS AND IMPACTS OF TOURISM 40
