How Nepal Tourism Could Achieve a Broader Purpose

One of the pleasures of attending the PATA Travel Mart 2024 in Bangkok between Aug 27-29 was the opportunity to catch up with PATA veterans, whose numbers sadly are dwindling. One of them was PATA Vice Chairman Suman Pandey, President, of Explore Himalaya Travel & Adventure.

In a reversal of roles, Mr Pandey interviewed me about the future of PATA and opportunities to market Nepal as a tourism destination. “You are a long-time travel journalist,” he said. “We respect your views.”

Having visited Nepal off and on since attending my first PATA Adventure Travel Conference and Mart in Kathmandu in 1983, I shared a few thoughts.

Marketing Nepal is easy, I told him. The landlocked nation has two unmatched competitive advantages: 1) home to Lumbini, the birthplace of the Lord Buddha; and 2) home to Mt Everest, the world’s highest mountain.

However, I stressed, that the marketing pitch must have a different sense of purpose.

Worldwide, confusion, chaos, arrogance, pride, egotism, and leadership failure are rising.

External and Internal Peace Indices are falling.

A visit to Lumbini and Mt Everest is a perfect salve. Why?

At Lumbini, visitors can jettison their tech baggage and immerse themselves in the Buddhist precepts of tolerance, patience, moderation, selflessness, frugality and the power of impermanence — all essential steps towards attaining Humility and Enlightenment.

Then, in the foothills of the colossal Mount Everest and the stupendous Himalayas, they can meditate on the fact that regardless of their wealth, power and influence, they are nothing but inconsequential, impermanent specks in the midst of those magnificent creations of God.

Also a truly Humbling and Enlightening experience.

A perfect combination for a new marketing slogan: “Nepal. Be Humbled. Leave Enlightened.”

Thus fulfilled, visitors then can walk the talk.

Nepal has a population of 30 million, of whom about 20% live in poverty-stricken villages across the landlocked country.

Try adopting a village, as suggested many decades ago by Sir Edmund Hillary who, along with the Nepalese sherpa Tenzing Norgay, were the first mountaineers to ascend Mt Everest.

Cash-rich, stressed-out stockbrokers, IT gurus, bankers and investors should have no problems funding an upgrade in the village water, sanitation, education, security and health infrastructure.

It will certainly tally with the principles of charity and compassion espoused by all faiths and ways of life, atheism included.

All that will create income, jobs, GDP growth and distribution, thus meeting all the measurement criteria of a “visitor economy”.

But far more importantly, visitors will learn to live in peace with themselves and their environment.

That, hopefully, will translate into lowered levels of confusion, chaos, arrogance, pride and egotism in their companies, families and communities.

Unmatched achievements, offered only by Nepal.

I am fortunate to have both visited Lumbini and basked in the majestic grandeur of the foothills of Mt Everest.

Interestingly, it was only after the interview was over that I noticed Mr Suman Pandey and I were standing directly in front of posters of both sites.