Most visitors to Lumbini spend 30min
sightseeing
Madhav Dhungana, BHAIRAHAWA 06-05-2016 kathmandu
Post
The
average length of stay of foreign tourists in Nepal is 12 days, but
most travellers visiting Lumbini barely last 30 minutes at the holy
site.
A survey entitled Visitors
Survey and Observation has revealed that 72.6 percent of the
visitors spent only half an hour sightseeing in Lumbini, the
birthplace of the Buddha in southern Nepal which is being developed
as an international pilgrimage.
“The length of stay of
visitors in Lumbini is very poor because there are no activities to
make them want to stay longer,” said Saroj Bhattarai, chief
engineer of the Lumbini Development Trust.
The study was conducted
among 293 tour groups by Unesco’s Japanese Funds-in-Trust Project
in January 2013. It also showed that 21.8 percent of the visitors
spent less than an hour, and 5.5 percent passed more than an hour
in Lumbini. In 2014, Lumbini received 1.12 million visitors. The
figure also includes Nepali visitors who make up a large share of
the arrivals. A majority of the foreign tourists visiting Lumbini
are handled by Indian tour operators. They enter Lumbini overland
from across the Indian border, and spend a few minutes looking
around and taking pictures.
“The government and the
private sector have failed to develop packages to attract visitors
and prompt them to stay longer,” said Bhattarai.
Travel trade entrepreneurs said that the government’s regular
promotional programmes held in different parts of the country had
also not brought productive results.
Millions of rupees are spent on promotional activities annually but
without outcomes. In 2012, the government had organized Visit
Lumbini Year in a bid to increase visitor numbers and length of
stay, but it was not successful, they said.
“Lack of promotional materials, transport facilities, tour packages
developed by Nepali operators and infrastructure are the major
reasons why tourists do not spend more time and money in Lumbini,”
said Chandra Prakash Shrestha, president of the Siddhartha Hotel
Association. He added that if a regular ‘puja’ was organized on the
2-km-long canal at Lumbini every evening, it would encourage
visitors to stay and participate in it. “Likewise, cultural
programmes and drama performances could be other attractions in
Lumbini to make them stay longer.” There are many places in Lumbini
Sacred Garden where activities to attract tourists can be
held.
Only the Lumbini Development Trust should not be blamed for failing
to encourage visitors to stay longer, said Ajit Man Tamang, member
secretary of the trust.
“The government, Nepal Tourism Board and the trust are equally
responsible. We have not been able to develop quality road
infrastructure linking all the potential tourist sites,” he said.
If good infrastructure is developed, visitors can be encouraged to
stay in Lumbini for at least two days, Tamang added.
Travel trade entrepreneurs said that visitors normally enter
Lumbini after completing their tour of the other key Buddhist sites
of Kushinagar, Sarnath and Bodhgaya in India. “Nepal has not been
able to develop the Buddhist Circuit,” they said.