(By
CB Adhikari)
Kathmandu: The SAARC region has been the vital
tourism destination in the world due to incomparable natural diversity. The
highest peak of the world, Mt. Everest, among other 12 of the 14 high peaks is
in this region.
The combination of the land-locked
geography and islands has added additional attraction to the SAARC nations. The
natural beauty of land-locked countries Nepal and Bhutan and water-locked
Maldives and Sri Lanka is the major attraction for the tourists. The world is
attracted by the ranges of dazzling mountains, green hills and the breezy
seashores that are found in SAARC countries. It has been the matter of
attraction to the people of the world for making these their destinations for
pleasure and adventure.
Besides these, the adventurous
tourism, sports tourism and world renowned trekking routes are additional
sources of tourism attraction in this region.
The eight Asian nations, which are
full of natural heritages and are the origin of the orient civilization, has been the attraction to people from any
part of the world. Cultural diversities, incomparable natural resources,
cultural glories, mosque and temples of ancient art and has a archeological
importance, shrines and holy sites are the matter of additional attraction in
the SAARC.
The SAARC has so many features to
attract world due to age long civilization, prosperous cultural diversity,
exclusive culinary delights, vast geographical attractions, fascinating
heritage sites and above all the warm hospitality of people belonging to these
countries.
Numerous of natural heritages,
artificial physical structures, infrastructure development, air, train and road
networks become the other means to pull world's attention to the SAARC
countries.
From religious point of view the
SAARC nations are the mixture of one of the four major religions Hinduism,
Buddhism, Islam and Christianity. The origin of Hindu and Buddhist
civilizations is the SAARC region while there are some countries with majority
of Islam. The Christian followers also have a large population in this region.
Thus, SAARC region has religious and social harmony.
SAARC
region is a very important place for Hindu and Buddhist religions.
Pashupatinath Temple, Lumbini Swayambhu, Bouddhanath, Manakamana, Janaki
temple, Devghat of Nepal and Kashi, Gaya, Badri, Kedar, Ayodhya, Rameshwaram
are popular among the Hindus as well as Buddhist and people following other
religions.
Lumbini is famous for Lord Buddha was born
here. Kashi, Gaya, Rameshwaram,
Badrinath, Kedarnath are some popular religious tourism sites in Nepal and
India.
Similarly, Buddhists in Sri Lanka
give highest regard to the Temple of Tooth and visited by hundreds of
pilgrimage every day. The shrine holds the tooth relic of Lord Buddha.
The dazzling high mountains, hills
and forests, lakes, fountains, big plains are further means of attraction in
the region. Nepal, Sri Lanka and India have forwarded a plan for the common
package of constructing Buddhist, Hindu circuit to attract the tourists from
the third countries.
Dhaka, Musigunj, Narayangunj of
Bangladesh and Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Darjaling, Sikkim, Goa, Nainital of
India and Ishlamabad, Lahore, Karanchi, Sindha of Pakistan are famous tourism
sites due to their natural, historical and archeological importance.
Colombo, Anuradhapura, Candy Nuwara
of Sri Lanka draw thousands of tourists daily. Thimpu, Gangtey Valley Tiger’s Nest Monastery Punakha Dzong, and Zuri Dzong Hike
among others are famous for tourism in Bhutan.
The valley of Gangtey is one of the
most stunning valleys in the Himalayas, and many call it the Shangri La of
Bhutan, just as how Bhutan is well known for being “one of the world’s happiest
nations,” and “the last Shangri La on Earth.” The surprise of finding such a
wide, flat valley without any trees after the hard climb through dense forests
is augmented by an impression of vast space, which is an extremely rare
experience in Bhutan as most of the valleys are tightly enclosed.
According to United Nations report
around 1.09 billion people visited various countries in 2013 against 25 million
in 1950. It is estimated that the world tourist would be 1.87 billion by 2030.
The world tourism has a contribution
of nine percent in the world gross development production. The world tourism has made a transaction of 11.6 trillion US
Dollar. Around 563 million tourists reached in Europe in 2013 while it was 248
million in Asia and Pacific regions.
Similarly, 167 million tourists
visited USA, 55 million in 2013 visited Africa and 51 million in the middle
east and 15 million tourists visited south Asia in 2013. It is reported that
tourists arrival in Asia get increased by five percent every year.
Nepal
Tourism Board Report-2013 stated that around 800,000 tourists visit various
tourism destinations last year. Of them, 180,000 were Indian tourists. Mainly
Indian people visit Nepal for religious purposes.
The report stated that the number of
tourists coming to SAARC from third countries was increasing of late. In 2013
alone, around 80 million tourists visited India, 1.2 in Sri Lanka and the
lowest 100,000 tourists visited Maldives, the country of Islands.
The
second SAARC Summit held in Banglore of India in 1986 mentioned the importance
of promoting tourism in the SAARC region and stressed on the need of
establishing public relations.
Later in the 11th SAARC Summit, it
was further explained and stressed the infrastructure development, air service
extension, simplification of the administrative system, training, and joint
campaign for tourism. It was further highlighted in the 12th SAARC Summit to
make the dream a success.
The tourism development in the SAARC
region could not be accelerated when the commitment and decisions made in
different summits were not brought to effective implementation. Lack of direct
air services among all SAARC countries, enough development of road network,
among other reasons have been the obstacles to increase tourism activities in
within the SAARC region.
The 18th SAARC summit is going to be
held in Kathmandu on November 26 and 27 is expected to be important in tourism
promotion of Nepal and whole SAARC region.
Nepal should change the opportunity
to action by exhibiting the local products, demonstration of Nepali arts and
cultural things that carry the cultural and archeological importance. Other
member countries also need to promote their art and culture for the prosperity
of the SAARC region. RSS
