By Dhruba Rai
Around the world, tourism has developed in two ways viz. integrated and enclave development. When tourism is promoted by former concept of development, necessary infrastructures are developed in advance. Tourism grows along with all other developmental aspects simultaneously. Basic infrastructures like roads, electricity, communication facilities and the likes are built that propels a country's development. This type of tourism is a part of a planned development. Tourism entrepreneurs do little about the constructing infrastructures, and generally match their activities with the existing facilities. Especially, local entrepreneurs invest on accommodations and event activities. The aggregate domestic investment is greater than the foreign investment. For this reason, there is a greater acceptance of such a development by the local peoples. Likewise, the latter concept supports the idea of establishing primarily a fully contained accommodation facility with private investments possibly in the form of joint ventures in a potential tourist area. Everything is arranged and managed by the investors with little disturbance from the host communities. This is because such set-ups are established in remote and barren lands where there are less human settlements, but rich with tourism attractions. It sounds like a kind of isolated development. However, it should not be so in the long run. The self-contained resort complex caters all the needs of tourists who arrive as part of a tour package. And, subsequently developing the tourism activities and supporting infrastructure. In some cases, there may be a private investment in infrastructures as well. However, the degree of involvement with local communities is increasing, and to avoid misunderstanding between the resort operators and local communities they amicably enter into an agreement allowing their respective interests to be fulfilled. This helps increase the economic activities of local communities much faster than its usual way. Local communities get a market for their production and employment opportunities while resort operators can operate without any local disturbance, and tourists get the first hand experiences.
Many world famous tourism destinations such as, Bali of Indonesia, east-coast of Malaysia and Australian coastal area have followed the both types of tourism developments. Often, people assume tourism as an integrated tourism development where they argue that if tourism to develop there must be the basic infrastructures made available by the government of a country. Then only tourism can develop with its full scale. They might be right, but look at the other side as well. Those who would like to take risks can not stay behind and wait all that happenings rather they themselves plunge into action. It is difficult, but not impossible, and it may be risky, but it is also rewarding. If they make sufficient basic investment, they can enjoy the monopoly over others. This type of tourism development can benefit developing countries because normally the usual development process is very slow.
In Nepalese context, we find tourism developed as an enclave development. The year 1953 is a milestone in the history of Nepalese tourism. When Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hilary scaled Mt. Everest successfully in 29 May 1953, Nepal received immense publicity around the world. Though, the publicity attracted a lot of adventure lovers they were not allowed to enter into Nepal as tourists before 1955. Tourism age began only when the tourist visa opened in 1955, and gradually the number of tourists increased. The first recorded tourists in Nepal were 10 Americans and 2 Brazilian visitors sent by Thomas Cook & Son to Royal Hotel in Kathmandu. The Royal hotel was the first ever tourist standard hotel in Nepal that had been established by Mr. Boris a pioneer hotelier. Likewise, "Hotel Everest View" opened formally in 1973. The stories we read in books and magazine written by veterans tell us that in those times opening a hotel was as difficult as climbing Mt. Everest. Porters carried all building materials and supplies of the hotel on their backs. Air service was limited. There was no roads, electricity, airstrips etc. It was almost ground zero. In those times, the facilities were not intended to local communities, but exclusively to the tourists. And, that was an enclave tourism development. More importantly our geographical situation supports this type of tourism development, and still we have a lot of prospect in this type of tourism. Many star-rated resorts have been established in various parts of the country. They particularly cater services to only tourists.
We have many beautiful tourist destinations within the country, which are not used as a tourist destination, and in some cases they are not explored yet. There may be many factors contributing to it, but mainly the problem of accessibility is attributed to it, followed by accommodations and supplies. Rara National Park, Khaptad National Park, Dolpo areas are some of the destinations where it is still very difficult to send tourists. For the first time, the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) is promoting five new tourist destinations - Antu Dada, Basantpur - Terathum, Dhanushadham, Palpa and Khaptad as its product diversification program. It is obvious that in some of the destinations tourism develops only through the enclave development, requiring huge private investments and participation. The NTB's role is very limited in terms of constructing infrastructures, but definitely has a strong role in promoting these destinations.
There may be a long list for and against of each of these types of tourism developments. But, the important thing is to get the tourism benefits from either ways. It may seem contradictory at first, but rather both of these are complimentary with each other. These can coexist simply because they have different client groups. There is no doubt that tourism can not be developed in isolation in one hand and on the other hand when we want fast growth we have to be selective.
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Around the world, tourism has developed in two ways viz. integrated and enclave development. When tourism is promoted by former concept of development, necessary infrastructures are developed in advance. Tourism grows along with all other developmental aspects simultaneously. Basic infrastructures like roads, electricity, communication facilities and the likes are built that propels a country's development. This type of tourism is a part of a planned development. Tourism entrepreneurs do little about the constructing infrastructures, and generally match their activities with the existing facilities. Especially, local entrepreneurs invest on accommodations and event activities. The aggregate domestic investment is greater than the foreign investment. For this reason, there is a greater acceptance of such a development by the local peoples. Likewise, the latter concept supports the idea of establishing primarily a fully contained accommodation facility with private investments possibly in the form of joint ventures in a potential tourist area. Everything is arranged and managed by the investors with little disturbance from the host communities. This is because such set-ups are established in remote and barren lands where there are less human settlements, but rich with tourism attractions. It sounds like a kind of isolated development. However, it should not be so in the long run. The self-contained resort complex caters all the needs of tourists who arrive as part of a tour package. And, subsequently developing the tourism activities and supporting infrastructure. In some cases, there may be a private investment in infrastructures as well. However, the degree of involvement with local communities is increasing, and to avoid misunderstanding between the resort operators and local communities they amicably enter into an agreement allowing their respective interests to be fulfilled. This helps increase the economic activities of local communities much faster than its usual way. Local communities get a market for their production and employment opportunities while resort operators can operate without any local disturbance, and tourists get the first hand experiences.
Many world famous tourism destinations such as, Bali of Indonesia, east-coast of Malaysia and Australian coastal area have followed the both types of tourism developments. Often, people assume tourism as an integrated tourism development where they argue that if tourism to develop there must be the basic infrastructures made available by the government of a country. Then only tourism can develop with its full scale. They might be right, but look at the other side as well. Those who would like to take risks can not stay behind and wait all that happenings rather they themselves plunge into action. It is difficult, but not impossible, and it may be risky, but it is also rewarding. If they make sufficient basic investment, they can enjoy the monopoly over others. This type of tourism development can benefit developing countries because normally the usual development process is very slow.
In Nepalese context, we find tourism developed as an enclave development. The year 1953 is a milestone in the history of Nepalese tourism. When Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hilary scaled Mt. Everest successfully in 29 May 1953, Nepal received immense publicity around the world. Though, the publicity attracted a lot of adventure lovers they were not allowed to enter into Nepal as tourists before 1955. Tourism age began only when the tourist visa opened in 1955, and gradually the number of tourists increased. The first recorded tourists in Nepal were 10 Americans and 2 Brazilian visitors sent by Thomas Cook & Son to Royal Hotel in Kathmandu. The Royal hotel was the first ever tourist standard hotel in Nepal that had been established by Mr. Boris a pioneer hotelier. Likewise, "Hotel Everest View" opened formally in 1973. The stories we read in books and magazine written by veterans tell us that in those times opening a hotel was as difficult as climbing Mt. Everest. Porters carried all building materials and supplies of the hotel on their backs. Air service was limited. There was no roads, electricity, airstrips etc. It was almost ground zero. In those times, the facilities were not intended to local communities, but exclusively to the tourists. And, that was an enclave tourism development. More importantly our geographical situation supports this type of tourism development, and still we have a lot of prospect in this type of tourism. Many star-rated resorts have been established in various parts of the country. They particularly cater services to only tourists.
We have many beautiful tourist destinations within the country, which are not used as a tourist destination, and in some cases they are not explored yet. There may be many factors contributing to it, but mainly the problem of accessibility is attributed to it, followed by accommodations and supplies. Rara National Park, Khaptad National Park, Dolpo areas are some of the destinations where it is still very difficult to send tourists. For the first time, the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) is promoting five new tourist destinations - Antu Dada, Basantpur - Terathum, Dhanushadham, Palpa and Khaptad as its product diversification program. It is obvious that in some of the destinations tourism develops only through the enclave development, requiring huge private investments and participation. The NTB's role is very limited in terms of constructing infrastructures, but definitely has a strong role in promoting these destinations.
There may be a long list for and against of each of these types of tourism developments. But, the important thing is to get the tourism benefits from either ways. It may seem contradictory at first, but rather both of these are complimentary with each other. These can coexist simply because they have different client groups. There is no doubt that tourism can not be developed in isolation in one hand and on the other hand when we want fast growth we have to be selective.
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