From: www.sukulgunda.com
The Nepali Traveler
I bet you didn't know, but now you know that we do have the National Statistics Office and they have come out with a ground-breaking Internal Tourism Survey telling us that we Nepalis spend a mind-boggling Rs 459 billion on travel in a year. Well, if you convert it to USD, then it's almost 3 billion dollars per year.
It seems that we all whine about our economy going to hell, yet we seem to have cash on hand for holidays. We could fund our own NASA with that money, maybe.
According to the survey, overnight trips swallowed Rs 304 billion and single-day ramailo escapes drained another Rs 91billion.
The funny thing is that most of us claim to be broke but then have enough dough to book a Scorpio to Pokhara. But let's look at the bright side, despite our problems, we refuse to be confined to a corner, and we seem to bring some life right back into our own economy, one ride at a time.
But here comes the ironic part, where the biggest expenses for so-called domestic travel aren't for paragliding or luxury resorts but for medical treatment. Our folks spent 31.78% of the money on medical treatment. It seems that our ultimate Nepali holiday involves running across provinces to find better doctors. Shopping comes second with 26%
According to the survey, 300,000 Nepalis went abroad, not that far but across the border to India for their ultimate 'day-trip'. 7,000 did not come the same day because they had to find jobs there, but cross-border shopping seems like a competitive sport for us.
The day-trip travelers spent 70% of their dough shopping in India, while those who had more money to take international trips spent 40% for shopping and around 20% for religious pilgrimages. I guess nothing balances the sin of hyper consumerism with praying for forgiveness at a holy shrine somewhere.
And the report tells us that more than 52% of Nepali households spent their leisure time participating in at least one tourism activity during the year. So half the country ventured out of their living rooms while those who stayed home watched the other half post reels and Facebook stories from Chitwan.
It is funny that domestic tourism helps inject almost a billion dollars straight into our GDP, proving once again that we are keeping the country afloat far better than so-called foreign aid and grants or even foreign tourists who spend half that amount yearly.
And our Gen Zs lead the pack with nearly a third of them traveling across the country, followed by the Gen X and Y. They are traveling to Kathmandu, Chitwan, and Kaski, with Kaski leading the spot for pure leisure and vacation. Yes, Pokhara is in Kaski and all path to ABC or Mustang begins from there.
The report finds business travelers busy as hell with seven travels a year, while the average fun traveler made 3 trips somewhere in the country. It is a good feeling that the young ones are traveling often to remote places, while their parents never dared to venture from Ason to Kirtipur.
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