Nepal may have got record number of visitors during Nepal Tourism Year 2011, but the quality of their experience in general has suffered from harassments by touts, to theft and muggings.
Nepalis have been exhorted to treat tourists like "gods", but the reality seems to be far from it. A random sampling of visitors to Nepal shows that although most tourists admire the country and the people and say they enjoyed their stay, many were put off by the garbage, pollution, cheating and harassment.
The total visitors to Nepal last year was 735,932, less than the targeted 1 million, but a 22 per cent jump from 2010. The police said they reported 307 cases of theft of tourists in one year, but admit many cases of harassment and theft go unreported.
American student Calin Kearns was almost mugged outside Boudha recently, but managed to fend off her attackers with a pocket knife. "Perhaps my attacker also realised that I was twice his size and he ran off without looking back," Kearns told us.
Sexual harassment of both the verbal or physical kinds plague female tourists. Australian Morgaine van Wingerden says her worst experience was being groped in a crowded market one morning. "I couldn't tell who did it," she says, "there seems to be a notion that tourists are available or that they have lots of money to spend."
The Tourist Police, however, say that they only had one reported case of sexual harassment last year. Inspector Chini Maya Tamang of the Tourist Police says most of the complaints are thefts, and her job is to liaise between the victim and the local police regarding paperwork for insurance claims. "We treat both tourists and civilian cases with the same legalities in cases of sexual harassment and cases are handed over to the local police if investigation is needed," said Tamang.
Although embassy websites and tourism guidebooks warn visitors about being aware of the situation, visitors say their most important source of information are chat sites and blogging sites where individual trekkers and tourists post their personal experiences.
Asked what the government and Nepal Tourism Board could do, most visitors say they still feel much safer in Nepal than in most countries in the region, but making tourism a part of the school curriculum to teach students that a foreigner is not just "white", that they are not always "rich" and that they are not sexually promiscuous would be a first step.
While the horror stories about what some tourists have to endure in India still makes Nepal sound better, tourism experts say, rising urban poverty, joblessness and impunity could worsen the security situation in Nepal as well. Despite her incident, van Wingerden says she is coming back to Nepal soon. She says: "Whatever problems I faced here, people always came forward to help me. At the end of the day, it always works out in Nepal."
TOURIST TIPS • Leave valuables at your hotel's safety box • Try not to look lost even if you are • Dress generic • Try to be less conspicuous • A smattering of Nepali language will help • Beware of backpack slashers • It's tough, but avoid crowded places • Learn Nepali numericals and memorise taxi numbers • Exchange money only at authorised centres
