Hotels and restaurants resume services

KATHMANDU: Hotels and restaurants closed for the past four months due to lockdown have resumed  their business from today.

The government had decided to resume the hotel business from July 30 after the four-month lockdown.

Offices related to trekking, travel and mountaineering are coming into operation in view of tourism season.

The tourism entrepreneurs plan to take the business ahead by following the health protocol with new enthusiasm after the end of lockdown.

First Vice-Chairperson of Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN), Binayak Shah, said that there is still dilemma about the different matters whether the foreign tourists visiting Nepal has to stay in quarantine.

There is still slim chance of foreign tourists visiting Nepal any time soon. Tourism entrepreneurs said that they are ready to welcome tourists.

They said that they would be able to uplift their business to some extent, pinning their hopes on domestic tourists though it would take some time to return the business in its previous situation. Hotel entrepreneurs are making plan to bring only 10 per cent service of the full capacity of their business into operation in the initial phase.

Hotel entrepreneurs shared that they have resumed their business only with an intention to create environment conducive to run business rather than making profit. The government has decided to resume domestic and international flights from August 17.

Likewise, the hotel and restaurants in Daman areas have come into operation from today. The hotel and restaurants that were halted for about four months have resumed gradually.

According to Thaha Hotel Association chair Shiva Kumar Khatri, the hotels and restaurants in Daman, Chitlang, Palung and Tistung are resumed recently as they were closed due to COVID-19 outbreak.

He added that the hotels and restaurants associated with the Association were decided to resume from today. Though the hotels and restaurants were resumed, they were not seeing the flow of visitors in these touristic areas as long-route public vehicles were not operated yet.