Accessible tourism for all: The new mantra in Nepal

For people with dis­ab­il­it­ies Nepal was once a des­tin­a­tion to avoid. This has changed. And quickly. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Pankaj Pra­dhananga shares how Nepal’s repu­ta­tion as an access­ible and inclus­ive des­tin­a­tion has rap­idly ascen­ded.

In the first epis­ode of my talk show ‘Bey­ond Lim­its’, Jezza Wil­li­ams from New Zea­l­and shared his exper­i­ence explor­ing Nepal as a per­son with a dis­ab­il­ity. When he was asked about the inclus­ive­ness of Nepal, it was quite sur­pris­ing and pleas­ing to hear him say that Kathmandu’s inclus­iv­ity was not just lim­ited to access­ib­il­ity but was also about hos­pit­al­ity. He fondly remin­isced of the time when the loc­als of Kath­mandu enthu­si­ast­ic­ally helped him delve into each and every nook of the city. 

“Kath­mandu is the most inclus­ive city I have ever been to,” Jezza asserted.

Gen­er­ally speak­ing, Nepal is per­ceived to be a des­tin­a­tion for adven­ture seekers and allo­centric trav­el­lers (“allo­centric” as defined for use in travel & tour­ism by Stan­ley Plog in his ‘Psy­cho­graph­ic Mod­el’). How­ever, a good num­ber of trav­el­lers have found Nepal abso­lutely stun­ning not only in terms of its nat­ur­al beauty and unmatched hos­pit­al­ity, but also for its spir­it of break­ing bar­ri­ers and pro­mot­ing access­ible tourism.

The late Dr Scott Rains — Amer­ic­an travel writer, con­sult­ant, and advoc­ate for people with dis­ab­il­it­ies — is an indis­pens­able name in the evol­u­tion of Nepal as an access­ible des­tin­a­tion. Though Dr Rains was not the first trav­el­ler with a dis­ab­il­ity to explore Nepal, his trip in 2014 paved the way for many others. 

At the invit­a­tion of the com­pany I rep­res­ent, Four Sea­son Travel & Tours, Dr Rains came to Nepal and made a pro­found impact when he rolled his wheel­chair to and through places very few trav­el­lers in wheel­chairs had ever been. He did not just demon­strate to us the mar­ket oppor­tun­ity in the untapped and grow­ing seg­ment, he also made the Nepalese tour­ism sec­tor believe that it had the spir­it of hos­pit­al­ity needed to serve the seg­ment with heart. 

Dr Rains was instru­ment­al in help­ing con­nect the tour­ism sec­tor of Nepal with the act­ive lead­ers of loc­al dis­abled people organ­isa­tions (DPOs). These links enabled the neces­sary know­ledge-shar­ing, cooper­a­tion, syn­ergy, and camarader­ie to make change. Access­ible tour­ism, while cer­tainly the right thing to do, is not easy!

When the world saw the amaz­ing pic­tures of Dr Rains rel­ish­ing a vari­ety of adven­tures in Nepal, it ignited interest among many people with dis­ab­il­it­ies in Nepal and abroad. Trav­el­lers who had earli­er dis­missed Nepal now star­ted ask­ing: “Why not?” Need­less to say, since those days, many more dif­fer­ently-abled trav­el­lers have made it to Nepal — seni­or cit­izens, slow walk­ers, visu­ally impaired, blind, amputees, hard of hear­ing, and quad­ri­ple­gic trav­el­lers — intrigued by cen­tur­ies-old cul­ture, stun­ning nat­ur­al land­scapes and wild­life, the breath of crisp Him­alay­an air, and a sense of per­son­al fulfillment. 

In Novem­ber 2019, a group of Nepali travel enthu­si­asts with dis­ab­il­it­ies got togeth­er and explored Patan city, a UNESCO World Her­it­age site. This was organ­ised in the fond memory of Dr Rains on his birth­day. Loc­al cul­tur­al experts volun­teered to show off the best kept secrets of the city’s pre­dom­in­antly Buddhist pop­u­la­tion. Loc­al busi­nesses sponsored break­fast. And the loc­al author­ity went out of its way to build a tem­por­ary ramp to allow wheel­chairs access to the Mul chowk (court­yard) of the Roy­al Palace for the first time. The event sent a clear mes­sage to Nepal and the world that tour­ism is good for soci­ety when it is prac­ticed with the man­tra of inclu­sion: ‘Tour­ism for all’.

Now, in 2020, the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has brought the inter­na­tion­al travel & tour­ism busi­ness down to ground zero. Hun­dreds of thou­sands of small- to medi­um-sized enter­prises world­wide have been ordered to close. An unpre­ced­en­ted drop in tour­ism-related employ­ment may become the new norm. And the pre-COV­ID fore­cast for 2020 travel & tour­ism rev­en­ues in excess of USD 2.1 tril­lion (WTTC, 2020), rep­res­ent­ing jobs and dreams in the 100s of mil­lion, is now but a tease for what might have been.

But it is always darkest before the dawn. As des­tin­a­tions are again open­ing up with cau­tion, the safety and good health of trav­el­lers will be the para­mount con­cern for the host soci­ety, loc­al DMCs, and inter­na­tion­al tour oper­at­ors. As we open up to trav­el­lers again, it is import­ant not just to restart tour­ism but also to rein­vent it with a focus on a more sus­tain­able and more access­ible tourism. 

Nepal star­ted wel­com­ing inter­na­tion­al trav­el­lers for climb­ing exped­i­tions and trekking — with entry pro­to­cols — from Octo­ber 17. The des­tin­a­tion is ideal for post-pan­dem­ic travel with its wide-open out­door spaces and nat­ur­al, cul­tur­al, and spir­itu­al exper­i­ences. In terms of access­ib­il­ity and uni­ver­sal design com­pli­ance in its hotels, pub­lic places, and monu­ments, Nepal is still very much a work in pro­gress. How­ever, the spir­it of hos­pit­al­ity is freely flow­ing across the nation. And it makes trav­el­lers for­get the lack of ramps and access­ible accom­mod­a­tion out­side Kath­mandu valley. 

I am sure Nepal will evolve very quickly to become an inclus­ive and access­ible des­tin­a­tion — with even more resi­li­ence than before — that will cater to the thrill of trav­el­ling for all. Who knows? On your next vis­it to Nepal, you may see Jezza paraglide by as you take in a breath­tak­ing view of Annapurna … Namaste!

What do you think? Share a short anec­dote or com­ment below. Or write a deep­er “GT” Insight. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

Fea­tured image (top of post): The author, Pankaj Pra­dhananga, pushes a wheel­chair. © Four Sea­son Travel & Tours

About the author

Pankaj Pra­dhananga is an exper­i­enced pro­fes­sion­al with more than two dec­ades of exper­i­ence in the adven­ture and tour­ism indus­tries. As dir­ect­or of Kath­mandu-based Four Sea­son Travel & Tours, Pankaj pion­eered access­ible tour­ism in Nepal for trav­el­lers with dis­ab­il­it­ies. To that end he has built part­ner­ships with inter­na­tion­al insti­tu­tions, policy makers, loc­al gov­ern­ments, and the private sector. 

Pankaj is also a con­sult­ant / train­er for Wash­ing­ton DC-based Inter­na­tion­al Devel­op­ment Insti­tute and a fac­ulty mem­ber at ACE Insti­tute of Man­age­ment in Kath­mandu. He has spoken in vari­ous work­shops and con­fer­ences on access­ib­il­ity, inclu­sion, and resi­li­ence in Nepal, Europe and the USA, and led train­ing pro­grams on pub­lic speak­ing, lead­er­ship, and per­son­al development.

Pankaj is the charter pres­id­ent of the Tour­ism Toast­mas­ters Club in Nepal. He holds a MBA from Kath­mandu Uni­ver­sity School of Management.