NEPAL reopening for tourists
After nearly two years of nearly zero tourist arrivals and revenue, Nepal looks set to welcome international tourists again after the government on Thursday introduced revised immigration entry protocols. No quarantine for fully vaccinated, visa on arrival to revive tourism income and jobs.
Tourists fully vaccinated against Covid, with the second dose 14 days before the date of travel, will no longer have to quarantine after landing in Kathmandu and can get visas on arrival. Earlier, they had to get visas from Nepal’s missions abroad and quarantine for seven days at a hotel in Kathmandu at their own expense.
Partially vaccinated and unvaccinated visitors will have to obtain visas from Nepal’s embassies in their home countries or elsewhere, and will still have to spend 10 days in a government-approved hotel in Kathmandu and get a PCR negative test before they go out and about.
Nepal’s tourism industry had been lobbying strongly with the government to ease restrictions as the caseload and fatalities in Kathmandu drop, and the vaccination rate goes up in countries from where most visitors come to Nepal. They argued that millions of jobs were at stake, investors were defaulting on loans for hotels, airlines and restaurants and the government was losing the $800 million it used to earn a year from tourism prior to the pandemic.
Source: Nepaltimes.com