State of Tourism Security in Pokhara Valley

Abstract

Background of Study - Tourism pretends to be apolitical rather it does have the impact in political understanding. Being in the tourism industry, host as well as travelers are earning and learning at the same time. Travelers travel with their own cultural belief and dollars in their pocket, hosts serves them. This is the process followed in tourism. Host community is representing the whole nation and tries to protect the national image. Travelers never talk negative about the place visited unless they have physical as well as psychological threat. This research is based on primary requirement of proper security that tourism needed as basic for its development. That is why, being a scholar, researcher wanted to find out the relationship between security and tourism. To find the relationship between them focus was given to understand the two term individually. Before the research, the general observation of the global scenario have stroked like, why newly identified destination were the super successful and why older destination such as Nepal, especially Pokhara is not able to grow as potential as it is. Objective of the Study- Understanding the background, its relationship with future became a goal, consequently leaded the researcher to find out the state of tourism security in Pokhara valley. It could be beneficial not only for now but for the future development too. For this reason, understanding the current situation, what needed to be developed were the prime focus of this research. Research Methodology - To gather the necessary data, purposively entrepreneurs were identified as the respondent. As it is needed to identify the residents who were doing the business for long and essence can be recovered from them. Mean time tourists were selected randomly as they are here for the temporary stay. Tourist as respondent needed because hardly tourists travel to new place without knowing the security state of the destination. To find out the international perception tourist were the valuable key for the information needed. Rests of the other information were gathered from the observation of the scenario around the valley as well as informal discussion was also helpful for the overall information presented in this research. Major Findings - Tourism industry of Pokhara valley was based on natural beauty, unique cultural diversity and adventurous activities. Lakes, caves, temples, museums, historical infrastructures and site scene places were the main tourist destination. Most of tourists were enjoying adventurous paragliding, ultra-light flight, jeep flyer and mountain trekking. Domestic and foreign investments have been increasing in the tourism which is promoting the tourism industry of Pokhara valley. Overall tourism of valley is headed towards the development but in slow motion. Overall security level was found standard but needed to review and has to do more improvement. Harassment, cheating, drugs abuse, rape, theft, robbery, Strike (Bandh), road & aviation accident and natural disaster were found as major security challenges of the valley. The security system of the valley was progressive but lacking the high tech policing, lacking of effective intelligence network, poor infrastructure as well as poor understanding of the tourism industry among the community in the periphery. Similarly unemployment, has created such scenario that people around cannot think of the national character and involving in such cheap act of crime.