Lodging from huts to the high-life

Myles Bush has a surprising piece of advice for those considering a visit to Nepal after two weeks of hiking there and close encounters with yaks: "Don't go." Unless, adds the chief executive of PowerHouse Properties in Dubai, visitors are fond of trekking, climbing or otherwise escaping the country's congested capital city. "It's chaos," Mr Bush says of Kathmandu. "I thought the place, to be honest, was dirty." Opinions from travellers such as Mr Bush matter, especially given that tourism is a leading sector in Nepal today and attracted more than 24 billion Nepalese rupees (Dh1.04bn) in spending last year. The industry is forecast to earn more than 25bn Nepalese rupees from tourists this year, with the highest number of visitors coming from India, the UK, then the US, according to a report released in July from the market research firm Euromonitor International. Analysts credit the sector's growth to Nepal Tourism Year 2011, a campaign launched last year by government officials to position the country as a prime holiday destination. It has included hiring famous trekkers - such as Joe Yannuzzi, Sophie Denis and Sean Burch, who were all appointed goodwill ambassadors after successful treks in the Himalayas - to endorse the country, and market Nepal in cities such as New York, Seoul, Singapore and Canberra. "All the stops were being pulled out to raise awareness of Nepal and improve its image going into 2011," Euromonitor's report says. While it seems unlikely that Nepal will hit its target to lure at least 1 million tourists this year, it has managed to attract more than 512,000 visitors up to last month, which is a record and up more than 21 per cent from the same period last year, the Nepal Tourism Board said. In the past, Nepal has struggled to build its image as a desirable tourism destination while addressing the struggles of a developing nation such as road congestion, waste and bouts of political turmoil. "[Nepal's] national business environment has suffered from difficult internal geography, regional isolation, closed economy and political instability," says one study released this year from Harvard University. Today, businesses in Nepal's tourism sector are trying to address some of these issues and appeal to a wider swathe of travellers. There are small changes, such as restaurants catering more closely to visitors from growing markets such as the US, Canada, Germany and France. In the popular tourist square known as the Hanuman Dhoka Durbar,a handful of eateries have recently rolled out menus with pizza, spaghetti and more familiar fare than local favourites such as buffalo momo and lentil platters with rice. Government authorities in some tourist-heavy areas have also been granting businesses permission to open later at night. Last month, restaurants and nightclubs in Lake Side within Pokhara Valley started operating past 11pm for the first time. "We took the step so as to make tourists feel more comfortable and enjoy their stay," Rajendra Singh Bhandari, the deputy inspector general of Nepal's Western Region, told The Kathmandu Post last month.