February 25: Sauraha, one of the prime tourist destinations in Nepal, has seen arrival of foreign tourists after a long gap. The tourism sector, which has slowed down due to the impact of Covid-19, is now showing signs of recovery. European tourists in particular have started coming to Sauraha after a long time, according to the hoteliers of the region.

"Booking of Indian tourists is also good," said Deepak Bhattarai, president of the Chitwan Regional Hotel Association. 

During this time of the year, hotel occupancy in Sauraha used to be 90 percent but it is just 14 percent at present, says Bhattarai.

“But the good news is that foreign tourists have started coming.”

According to Suman Ghimire, the manager of Jungle Safari Lodge, tourists from Germany, the Netherland, Israel, and other countries have started coming. He is hopeful that the tourism sector will be back to normal business from coming October as the number of inquiries has increased.

“With the decline in risk of Covid-19, there has been an improvement in hotel bookings for seminars and meetings,” he said, adding, “Foreign tourists have been seen sporadically after a long time. Nowadays, they also come in groups.”

Ghimire, who is also a former president of the Regional Hotel Association Chitwan, estimates that the number of foreign tourists visiting Nepal would improve significantly by 2023. Foreign tourists have started riding elephants in community forests, including Chitwan National Park, he further said.

Rishi Tiwari, chairman of the United Elephant Management Cooperative, which has been managing elephants, said that especially Asian tourists have started coming to ride elephants. There are 31 elephants with the cooperative. Among them, 20 to 25 of them have started getting daily work. He says that tourists from Nepal, India, and third countries have started coming to the area. Similarly, elephant safari is available in the Baghmara Community Forest. The chairman of the committee Jit Bahadur Tamang also confirmed that foreign tourists have started arriving.

Santosh Giri, chief executive officer of Hotel Jungle Crown, said hotel has been almost booked for weekends.

Apart from sight-seeing, visitors also come here for weddings and other big gatherings. Sauraha has become a popular choice among tourists as it is possible to book a good hotel room at an affordable price.

As Chitwan is located in the middle of the country, big organizations often hold trainings, meetings, and conferences here. Mostly, Indians come here for weddings. 

There are 120 hotels in Sauraha. These hotels can accommodate up to five thousand five hundred tourists. Entrepreneurs say that the hotels here have received huge investments in recent years.