3,000 foreign visitors’stuck’ in Kathmandu on their way to Mansarovar
Tourism entrepreneurs are facing challenges during the “tourism season” as a result of the Chinese Embassy’s drawn-out VISA verification process, which is taking more than 10 days without a guarantee of approval, trapping some 3000 people on a pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar via Nepal in Kathmandu. Most Indian tourists have been impacted by tour operators changing their routes to Mansarovar due to flooding in Rasuwa. Air travel is used by wealthy tourists, especially Indian nationals, to get to Mansarovar from Simikot in Humla and Lhasa in China. More than six trip companies, including as Ojha Holidays, Richa Travels and Tours, Eco Trek, Heritage Tours and Travel, Sunny Travel, and Trekkers’ Society, provide tour packages to Kailash Mansarovar.
Parliament members and Namaraj Joshi, the owner of a leisure port in Mumbai, are concerned about the delays that Nepali tourists are experiencing in obtaining a VISA to Mansarovar. Within three days, foreigners receive a VISA after receiving entry authorization from Lhasa. Twenty percent of all Hindu pilgrims who travel to Mansarovar, Tibet, are from Nepal. Previously sending 3,000 tourists a year, Pathak’s company is now targeting 1,000 this year. Approximately 25,000 people travel via Nepal each year to participate in the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, which runs from May to September. The most common route is the Nepalgunj-Simikot-Hilsa route.
