Adventure sports ease-up

SANGAM PRASAIN
KATHMANDU, SEP 21 -
Following complaints by the Tourism Ministry and travel traders about the red tape requiring adventure tourists to obtain permits from multiple ministries and pay multifarious charges, the regulations have been changed to create a one-window system.

The Tourism Ministry will henceforth issue permits to conduct adventure activities in protected forest areas. Formerly, the Forest Ministry gave out the licenses.

The Forest Ministry used to collect separate fees for 10 tourism activities in the Himalaya and high hills which contain biological diversity needing conservation.

According to the Forest Ministry’s old regulations, anyone wanting to go skydiving, skiing, paragliding, bungee jumping, mountain biking, rafting, cannoning and abseiling, rock climbing and kayaking had to get a separate permit from the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. “The new regulation has removed lengthy hassles and will give a boost to the tourism industry,” said Bikram Neupane, president of the Himalaya Rescue Association and coordinator of the ad hoc committee formed to lobby for simplification in the permit system.

Meanwhile, the proviso requiring a representative of the Department of National Parks to accompany tourists in the protected areas has also been scrapped. Similarly, government charges for adventure sports have been slashed in the revised regulations.

According to the new fee structure, the royalty for skydiving for tourists from the SAARC has been reduced to Rs. 2,000 from Rs. 6,000. The fee for other foreign tourists has been cut to US$ 100 from US$ 500. Charges for skiing, paragliding and para mountaineering have also been decreased to Rs. 1,000 from Rs. 6,000 for SAARC tourists and to US$ 50 from US$ 300 for other foreign visitors.