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International Consulting Project

Nepal Tourism in 2016


Branding development proposal for European markets (France-Spain)

ESCP Europe

International Consulting Project

Foreword
Origins of this project
First, as passionate travellers, we knew Nepal as an exotic destination, and dreamed to discover it someday.
Studying tourism in Madrid, at the ESCP Europe business School, we had to do an international consulting
project of three months maximum as a part of our courses. Also, months before we started studying, as most
people in April 2015, we saw the dramatic news concerning the earthquakes in Nepal. It didnt take long for
us to decide to develop our own ICP in Nepal, to help tourism to recover from its challenging situation.

Who are we?


Pierre Muglia (France)
Multicultural, open-minded, and Marketing-oriented graduate of a
Bachelor in International Business Management and in International Trade.
Passionate about ethnic cultures and nature. I am currently studying
Hospitality and Tourism Management at the ESCP Europe Business School.
Most of my professional experiences were related to Sales and Marketing.
Lastly, I did an internship in Colombia as a Marketing coordinator and webmarketer for the leading travel agency on the French market. Previously, I also
worked as a freight forwarder and a salesman in France, a merchandiser in
Thailand and mostly as a construction labourer in Australia for a full year.
My main skills are related to International Trade, Marketing, and to the
Tourism Industry. I am an investigator, a data analyst and a strategic advisor.
I aspire to work in the destination management field which is a passion.

Mamoun Solhi (Morocco)


Fascinated by the hospitality and tourism industry, I do hold a Bachelor in
Business Administration with a double concentration in Finance and
Marketing. Currently enrolled as a master student in hospitality and tourism
management at ESCP Europe.
Throughout my work experience in a catering group who owns and manages
6 different restaurants in Casablanca, I had the opportunity to discover a
whole new world since I worked within their marketing department as a
marketing and sales assistant and as a restaurants manager assistant.
My versatility combined with strong organizational skills enabled me to
perform beyond expectations. Developing my leadership spirit allowed me to
manage a team of 15 persons. Moreover, I like to share my passion with
others in order to meet and exceed customers satisfaction objectives and
companies goals.
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Christophe dHumires (France-Spain)
Fully dedicated to the Hospitality sector, I am an enthusiast, organized and
open-minded person. Graduate of a Bachelor in Hotel and Tourism
Management in Vatel Madrid University and of the University of Perpignan
(France). I am currently doing a Master of Science in Hospitality and Tourism
Management at the ESCP Europe.
I have various professional experiences in different hotel divisions: Purchasing
Management, Food and Beverages or Guest relations. It gave me the chance
to work in International locations such as the Mauritius Islands, French
Polynesia, China or Switzerland.
Passionate about human relations, travelling and and sports, I feel very
comfortable in the Hospitality Industry where I can put into practice my
managerial and intercultural skills and reveal my teamwork abilities. Also,
my skills extend mainly to Project and Event Management, Human Resources,
Strategic Planning and Marketing.

Objectives of this report


This report aims to raise Nepalese tourism stakeholders knowledge about the French and Spanish markets,
touristic demand, and their citizens behaviours concerning tourism. It also provides an analysis of Nepals
current situation in the industry and solutions we believe to be adapted and coherent, for various
stakeholders. Applying the recommendations of this report will hopefully improve Nepals tourism image
and bring more tourists from France and Spain.

Main Contributors to the report


Nepal Tourism Board (NTB): National organization established by an act of Parliament
in the form of partnership between His Majesty`s Government and the private sector
tourism industry of Nepal. NTB is responsible for the marketing activities aimed at
promoting Nepal as a premier destination.
Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal (TAAN): Umbrella association of trekking
agencies in the country. It was established in 1979. TAAN members (around 1,100
General Members, eight Associate Members and 94 General Members of TAAN
Regional Association Pokhara) meet annually to endorse policy guidelines which
govern the executive body.
Nepal Association of Tour & Travel Agents (NATTA): Established in 1966 by a group of
leading travel agents, who felt that it was the time to work together to formulate
sound business principal and to regulate the travel industry in Nepal. Today, there are
more than 450 Active members and 10 Allied Members in NATTA.

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Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN): Leading representative organization in the
hospitality industry, representing more than 300 hotels, resorts and guesthouses of
Nepal. HAN is the official voice of Nepal's hoteliers that safeguards their lawful
interests and promotes unity and co-operation among its members.

Methodology Note
Specific Objectives (SO)
SO1 - Design and formulation of the ICP Project Framework: defining general-overall goal, specific
objectives, action plan and timetable
SO2 Data collecting in order to fill these items:
For Nepal:
PESTEL: General
Description
Recent Tourism Statistics
Tourism Cluster Analysis
Tourism Products
Current communication
strategies
Branding
Digital Marketing Analysis
Key Success Factor
SWOT Analysis

For France:
Demography, Economy,
Politics
Tourism Market Structure
Segmentation +
Customers behaviours
Trends
Nepals Vision / Notoriety
/ Awareness: for Western
EU Tourism Stakeholders
(Survey)
Digital Marketing Analysis
SWOT Analysis

For Spain:
Demography, Economy,
Politics
Tourism Market Structure
Segmentation +
Customers behaviours
Trends
Nepals Vision / Notoriety
/ Awareness: for Western
EU Tourism Stakeholders
(Survey)
Digital Marketing Analysis
SWOT Analysis

SO3 - Identification of the key criteria (with details of the specific indicators for each of these criteria) that
will define the brand Nepal: Products Segmentation, Targeting, Trends
SO4 - Conducting field survey / diagnosis on the ground in Nepal: Meeting NATTA, TAAN and Tourism
Board of Nepal representatives, as other concerned Stakeholders.*
SO5 - Design and implementation of a market study on Branding: ex. potential demand (potential
customers), main markets (segmentation), channels of communication.
SO6 Propose recommendations + integrate a short-term, middle-term and long-term action plan
SO7- Share the Results of our International Consulting Project with our collaborators

* With the support of our collaborators, went on the field to collect primary data concerning the Nepalese
tourism products, interviewing on-the-spot tourists and locals, experiencing the Nepalese destination to
understand and analyse in depth how they could contribute to a better branding of the country. We visited
the following regions: Langtang, Kathmandu Valley, Pokhara. Meeting our collaborators face to face
allowed us to have a fluid exchange of information from both parts.

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Dear all,
Our journey in Nepal has been an exquisite experience, both in

and out of our consulting project. We hope this report will allow
its readers to understand better the way to raise awareness

and get more French end Spanish citizens to discover your


wonderful country, Nepal.

We particularly want to thank Mr. Sunil Sharma, Mr. Ganga

Sagar Pant, Mr. Prabesh Aryal, Prof. Dr. Hari Sarmah, Mr.
Mahesh Phuyal, Mr. Krishna Man Shrestha, Mr. Rishi Prasad
and Mr. Mikel Leizeaga for their hospitability and priceless
contribution.

Also, we want to thank our tutor Jos Mara de Juan Alonso


and Lola Herrero, director of our Master for their precious
support and advices.

There is one thing we learnt from our experience in Nepal


Once is not enough!
Sincerely,

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International Consulting Project

Executive Summary
Title of the Mission:
Nepal: Branding development proposal for European markets (France-Spain) *
* We decided to focus on the French and Spanish markets because they are among the main economies
and represent big populations of Western Europe. Also, we will be able to start the survey by collecting
data on the field in France and Spain before we go to Nepal. Furthermore, being French and living in Spain,
we have contacts and a good knowledge of these markets.
Location: Nepal
Total Duration: 6 months (January 2016 to June 2016)
Duration in Nepal: 3 months (April to June 2016)
Final outcome: Executive report including a Market Study concerning country Branding, the Nepalese,
French and Spanish Markets. It will also include recommendations to improve the Nepalese branding in
European Markets (France and Spain).
To the attention of: Nepalese tourism stakeholders
Field: Communication & Marketing
Contributors: NTB, TAAN, NATTA, HAN, Travel Agencies, Tourists, French and Spanish people, Guides,
Nepalese people, hotels, among others.

Contact us
Get more information from our Google Drive (public):
Google Drive: https://goo.gl/hrOxKO
If you have any inquiry concerning this report, feel free to contact us:
Email: icpnepal2016@gmail.com
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Index
Introduction ........................................................... 1
1 - Nepal Tourism Analysis .................................... 4
1.1
1.1.1
1.1.2
1.1.3
1.1.4
1.1.5
1.1.6

1.2
1.2.1
1.2.2
1.2.3

PESTEL Analysis............................................................................................................. 4
Political ........................................................................................................................................................ 4
Economical .................................................................................................................................................. 5
Social............................................................................................................................................................ 7
Technological ............................................................................................................................................... 8
Environmental ............................................................................................................................................. 9
Legal .......................................................................................................................................................... 10

Nepal tourism ............................................................................................................. 13


Statistics Analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 13
The Nepalese Tourism Cluster ................................................................................................................... 20
Branding and Communication of Nepal Tourism ....................................................................................... 29

2 - The French and Spanish Markets .................. 46


2.1
2.1.1
2.1.2
2.1.3
2.1.4
2.1.5
2.1.6
2.1.7
2.1.8

2.2
2.2.1
2.2.2
2.2.3
2.2.4
2.2.5
2.2.6
2.2.7
2.2.8

2.3
2.3.1
2.3.2
2.3.3

2.4
2.4.1

The Spanish Market .................................................................................................... 46


General Information .................................................................................................................................. 46
Spanish Tourism Destination: Presentation and main data ....................................................................... 46
The Growth of Spanish Tourism ................................................................................................................ 47
Spanish Tourism Key Statistic 2015 ........................................................................................................... 47
The Spanish Tourism Structure .................................................................................................................. 48
The Spanish Customer Behaviors .............................................................................................................. 50
Internet trends .......................................................................................................................................... 52
Social Medias in Spain ............................................................................................................................... 53

The French Market ..................................................................................................... 53


General Information .................................................................................................................................. 53
French Tourism Destination: Presentation and main data ........................................................................ 54
Growth of French Tourism......................................................................................................................... 54
French Tourism Key Statistic 2015 ............................................................................................................. 55
The French Tourism Structure ................................................................................................................... 55
The French Customer Behaviors ................................................................................................................ 57
Internet Trends in France .......................................................................................................................... 59
Social Medias in France ............................................................................................................................. 60

Customers Segmentation and Profiles ........................................................................ 60


Segmentation by kind of Tourism .............................................................................................................. 61
Segmentation by kind of tourists: .............................................................................................................. 64
Online Surveys Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 67

The French and Spanish Travelers to Nepal ................................................................ 75


SWOT analysis of the French and Spanish market ..................................................................................... 77

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3 - Recommendations ......................................... 80
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.9
3.10
3.11
3.12
3.13
3.14

Students Internship ................................................................................................... 80


Business Tourism (MICE) ............................................................................................ 82
Low season special offers, promotion and Yield Management ................................ 83
Prepare argumentation about security, sustainability, logistics ............................... 83
Contact travellers on their email thank to the immigration form they filled............... 84
Possibility of making and paying trekking permits online ........................................... 85
Participation to fairs ................................................................................................... 86
Welcomenepal.com website ...................................................................................... 87
SEO, SEM and SMM strategies:................................................................................... 88
Digital communication strategy: ................................................................................. 91
New partnership with Nepal Telecom at Kathmandus TIA......................................... 92
Online Reputation Management (ORM) ..................................................................... 93
The Importance of Social Influencers for DMOs ......................................................... 94
Action plan ................................................................................................................. 94

Conclusion ........................................................... 96
4 - References ..................................................... 99
4.1
4.2

Primary data ............................................................................................................... 99


Secondary data ......................................................................................................... 100

5 - Appendices .................................................. 106


5.1
5.2

Appendix 1: French and Spanish Market survey: ...................................................... 106


Appendix 2: Travel Agencies survey .......................................................................... 113

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Introduction
During the last decade, tourism became one of the most important industries worldwide. According to
UNWTO, in 2014 tourism accounted for 9% of global GDP and 30% of services exports. Its worth mentioning
that least developed and developing countries relies enormously on tourism since it is a source of foreign
currency, consequently its driving the economy and the development of the country. South Asia has one
the highest growth when it comes to tourism, with 8.6% growth in 2014, against a 3.8% growth worldwide.
Nepal is one of those countries that inspire travellers since for some its still considered preserved and
authentic with magical landscape and an adventurous spirit led by the famous Mount Everest. However, one
event affected a lot people in the world and its the infamous April 2015 disastrous earthquake leaving
destructed houses and homeless people, and affecting immensely tourist arrivals and millions of Nepalese.
Among the main tourist prospects of Nepal, there is France and Spain. These countries were ranked 6th and
14th economies in the World in 2015 with respectively 2423 $Billion and 1200 $Billion GDPs (International
Monetary Fund). These two European countries could be considered as important secondary targets for the
Nepalese tourism industry.
The main challenge for Nepal is to attract more tourists from France and Spain while taking into
consideration how digital channels are shaping the future of tourism.
In this report, we will highlight how Nepal is currently branding its country world widely; moreover, we will
analyse the French and Spanish markets and how they perceive Nepal as a travel destination, and finally we
will come up with recommendations that will help tourism stakeholders to better promote Nepal.

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The world is a book, and those who do not


travel read only a page.

Gatlang, Langtang, Nepal

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1 - Nepal Tourism Analysis .................................... 4


1.1
1.1.1
1.1.2
1.1.3
1.1.4
1.1.5
1.1.6

1.2
1.2.1
1.2.2
1.2.3

PESTEL Analysis............................................................................................................. 4
Political ........................................................................................................................................................ 4
Economical .................................................................................................................................................. 5
Social............................................................................................................................................................ 7
Technological ............................................................................................................................................... 8
Environmental ............................................................................................................................................. 9
Legal .......................................................................................................................................................... 10

Nepal tourism ............................................................................................................. 13


Statistics Analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 13
The Nepalese Tourism Cluster ................................................................................................................... 20
Branding and Communication of Nepal Tourism ....................................................................................... 29

2 - The French and Spanish Markets .................. 46


3 - Recommendations ......................................... 80
4 - References ..................................................... 99
5 - Appendices .................................................. 106

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1 - Nepal Tourism Analysis


This Analysis is oriented by the scope of the report: How to improve the Brand image of Nepal in France and
Spain.

1.1 PESTEL Analysis


PESTEL analysis is a classic Marketing tool that allows to cover most of the important aspects of an economy,
company or organization. In this first part, we will briefly study the Nepalese internal situation, allowing us
to highlight relevant strengths and weaknesses in the tourism industry. P stands Politics, E for Economic, S
for Social, T for Technological, the second E for Environmental, and the L for Legal aspects.
This framework can be considered the spine of strategic intelligence that does not only states what a
corporation should do, but also gives insights for a party's goals and the strategies to implement.

1.1.1 Political
As mentioned by the World Bank, Nepal effectively stepped out of its
conflictual status since the termination of its civil war in 2006. Enrolling a new
constitution, took longer than expected. The political transition officially took
place in November 2013, when the elections re-allocated the countrys
control peacefully, marking an important phase regarding the establishment
of a democratic state.
Political instability has prevailed since the end of civil war in 2006 and the first
national elections in 2008 that followed the end of the monarchy. The
situation is tense between the main political parties and successive ruling
coalitions were unable to draft a constitution. After the dissolution of the
government in May 2012, the interim government was formed in March
2013. The elections of November 2013 have allowed the return of relative
political stability. The Assembly elected in November 2013 was in charge of
drafting the new Constitution. The commission in charge of writing was
delayed. However, earthquakes occurred in spring 2015 and the discontent
Figure 1: Delcrede Ducroires
of the population have led various political leaders to make an effort unity. The Constituent Assembly
adopted a draft constitution on September 16 with 507 votes "for" a total of 601 elected representatives.
The President ratified the text September 20 with immediate application. However, the negotiations on the
Constitution were made in a climate of violence and several minorities denounce today, cutting some
provinces and manifested in the country's south. A special federal commission might have to revise those
boundaries. In late October 2015, the Parliament elected Bidhya Bhandan (Communist Party) as President
of the country and Khadga Prasad Oli (Communist Party) was appointed Prime Minister. Nevertheless, the
new leadership will have to govern by forming alliances with numerous parties in Parliament.
The political balance in the country remains fragile and the risk of a new period of political instability and
violence cannot be excluded, social and ethnic tensions still vivid. (COFACE, January 2016)
Nevertheless, Nepal remains being a country with political risks among the foreign investors. Even though a
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peace treaty was signed to legalize the Maoist in 2006, the Enterprise survey says that 60% of the Nepalese
companies perceive political instability as the main threat to the goodwill of businesses in Nepal.
The Figure 1 extracted from the Delcrede Ducroires website evaluating country risks shows that the
Medium/Long Term political risk is very high (6/7).

1.1.2 Economical
Current Situation:
Nepal is the 150th largest export economy in the world and the 99th most complex economy according to
the Economic Complexity Index (ECI). In 2014, Nepal exported $1.06B and imported $7.75B, resulting in a
negative trade balance of $6.69B. In 2014 the GDP of Nepal was $19.8B and its GDP per capita was $2.37k.

G D P G R O W T H : N E PA L
6
5,1
4,6

5
4

3,8

3,8
3

3
2
1

The Nepalese GDPs growth has been


slowed down by the recent
Earthquakes and by the gas blockade
from India. The whole economy has
been affected by these recent events,
which explain the diminution of the
2015s GDP growth from 5.1% in 2014
to 3.0% in 2015.

0
2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

(% per year)
Figure 2: Asian Development Bank (ADB), 2016

Currency: Nepalese Rupee (NPR)


Nepalese Rupees value fluctuation has
been on the rise during the previous years.
The evolution of the USD/NPR rate shows
the devaluation of the Nepalese Rupee
(from around 80 NPR for a dollar to
approximately 105 NPR for a dollar in 2016).
This devaluation of the Nepals currency
encourages exports and threatens imports
from Nepal. From a touristic point of view,
Figure 3: Exchange chart
this trend is an opportunity for foreign
tourists to spend time in Nepal since their currency has been constantly stronger over the past years,
encouraging spendings in Nepal.
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FIVE-YEAR'S TREND OF NEPAL'S IMPORTS,


EXPORTS AND TRADE BALANCE
1000
716,1

800
600

390,3

786,2

613,6

506,7

400
200

62,7

72,1

77,4

FY 2010/11

FY 2011/12

FY 2012/2013

89,6

85,2

FY 2013/2014

FY 2014/2015

0
-200
-400

-327,5
-434,6

-600

-536,2

-800
Import (in billion of NRs.)

Export (in billion of NRs.)

-626,5

-701

Trade balance(in billion of NRs.)


Figure 4: Nepal tourism statistics 2014

In 2015, devastating earthquakes occurred between April 15 and May 12, affecting the economy. Growth
has stalled during the 2014-2015 fiscal year. In 2015-2016, activities should increase but will remain
constrained, as shown in the statistics above. The Nepalese GDP growth rate of 2015 of 3% is lower than the
four previous years. The Nepalese economy is undiversified and remains heavily dependent on agriculture,
which employs 70% of the population and accounts for a third of GDP. However, agricultural production is
expected to remain limited, the crops were affected by earthquakes and monsoon being delayed. Thus,
crops of maize and paddy rice should be affected. In addition, the industrial sector, which represents about
14% of GDP should remain penalized by the destruction of means of production and infrastructure damage.
In addition, the country suffers shortages: fuel supplies and materials, from India, was suspended because
of protests by ethnic groups in the south. If this situation persists, the economic recovery could be
threatened. However, the tourism sector is expected to recover gradually but remain impacted by the
damage caused by the earthquake. The construction sector should also benefit from projects related to
reconstruction. Nevertheless, budget execution in Nepal is difficult. In addition, poor infrastructure, already
deficient before the disaster, hampering efforts of reconstruction and economic recovery. Investment
projects already underway, particularly related to the operation of the hydroelectric potential of the country,
were rejected. Finally, private consumption, the main driver of activity should continue to benefit from
significant expatriate remittances (30% of GDP in 2014). As regards prices, inflation is expected to grow,
increasing transport costs and poor harvests fueling inflationary pressures.
External Geographic isolation:
Nepals hostile geographical situation slowed its access to global markets down and produced elevated
reliance on neighbor countries. The Human Development Report published in 2002, highlighted the fact that
9 out of the 11 countries with the lowest Human Development Index (HDI) are landlocked. Landlocked
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between India and China, Nepal has restricted access to overall markets. Also, being remote from major
economies has occasioned important overland transport costs. Nepals economy really relies on India and
China in International Business. First, Nepal faces very high dependence on infrastructure among other
items. Then, neighboring China in Tibet has augmented carriage costs to enter the Chinese market, which
possibly will bring Nepal a sizeable export market and new sources of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI).
Complex internal geography:
Nepal has a defiant internal geography. The Himalayas included, mountains and hills cover up to 83% of the
country. Constructing roads in rocky areas is pricier and requires an upper technology compared to building
ways in flatlands. As a result, Nepal lacks of infrastructures. Up-to-date, barely 32% of the Nepals population
from rural areas has access to road networks (within a 2 kilometers walking distance). This problematic
configuration combined to the resultant insufficient infrastructure made transactions, communications and
knowledge exchanges between various communities difficult.

1.1.3 Social
On the 1st of January 2016, the total population of Nepal was valued to be 28 679 524 people (Country
meters, 2016). This is an increase of 1.18 % (335 312 people) compared to the previous year. In 2015 the
natural increase of Nepal was positive, as the amount of births was higher than the amount of deaths by 411
558.
Around 26,494,504 people live in rural mountain areas of Nepal with delicate physiography and small
economic output; creating tough poverty-environment-health conditions and liability.
Nepal demographic density is estimated around 194.9 people per square kilometer as of June 2016.
In terms of age, the population under 15 years old represents 34.6% of the total population, versus 61.1%
for the population between 16 and 64 years old and 4.4% for the population over 65 years old.
Around 12 179 075 persons or 64.9% of adult population (aged 15 years and above) in Nepal are estimated
to be able to read and write. Correspondingly, about 6 585 651 adults are considered illiterate.

Figure 5: Ethnographic map

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As partly represented on the map above, there are 125 groups based on caste (Chhetri, 16.6% of the
population, "Brahman-Hill" or Khas Bahun, 12.2%) or ethnicity. Thus, to the south in the Terai and wetlands,
home to about 1.7 million indigenous Tharu (6.4% of the total population); Newars (1.3 million people,
approximately 5%) make up the bulk of the inhabitants of the Kathmandu valley and have a language (TibetoBurman) written.
Just like Newar, many tribal peoples, descendants of Mongolian peoples, living on the southern slopes of the
Himalayas (Magar [7.1%], Gurung [3%], Tamang [5.8%]). The north is inhabited by Sherpas and Bhotias.
There are 123 languages spoken as a mother tongue but the Nepalese official Indo-European language,
which serves as a means of communication between the various ethnic groups (although it is the main
language of 45% of the population) followed of Maithili (about 12% of speakers), Bhojpuri (6.6%)...
Nepal is among the least developed countries list Worldwide. About 25% of its population lives under the
poverty line. The Human Development index (HDI, based on health, education and poverty data) of Nepal
was 0.54 in 2013. It is considered a low human development, making the country rank 145 out of 187 on the
HDI, beneath most of its South Asian neighbors (UNDP, 2014).
However, Nepal accomplished notable progress during the past years. In 7 years only, it managed to Reduce
the amount of its population living with less than $1.25 a day by half: From 53% in 2003-2004 to 25% in
2010-2011. Also, other social indicators in health, gender or education have improved within the same
period. (World Bank)
Nepal now attempts to achieve sustainable development objectives and upgrade from the least-developed
countries list.

1.1.4 Technological
One of the most challenging themes of Nepals development concerns access to electricity and drinkable
water. The inhomogeneous repartition of electric power among the country, including many shortages and
irregular voltage make the use of technology complicated, especially out of big cities like Kathmandu.
The Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer ACT (FITTA) implemented in 1992 helped Nepal to get
Technological knowledge. It helped the country to be more competitive in many industries such as the
cottage industry for example. Also, the Science and technology Policy of 2005 aiming to raise living standards
thanks to R&D and technological use can be considered a success.
Radio, Newspapers, Television, Telecommunication (used by more than 80% of the population), Internet use
(Nearly 30% of the population) e-commerce, e-education, e-banking
Nepal has 3G coverage in most parts of the country (Nepal Telecom, Ncell), which is a good indicator of
the modernity renewal of the country in terms of technology use. It is widely used by young generations and
allows full-time connectivity among its users.
Still, compared to Northern countries, internet use remains low and it can be widely improved when it comes
to online marketing (which is the most used media up to date to promote any brand Cf.: digital marketing
content in this report.
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1.1.5 Environmental
Countrys superficy: 140 000 km2

Figure 6: Protected areas in Nepal

Remarkable geographic diversity that sorts from tropical plains in the countrys south to the very rough and
permanently snowy and iced covered Himalayan Mountains in the countrys north. As the Figure 6 shows,
the country can be divided into five main physiographic areas. From north to south, the High Himal, High
Mountains, Middle Mountains, Siwalik Hills and Tarai Plains. Around 118 ecosystems can be identified in
Nepal: 112 woodland ecosystems, four agriculture ecosystems, one aquatic body ecosystem and one
snowy/rocky ecosystem with its peaks.
The Nepal Fifth National Report to Convention on Biological Diversity published by the Nepalese Ministry
of Forests and Soil Conservation in 2014 reports the countrys current situation very well. It explains that,
for example, fauna and flora diversity, particularly the one called beta diversity, is very important in Nepal.
The country only represents around 0.1% of the globes area, but it is home to 3.2 percent and 1.1 percent
of both the worlds registered flora and fauna. The proportion of Birds, mammals, and butterflies present in
Nepal are especially significant. Nepal counts around 284 species of flowering vegetal, 160 animal kinds and
birds species. 14 species of herpetofauna (reptiles and amphibians) are considered endemic to Nepal. Also,
Nepals biodiversity is threatened since nine species of plants, 55 mammals, 149 birds, 64 herpetofauna, and
21 fishes are part of the IUCN Red List.
Forests, and bush lands, used to cover up to 39.6% of the Nepals land in 1994. In the last few decades, they
have suffered from intensive deforestation and pollution-related degradations.
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The Nepalese Government is reviewing the Nepal Biodiversity Strategy (2002) and creating new strategies
and Action Plans (NBSAP). The major objective of the NBSAP is to run a strategic framework for controlling
of Nepals biodiversity evolution. Nepal has already met the objective of protecting and conserving at least
17% terrestrial area. Currently, 23.23% of the country is managed under protected area network. 4,991
protected zones were enhanced during 2010.
Natural environment can also be considered an important source of revenues for Nepal since Nature-related
tourism is the second most important source of foreign exchanges. The revenues from these protected areas
(mainly National Parks with entrance fees) have been contently increasing since 2003 (DNPWC, 2012). It
generated incentives that allowed to improve the conservation measures from the government, the
conservation agencies and the local communities.
Pollution in Kathmandu: A dramatic situation
The latest pollution index that the Serbian research website Numbeo.com published this year shows that
Kathmandu city lies in the 3rd position of the pollution ranking with a pollution index of 96.66. The index was
made by using estimations of the overall pollution in the city, allocating the biggest weight to air and water
pollution.
Nationally, the Pollution Index for Country 2016 ranks Nepal at the 17th position, along with Egypt in the
most polluted countries in the world ranking.
The Everest and its tourism-related pollution issues
Everest Summiteers Association (the Association of the summit of Everest), which aims to conserve and
manage diversity and cleanliness of the place, estimated that more than ten tons of waste lie down the paths
to the "Roof of the world". To fight against this menace, the Nepalese government since last year requires
that each climber pays a deposit of $ 4,000 before his ascension. This it is made if back eight kilos of garbage
- the average weight of waste for ascension. Unfortunately, this system is not always applied. As the season
began this week and will last until late May, the government announced that public servants in the four
camps will carefully monitor climbers.
On a general basis, business negatively impacts the environment, mainly because of waste materials disposal
and lack of education from locals on this subject.

1.1.6 Legal
Nepalese Government Structure: President, Prime Minister, 26 Ministries, 11 departments, Nongovernmental Organizations
The 601-member of the Assembly are the most representative legislative body Nepal has ever had thanks
to wider representation from several ethnic groups, geographic areas, social classes, and women.
The current Constitution is The Interim Constitution of Nepal, which was officially set up on January 15,
2007.

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Constitutional bodies of Nepal
The Interim Constitution of Nepal is made of these constitutional bodies:
1.

Election Commission

2.

National Human Rights Commission

3.

Public Service Commission

4.

Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority

5.

Office of Attorney General

6.

Office of Auditor General

Judicial System of Nepal


The Constitution recognizes three kinds of Courts, which are the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and
the District Courts. No distinction is made between Criminal and Civil Court.
N E PA L ' S T O P B U S I N E S S
CONSTRAINTS
Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs)

60
50

48

We do consider the FDIs legislation and practices as one


of the most important items concerning the legal frame
of Nepal. An attractive country for foreign markets must
have flexible FDIs legislations if it wants third parties to
contribute to its development.

40
30

25

20
10
10

3,5 2,5

Travel and Tourism capital


investment

% of Firms

China

136.8

India

34.5

Asia Pacific average

9.5

20

Thailand

7.2

32

Vietnam

4.6

World Average

4.5

68

Sri Lanka

0.9

73

Bangladesh

0.8

93

Cambodia

0.4

98

Laos

0.3

130

Nepal

0.2

141

Myanmar

0.1

Figure 7: Nepal tourism statistics 2014

FDI peaked during 1997 because of flexible liberal policies.


Nevertheless, since the Maoist uprising in 1996, FDI and trade
balance dropped severely. Political instability and the lack of
rule of law discouraged investors and industrialists because the
estimated returns on investment were low and risky.

2014
(US$bn)

Figure 8: UNTWO statistics

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The figures 8 from the UNWTO show the low amount invested in the Travel and Tourism in Nepal in 2014
compared to the Asia Pacific average or World average.
In 2013, the British Journal of Economics, Management & Trade published a survey under the name
of Analysis of the Competitive Environment of Tourist Destinations Aiming at Attracting FDI by Applying
Porters Five Forces Model (Figure 9):

Figure 9: Porter's Model of competiveness of tourist destination

The document explains how, based on the PORTER five forces, a destination can be attractive to investors
for tourism development.
The Figure 9 shows how the analysis of potential investors, conditions for attracting investors, customers of
tourist services and competition from other host countries converge to define domestic market and
competition.
The World Bank group also provides recent data showing the attractiveness of a market to investors. In
Doing Business 2016, Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency Economy Profile 2016 Nepal, The World
Bank proposes a detailed analysis of the Nepals performance on these specific and important items.
It analyses how easy it is to start a business, deal with construction permits, get electricity, register property,
get credit, protect minority investors, pay taxes, trade across borders, enforce contracts, resolve insolvency
and how the market is regulated among other items.
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The chart shows the results of Nepal


for the year 2016 (Figure 10). It
shows the countrys world rank
concerning the indicators described
before. Out of these, Nepal
performs well and could be
considered attractive concerning
protecting
minority
investors,
trading across borders, registering
property, dealing with construction
permits and resolving insolvency.
Nepal registers lower performance
and could be considered least
attractive when it comes to
enforcing contracts, getting credit,
getting electricity and paying taxes.

Rankings on doing business topics - Nepal


Starting a business
(105)
Resolving insolvency
(86)

Dealing with
construction permits

Enforcing Contracts
(152)

Getting electricity
(131)

Trailing across borders


(60)

Registering property
(72)

Paying taxes (124)

Getting credit (133)


Protecting minority
investors (57)

(Scale: Rank 189 center, Rank 1 outer edge)

Figure 10: Business topics

Nevertheless, as the Kathmandu post described in an article published in May 2016, globally reputed
hospitality brands like the Marriott, Aloft, Sheraton, Taj and others have signed management contracts with
Nepali entrepreneurs to establish their presence here. It is a positive development perspective for
Nepalese tourism that could attract more tourists that are familiar with these brands.

1.2 Nepal tourism


1.2.1 Statistics Analysis
Tourism directly contributed to 4.3% of total GDP, and indirectly to 8.9% of total GDP of Nepal in 2014. In
total, tourism represented 1,059,000 jobs in 2014 in Nepal. (UNWTO).
In this first part of the Nepalese Tourism analysis, we will study raw data published by the Ministry of Culture,
Tourism and Civil Aviation in 2014 as it the most recent and official public data published up to date.

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Tourist Arrivals

Figure 11: Nepal Tourism Statistics 2014

As the figures 11 support, the tourist arrivals in Nepal have been significantly increasing between 2009 and
2014, reaching nearly 800 000 tourists in 2014. Arrivals are barely 3 times more important by air than by
land (mainly Indian and Chinese arrivals).

Figure 12: Nepal Tourism Statistics 2014

The tourist arrivals by month between 2010 and 2014 show a very solid seasonality with two considerable
peak seasons in March and in October. Nevertheless, the graph presented above shows that the peaks were
less sharp during 2014 than during the previous years, with higher amounts of tourists in January, April and
May than the previous years.

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High Seasonality
As mentioned in Figure 13, the
seasonality of Nepal tourism is
considerable. There is a direct
correlation between the climate
seasons and the tourist seasons. The
Seasonality in Tourism sector figure
shows accurately that, as the rainy
season (monsoon) starts, with
progressively more rain in March until
August, the tourists flow drops (even
if it rises considerably between July
and August). On the contrary, when
the average rainfall comes back to its
minimal amount between October
and November, Nepal has its highest
peak of tourism activities.

Figure 13: Nepal tourism statistics 2013

Sex:

2013

2014

% Change

Male

449058

445627

-0.77

Female

384558

344491

-11.63

Figure 14: Nepal Tourism Statistics 2014

More male tourists come to Nepal than


females. Even if the volume of male
tourists (56.4% in 2014) is more
important than the volume of female
tourists (43.6% in 2014), the gap of
parity fluctuates a lot from a year to
another. For example, between 2013
and 2014, the volume of female tourists
decreased by 11.63%.
Figure 15: Nepal tourism statistics 2014

The tourist arrival by age in Nepal reveals that currently, the most important segments are chronologically
the 31-45 years old, followed by the 16-30 years old and the 61+ years old. Concerning the 0-15 years old,
they are a good indicator of the tourists travelling in family groups. On a general basis, the tourists of Nepal
reflect a huge diversity of travelers profiles (Cf.: 2- The French and Spanish markets).
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Source markets
According to a report focusing on research, planning and monitoring from the NTB (Tourism Policies and
Priorities), the tourism country targets can be classified in three main categories, converging various criteria
(current volume of arrivals*, length of stay, daily budget, type of tourism):
TOURISM VOLUME PER
N AT I O N A L I T Y I N N E PA L ( 2 0 1 4 )
18,00%
16,00%
14,00%
12,00%
10,00%
8,00%
6,00%
4,00%
2,00%
0,00%

Primary Markets: India (17.1%), China (15.7%),


UK (4.7%), USA (6.3%), Japan (3.3%), Australia
(3.1%).

India

China

UK

USA

Japan

Figure 16: Nepal Tourism Statistics 2014

TOURISM VOLUME PER


N AT I O N A L I T Y I N N E PA L ( 2 0 1 4 )
3,50%
3,00%
2,50%

Secondary Markets: Germany (2.3%), France


(3.0%), Spain (1.7%), Italy (1.3%).

2,00%
1,50%
1,00%
0,50%
0,00%
Germany

France

Spain

Italy

Figure 17: Nepal Tourism Statistics 2014

Emerging Markets: Malaysia (Nd) Thailand (Nd) & Singapore (Nd), Eastern Europe (Nd), Middle East(Nd).
*: The percentage attributed to every country of the list above represents the tourist arrival per Nationality,
in 2014, in percentage of the total arrivals. This data was extracted from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism &
Civil Aviation of Nepal Nepal Tourism Statistics 2014. It is important to acknowledge that these percentages
fluctuate considerably from a year to another.

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TOURIST ARRIVAL BY PURPOSE
OF VISIT, 2014

Purpose of Visit
In 2014, Holiday pleasure is by
far the main reason why tourists
come to Nepal as 50% of arrivals
are liked to this purpose. The
second purpose tourist arrivals is
pilgrimage (13% of arrivals),
then
comes
Trekking
&
Mountaineering with 12% of
arrivals.

9%

2%

7%

4%

50%

13%
3%

12%

Holiday pleasure

Trekking & Mountaineering

Business

Piligrimage

Official

Conv./Conf.

Others

Not specified

Figure 18: Nepal Tourism Statistics 2014

Revenue from Tourism


Revenue from Tourism:

2013

2014

% Change

Total Earning (US$ ' 000)

429216

471769

9.02

42.8

48

10.83

Average Income per Visitor per day (US$)


Figure 19: Nepal Tourism Statistics 2014

Revenues from tourism are increasing more than proportionally to the increase of tourists. As a matter of
fact, the average income per visitor increased of 10.83% between 2013 and 2014. The total earnings of Nepal
thanks to tourism were 471.77 million USD in 2014, with on average, 48 dollars spent per visitor every day
in Nepal.
As a consequence, foreign exchange earnings from tourism have been increasing during the previous years.
The chart above shows that between the 2012/13 and 2013/14 fiscal years the earnings from tourism
increased the most compared to the 12 last fiscal years.
Length of stay of tourists in Nepal
According to the NTB, the average length of stay of tourists is 12 days. Of course, as it is an average amount
of days, some tourists stay for months, others for a few days.
Average earnings per tourist in total in 2014= 12x48= 576 USD
These statistics dont take into account the effects and consequences of the Earthquakes that occurred in
2015 in Nepal (the annual report 2015 taking these events into consideration will be published in June-May
2016 according to the NTB).
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The 2015s Earthquakes
Estimation of damage/ losses due to earthquake in culture/ heritage sector, 2015
Disaster Effects (NPR Million) Share of Disaster effect
Damage
Loss
Total
Private/
Public
Community
Heritage site in 16 district
7875
1409
9284
9284
Monasteries & Historic Structures (Older than 100 5300
530
5830
5830
years)
Monasteries & Historic Structures (Less than 100 2835
283
3118
3118
years)
Temple in remote area
900
90
990
990
Total
16910
2312
19222
8948
10274
Subsector

Figure 20: Source: National Planning Commission

The total estimation of damage/


losses due to the earthquakes in the
culture/ heritage sector in 2015,
accumulating private and public
assets is around 19 222 million Nepali
Rupees, which is equivalent to
179.16 million USD (currency rate 1
USD=107.291 NPR, average 2015s
exchange rate).
Figure 21: Nepal Tourism Statistics 2014

Estimation of damage/ losses due to earthquake in tourism sector, 2015


Subsector
Hotel and Others
Home Stays
Eco-lodge
Trekking Trails
Tour Operator
Tourism revenues
Air Transport revenues
Restaurant revenues
Total

Disaster Effects (NPR Million)


Damage
Loss
Total
16295
0
16295
1720
495
2215
415
0
415
426
5711
6137
7
4924
4931
0
47013
47013
0
4720
4720
0
11
11
18863
62874
81737

Share of Disaster effect


Private/
Public
Community
16295
0
1720
0
415
0
0
6137
4931
0
47013
0
4720
0
11
0
75105
6137

Figure 22: National Planning Commission

The total estimation of damage/ losses due to the earthquakes in the tourism sector in 2015, accumulating
private and public assets is around 81 737 million NPR, which is equivalent to 761.83 million USD (currency
rate 1 USD=107.291 NPR, average 2015s exchange rate).
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Summary estimation of recovery needs for damage/ losses due to earthquake in culture and tourism
sector, 2015
Subsector
Recovery Activities
Demolition and rubble removal
Promotion campaign costs
Loan rescheduling
Reconstruction activities
Hotels
Home Stays
Eco-lodges in Convention areas
Trekking trails
Tour Operator offices
Total

Financial year (NPR million)


2015-16
2016-17
10866
5209
3018
755
2730
2520
5118
1934
18571
4064
15643
3911
2064
0
498
0
358
153
8
0
58874
18546

Total
16075
3773
5250
7052
22635
19554
2064
498
511
8
77420

Figure 23: National Planning Commission

The summary estimation of recovery needs for damage/ losses due to the earthquakes in culture and tourism
sector for both financial years 2015-16 and 2016-17 is around 77 420 million NPR which is equivalent to
721.59 million USD (currency rate 1 USD=107.291 NPR, average 2015s exchange rate). In 2016, according
to National Geographic, the earthquake wrought about $10 billion (half of Nepals GDP) in damages.
A heavy challenge for the Nepalese Tourism Industry
The dramatic earthquakes that occurred on the 25 th of April 2015 with its epicenter near Gorkha in Nepal
affected 16 districts in the country, with more or less gravity according to Mr. Sunil Sharma, Officiating
Director of PR and Publicity at the NTB. The Kathmandu valley and the Langtang region are among the most
affected areas. Fortunately, Pokhara and the Annapurna region havent been as affected. Among the
demolished sites, a few UNESCO world heritage sites have been severely damaged. The Langtang village
literally vanished, and many trekking trails have also been affected.
The whole country has been in a hurry to rebuild the main roads and access to remote villages to provide
help and support. Unfortunately, many Nepalese lost their homes during this event and had to be momently
relocated (mainly in Kathmandu). Indian Gas Blockade which began on the 23rd of September 2015
worsened Nepals situation and severally disturbed its recovery.
The CBI (Dutch Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries) decided to help Nepal
(collaborating with the NTB and external consultants), launching a transitory international communication
campaign for Nepal: Nepal Now. The campaign aimed to show to the world that Nepal was still a great
tourism destination since only 16 districts have been affected. Great marketing was applied to the brand
campaign, as mentioned further in the report (financially supported by the CBI).
Facing the emergency, 4 months only after the events, The National Tourism Recovery Committee (NTRC),
launched the campaign Back on Top of the World that can be called a survival or Revival campaign
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aiming to tell the world that Nepal is safe for visitors and that there is just as much to see and do in Nepal
as there was before. Most of Nepals cultural monuments, trekking and mountaineering trails and tourist
attractions are up and running, ready to welcome visitors (Nepalnow.org). This campaign lasted 4 to 5
months.
The combination of the two campaigns Nepal Now and Back on Top of the World were a success since
it helped Nepal to keep visibility and communicate efficiently worldwide; moreover, they pulled the recovery
of the country from a touristic point of view.

Nepal Now and Nepal: Back on top of the world campaigns logos

Up-to-date, 100% of the trekking tracks have been rebuilt and are opened even of the tourism capacity
remains less important than before according to Ganga Sagar Pant, CEO of the TAAN.

1.2.2 The Nepalese Tourism Cluster


Tourism Structure and Roles
The tourism structure and roles in Nepal can be described by many ways. Still, on a function-related approach
made by the NTB, here is the classification of its stakeholders:
Functions

Concerned Stakeholders

Regulatory Functions

Government Agencies

Operational Functions

Private Business Entrepreneurs

Development Functions

Government and local agencies

Promotional Functions

NTB

Figure 24: NTB

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With a wider classification based on a level-of-importance related approach, another classification could be
made (Figure 25):

Figure 25: Tourism structure

Also, a cluster map (Figure 26) would add value to the structure and roles of the Nepalese Tourism Industry
analysis by bringing another look on the tourism stakeholders interactions. Cluster mapping produces a
dataset on the existence of clusters across specific geographic zones, founded on a consistent set of
benchmark cluster characteristics that group industries like tourism into cluster categories:

Figure 26: Cluster Map

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One of the most used tools to analyze a cluster is the cluster diamond (Figure 27). This infographic allows
to classify tourism related factors and items in five categories (Factor Conditions, Context for firm strategy
and rivalry, demand conditions, related and supporting industries and endowments):

Figure 27: Nepalese tourism cluster diamond

Nepalese Tourism Stakeholders Analysis


Among the long list of direct and indirect stakeholders of Nepals Tourism Stakeholders, we decided to focus
on relevant and recent facts concerning a few stakeholders that are key to success in the industry: Labor,
Travel Agents, Hotels, Travel Agents, Hotels, and Airports.

Labor
Tourism Related Enterprises (Registered
2013
in Tourism Industry Division):

2014

% Change

Tourist Guide

3102

3355

7.54

Trekking Guide

9076

10213

11.13

Figure 28: Nepal Tourism Statistics 2014

Weak quality of labor in the Tourism sector


Quality of workforce is a critical factor in influencing the quality of services provided in the tourism industry.
For this reason, in 1972, the Nepal Academy of Training and Hotel Management (NATHM) was created to
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provide educated labor to the industry. Only 35% of tourism laborers surveyed had proper related skills from
training according to Sedai. Most of the learning process occurs by working directly. Nepal was ranked as
125 out of 140 in availability of human resources according to the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report
2013.
Travel Agents

Figure 29: Nepal tourism statistics 2013

As the figure 29 illustrates, as the quantity of travel agents increased, the number of tourists per travel agent
dropped. This phenomenon implies that while the market size increased, the number of agents has been
increasing at a faster rate. The agents reacted by competing on prices with each other. This race on low
prices game is damaging the industry since it affects quality negatively.
Hotels
Increase of the number of hotels and available hotel beds represent an important indicator of development
in the hotel industry of Nepal.
Category

Number of hotels
2010
2011
2012

Number of rooms
2010
2011
2012

Number of beds
2010
2011
2012

Five star

1539

1539

1539

2897

2897

2897

Four star

190

190

190

362

362

362

Three star

13

15

15

501

596

596

957

1107

1107

Two star

28

29

29

1183

1213

1213

2348

2396

2396

One star
Tourist
standard
Total

26

26

26

564

564

564

1374

1374

1374

387

423

442

5903

6650

6985

11525

12804

13362

464

503

522

9880

10752

11087

19463

20940

21498

Figure 30: Hotel room occupancy rate of Nepal (Ghimire 2013)

Standard (Year 2014)

Occupancy Rate

Available Rooms*

Occupied Rooms*

5 stars

61%

523 000

319 284

4 stars

71.54%

112 950

319 284

3 stars

55.70%

372 177

207 296

2 stars

78.22%

212 928

166 552

1 star

42.02%

360 093

151 303

Figure 31: Nepal Tourism Statistics 2014


*: Number of rooms during the whole year 2014 (365 nights).

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As can be seen in the Figure 31, the top 3 Nepalese hotel kind that had the highest occupancy rate in 2014
are the two stars with 78.22% of occupancy, the four stars hotels with 71.54% of occupancy, and the 5 stars
hotels with 61% of occupancy. They are followed by the 3 stars hotels that had 55.70% of occupancy in 2014
and the 1 star hotels and their 42.02% of occupancy.
The average occupancy rate of Nepals registered hotels was 61.70% in 2014 when the occupancy rate of
Asia Pacific was 68.2% the same year according to Statista (Americas: 64.3%, Europe: 68.6%, Middle East
and Africa: 63.4%). This performance is due to the high seasonality of the country, combined to the huge
black market* issue that Nepal faces.
Low class hotels, specifically outside main cities:
A usual criticism from trekkers visiting Nepal refers to the low quality of services and facilities sold by hotels
in major trekking spots.
Insufficient capacity during peak seasons:
Overbookings and crowded hotels during peak seasons can also damage the quality of tourists journey in
Nepal. If not booked in advanced, rooms often have to be shared between tourists.
*Note: Black market in the hospitality sector in Nepal mainly refers to non-registered accommodations used
by tourists such as tea houses along trekking trails.
Airports
Nepal has a vast domestic airport network of 48 airports located in numerous parts of Nepal. Nevertheless,
Nepal has only one international airport in Kathmandu; connecting Nepal with rest of the world. Nepal owns
a satisfactory infrastructure support in case of domestic airports. However, their use is limited by weather
conditions that sometimes limit their permanent access. Also, Nepal offers the alternative support of charter
flights; especially concerning flights from Kathmandu to Mount Everest (developed as the charter flight hub).
Tourist Arrival by Major Five Airlines:
Rank 1
Rank 2
Rank 3
Rank 4
Rank 5

2013
Indian Airlines
Jet Airways
Qatar Airlines
Spice Jet
Thai Airlines

2014
Jet Airways
Qatar Air
Air Arabia
Indian Airlines
Fly Dubai

Figure 32: Main International airlines, Nepal Tourism Statistics 2014

International Airport Project in Pokhara


The project of an International airport in Pokhara that should be opened in a few years will add considerable
value to the countrys accessibility from foreign countries. It could attract new International airlines to set
up in Nepal, particularly because the Pokhara and surroundings variety of tourism products can attract nonusual segments of tourists that wouldnt dare to pass by Kathmandu for the reasons mentioned before
(pollution, traffic, damages from the earthquakes).
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Tourism Products
This section will examine the current Nepalese offer of touristic products.
Nepal has very rich natural and cultural gifts when it comes to tourism. These endowments allowed the
country to attract tourists despite its disadvantages in many scopes.
Type of products

Description

Nature

The Himalaya Range, hills, Snow Fed Rivers, National


Parks and Wildlife Reserves, etc.

Culture

UNESCO Heritage Sites, Living Goddess, 101 ethnic


groups and their distinct cultures and traditions,
Lumbini, the birth place of Lord Buddha, Events and
festivals, etc.

Adventure

Mountaineering, Trekking, Rafting and Kayaking, jungle


safari, paragliding, Bungee Jumping, Canyoning,
Mountain Biking, etc.

Others

Mountain Flights, Ultra-light aircrafts, Casinos,


Volunteer tourism, Eco-tourism, Green tourism,
Sustainable tourism, Bird watching, Sports tourism,
Religious Tourism, Yoga and Meditation, Rural Tourism,
Community-based tourism, Home-stay, etc.

Figure 33: Tourism products

Figure 34: Tourism Policies and Priorities - Research, Planning and Monitoring - NTB

This map (Figure 34) highlights the geographic areas that attract most of the countrys tourism. These regions
are concentrations of the Nepalese tourism for many reasons: they are promoted, they have an easy access
compared to the rest of the country, and they have been historically and slowly enlarged. Even if these
central regions still have to improve their tourism offer in many ways, this map allows us to come with the
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evidence that Nepal, having huge touristic unexploited regions, has a huge potential on a long-term basis.
Fortunately, this regional isolation of the western and eastern parts of the country allows the conservation
of the natural and cultural authenticity that is among the most valuable strengths of Nepal.
Nepalese tourism products positioning
Word-of-mouth marketing has permitted Nepal to draft an image of an attractive backpacking destination
to potential tourists. In order to upgrade this tourist base and generate more revenues from tourism, Nepals
tourism stakeholders would need to actively position Nepal and expose the countrys finest aspects to the
tourism community worldwide.
Nevertheless, the prestigious world-class business news Forbes magazine recently incorporated Nepal in
the list of the 10 coolest places to visit in 2015.
Also, the world heritage list of the UNESCO already incorporates many cultural and natural heritages of
Nepal:
The Kathmandu valley, Lumbini birth place of Buddha, Sagarmatha National Park, Chitwan National Park,
Panauti, the ancient Shakya Kingdom, the complex of Gorkha, the relic stupa of Lord Buddha, Ramagrama,
Vajrayogini and early settlement of Sankhu 2008 , complex of RuruKshetra in Rishikesh, Khokana, cave
architecture of Muk- tinath, the vernacular village, Valley of Mustang, Tilaurakot, the medieval city of Lo
Monthang, Khokana, Ram Janaki Temple in Ja- nakpur, Nuwakot Place Complex, the Medieval Town of
Tansen, Sinja Valley, Dailekh Bhukuti Temple of complex are currently enlisted in the valuable UNESCO list.
This fact naturally positions Nepal as a rich historical, cultural and natural destination.

Performance Analysis
Inability to capture high-value demand:
As a consequence of the previous positioning of tourism products of Nepal, the great majority of tourists
remain as low-value backpackers and pilgrims. Illustrating this fact, 89% of the visitors said that visiting
temples was the most important activity for them when only 3% sees mountain flight as the most
important activity (Nepal Tourism Board Visitor Survey).

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TOURISM RECEIPTS PER
CAPITA (US$) IN 2009

VISITORS PER CAPITA


IN 2009

Malaysia
Thailand
Laos
Cambodia
Zimbabwe
Peru
Vietnam
Nepal
Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka
Nepal
Vietnam
Peru
Cambodia
Zimbabwe
Laos
Thailand

Malaysia
0

Visitors per Capita in 2009


0,2
0,4
0,6

0,8

Figure 36: Nepal Tourism Board Visitor Survey

100

200

300

400

500

600

Tourism Receipts per Capita (US$) in 2009


Figure 35: Nepal Tourism Board Visitor Survey

As you can see in the chart (Figure 35 and 36) from the UNWTO above, visitors per capita and receipts per
capita of Nepal (2009) are very low compared to other destinations like Thailand of Malaysia. This level is
among the lowest in comparison with its peers; moreover, it shows that very few tourists visit Nepal
compared to its population. In terms of receipts, we notice that when tourists visit Nepal, they dont spend
as much in the neighboring countries.
Satisfaction and Loyalty of Nepals Visitors

Figure 37: Faculty of Economics, University of Algarve

Tourist Satisfaction and Destination Loyalty are two of the most important variables to watch for a tourism
destination. They generate favorable image, effective marketing made by the visitors themselves
(recommendations), and willingness to return (loyalty).
In Nepal, around 96% of the visitors responded that they are satisfied with their travel experience in Nepal
which is an astonishing (NTB visitors survey). This result explains why word of mouth is so important for
Nepals tourism. Also, many visitors demonstrate that once is not enough by travelling back to Nepal
several times during their life. Loyalty rates were estimated around 13% in 2013, which is quiet high.
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Fierce Global and Local Competition

Figure 38: UNWTO, Tourist highlights 2015 Edition

The fact that 9% of the global GDP was directly and indirectly
generated by tourism activities in 2015 shows how intense the global
competition is on the tourism scene. Leaders such as France and the
USA have been keeping their leadership for years, but we cannot talk
about a monopoly in the industry, as every country opened to tourism
compete with them, more or less directly. There is a very wide offer
when it comes to existing tourism trends, products and activities, and
every year, innovations and efforts are made by tourism destinations
Figure 39: Simon Antholt 2002
(countries, regions, cities) to attract tourists on their domestic
market. In the Asia Pacific area, as we have seen, Nepal has undeniable assets, but also weaknesses and
limits (for example, it is a landlocked country when important competitors like Thailand of India are not).
The Porter competitive five forces model adapted to the tourism industry. In the case of Nepal, as we have
seen, the most intense competition contributing to rivalry in the Nepalese tourism cluster comes from the
bargaining power of buyers and intermediaries with an amount of travel agents that increases faster that
the demand, creating a tough war on prices, and empower to the visitors in their decision making.
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The risk of entry by potential competitors in Nepal is high as we have seen, but the foreign potential
competitors are kept away from the local competition since foreigners cannot fully own a travel agency in
Nepal.
The threat of substitute products for Nepal is extremely high worldwide since most of the activities existing
in Nepal are available widely (Rafting is a very common activity worldwide for example). Still, this threat is
limited by the unique assets of Nepal (Nature, culture, heritage).
The Bargaining power of suppliers is not that elevated in Nepal because most travel agencies collaborate
with the same companies for some touristic products, and they are enough permanent and seasonal guides
in Nepal to match the demand of tourists for example. As a conclusion, suppliers bargain is limited.
The Power of information technology highly contributes in rivalry among established tourism firms in Nepal
that try to attract more and more tourists by using technology and digital tools.
Finally, the impact of government regulation also contributes to competition intensity in Nepal. Even if the
government protects the interest of Nepal tourisms stakeholders, every single decision that is implemented
has important consequences in the local industry.

1.2.3 Branding and Communication of Nepal Tourism


Country Branding and Strategy
Moilainen and Rainisto (2009) define brand as an impression perceived in a clients mind of a product or a
service. It is the sum of all tangible and intangible elements, which makes the selection unique. In other
words, a brand is fashioned by marketers but it is backed customers, consequently, customers perception
regarding a brand is fundamental in brandings strategy.
Brand DNA can be defined as the words
and perceptions of users contained in
memory over time (Greenberg, 2003,
Marsden, 2000). The brand DNA
metaphor designates the interface of
essential elements (the combinations of
the fundamental structure extensions of a
brand) that lead to the progress of the
brand as a living organism. Emotions,
dreams,
experiences,
encounters,
memories, stories, myths, 5 senses... They
all make a brand. A good brand has a
Figure 40: Cai's destination branding model (Risitano 2005)
great story to tell. Even if a story is great,
the way it is told is way more important. In communication, it is admitted that 80% is non-verbal (Albert
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Mehrabian, a UCLA professor, completed research in 1967 showing the significance of non-verbal cues in
communications.), meaning that the way the message is introduced and presented matter more than the
content itself in terms of impact.

Amitabh Kant, leading the Incredible India successful campaign said: As positioning and branding idea of
Nepal is not effective, it is selling its products very cheaply. In his opinion, there a very few destinations
endowed with such natural gifts, however, its like a sleeping elephant for Nepal. And it signifies the gap
between the performance and potential.
As we saw, Nepal is very rich in culture and natural wonders, and it proportionally has such a small share of
the tourism cake within Asia. We observed that despite huge potential, Nepal failed in building a strong
global brand up-to-date. Nevertheless, we saw that the recent post-earthquakes communication campaigns
have been successful and that tourists arrivals should come back to normal in the following year.
Evolution of Nepals branding:

Nepal for All Seasons Before VNY-98


A World of Its Own VNY98
Mt. Everest & More... Experience it in Nepal After Nepal Tourism Board
Mystical Kingdom Destination Nepal DNC 2002-03
Naturally Nepal Once is not enough Present Brand.

The Current International country brand, Naturally Nepal and its pitch Once is not enough had first been
launched in 2006. The NTB is making efforts for displaying the brand the best way possible, and knows
perfectly which are the current trends to follow in general; especially when it comes to digital marketing
campaigns. The new website Naturally Nepal is now online and, as Sunil Sharma, Officiating director of PR
and publicity at the NTB, mentioned, the campaign will be highly focused on digital medias which are slowly
replacing traditional medias, providing international visibility, allowing very precise targeting, and being
more efficient if well used.
Campaign Objectives (NTB):

To make Nepal the top-of-mind and preferred holiday destination


To Introduce DNA of Natural Nepal
To project Nepals friendly and welcoming image
To make unique positioning Naturally Nepal- Once is not enough- relevant and meaningful to
travelers
To stimulate consumers to actively seek more information about Nepal.

The NTB is the organization responsible for tourism country branding. Up to day, the NTB lacks of labor force
that would be a hundred percent focused on spreading the campaign and raising brand awareness online.
Mr. Sunil Sharma assumes that around ten people would be required, and that the right human resources
recruiting operation will be applied very soon.
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Key challenges for branding:
Pr. Jos Maria de Juan Alonso, Koan Consulting SL

Understanding customers and non-customers


achieving stakeholder buy-in to the brand
brand architecture
stretching the brand through partnership
user-generated content and social networking: threat or opportunity
brand coherence: image without clich
branding on a budget
brand lifespan

The branding process Key points:


Pr. Jos Maria de Juan Alonso, Koan Consulting SL

Imagery

Destination audit
Segmentation analysis
SWOT analysis
Stakeholder engagement
Consumer perception research
Competitor analysis
Brand-building models
Integrating the brand into marketing activities
Global versus local marketing campaigns
Global brand versus target segments

Behaviour

Design Style

Brand
Brochures,
prints, etc.

Marketing
campaingns

Website

The base in the operational conditions in the destinations:

Figure 41: ETC-UNWTO

By: Pr. Jos Maria de Juan Alonso, Koan Consulting SL

Internal mobility
Skilled personnel
Geography
Heritage attractions
Artificial attractions
Information available
Services and supplies
Telecommunications
Answer to logistic and biological needs
Easily measurable
Defines the feasibility of the product

Internal mobility
Skilled personnel
Geography
Heritage attractions
Artificial attractions
Information available
Services and supplies
Telecommunications
Security
External image
Material, tangible, physical aspects

Equipment and infrastructure


Emotional, experiential and symbolic
elements (myths) in the tourism and
hospitality products

These criteria must consider:


By: Pr. Jos Maria de Juan Alonso, Koan Consulting SL

Logistics
Communications
Climate
Physical security measures

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Tangible and Intangible Heritage Resources need by the following actions to be efficient:
Pr. Jos Maria de Juan Alonso, Koan Consulting SL

Heritage interpretation
Heritage revitalization
Influence of the carrying capacity in the
quality of the experience

Story telling
Heritage animation
Permanently looking at the carrying capacity
of the heritage resources

Brand performance and ranking

Figure 42: Country Brand Ranking 2014 2015, Tourism Edition, Bloom Consulting

According to Bloom Consulting, a country brand performance is based on


the combination of the countrys economic results, its digital demand, its
country brand strategy (CBS) rating, and its online performance.
Based on this criteria, Bloom Consulting ranked Nepal as the 27 th Country
brand in Asia, and the 88th country brand in the world in 2014, with a
country brand strategy graded AA (Strong), which is an excellent result.
Figure 43: Bloom Consulting

Strategy
Strategically, the use of tourism for economic growth and favorable balance of payments is key in Nepal, but
tourism is also as an important instrument to fight against of poverty by increasing employment
opportunities directly and indirectly in urban as well as rural areas, particularly in the hills and mountain
areas along trekking trails and tourism sites.

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Common objective of most strategies concerning Nepal Tourism:

Developing live hoods, tourism infrastructure, to improve air and land transports security
Enhance and promote the image of Nepal worldwide
Increase Tourism Activities and products, extend tourism to unexploited areas
Create employment in rural Areas
Sharing the benefits of tourism in the grassroots level
To attract FDIs

Figure 44: Tourism Activity Portfolio

As mentioned by the Nepals Tourism Strategic Plan 2002-2009, the Nepalese tourism strategys main
objectives, on a middle-term basis, are to diversify the tourism products, and to get more revenues from
tourism products (positioning).
Multi-destinations, transnational products and tourism routes
Many travelers are going from a country to another during their journey in Asia. In the case of Nepal, direct
connections can be made with Bhutan, Tibet (China), Northern India. It is strategic for Nepal tourism
stakeholders to collaborate with these countries and facilitate travelling in this area.
Strategically, Nepal plays on elements of differentiation such as genuineness of its assets, on its unique
cultural heritage and on its unspoiled nature and landscapes.
Main Existing Channels of Communication

Traditional Medias
- Television
- Newspapers
- Magazines
- Travel Guide Books
- Radio

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Live Communication
- Word of mouth (insist on its importance for Nepal)
- Direct communication (on the street)
- Participation to Tourism Fairs
- Phoning

Digital Communication
- Social Medias (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn)
- Bloggers
- Online newspapers
- E-mailing

Third Parties
- Tour Operators
- Associations, Organizations and Federations
- Foreign Travel agency (partnership)
Based on surveys conducted by the Nepal Tourism Board, among the visitors to Nepal, 47% cited that friends
and family were their most important sources of information on Nepal. The more massive media or proactive
channels including advertising, TV, tour operators were only considered by 2%, 6% and 17% of the tourists
respectively as their key sources of information on Nepal tourism.
Nepal current Digital Marketing Strategy by the NTB:
As stated, the earthquake had an enormous impact on the Nepali tourism sector. In order to overcome the
drop in tourists arrivals due to an occidental media coverage stating that the country is destroyed and
unsafe. The Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) and the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing
Countries (CBI) conjointly worked together towards the survival of Nepals devastated tourism.
The agreement establishes a two partys cooperation in order to promote and market the Nepal tourism
sector in the European market. The promotion strategy included the development of a new website
(www.nepalnow.org). This website highlights general information about Nepal; it also features foreign
tourists storytelling. Moreover, the promotion strategy is also focused on social media in order to convey
the message out in the European market. According to Mr. Sunil Sharma, NTB Officiating Director - Public
Relations and Publicity, this survival campaign will end in May, leaving its place to a revival campaign under
the flag name of Nepal Back on the top of World.
Those new digital strategies go along with a well-established brand which is Naturally Nepal. Nepal
repositioned its branding in 2006 with the slogan Once is not enough with the aim of promoting the true
feeling of hospitality, festivals, adventure and meditation.
According to Nepal Tourism Statistics 2014, Tourist arrivals increased by 37.2% in 2007, but in 2013 we
notice a slight decrease in tourist arrivals by -0.7% followed by another decrease of -0.9% in 2014 (Sapkota,
2015). We can deduce that the launch of the branding campaign in 2006 had a huge impact which was
translated by an increase in tourist arrivals; however, the drop in arrivals in 2013 may be interpreted by the
fact that the branding campaign of Naturally Nepal is in its maturity phase, and it will need a new wind of
change.
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Audit of Nepal Tourism Board digital channels of communication:
Website:
The main channel of communication used by the NTB is the website www.welcomenepal.com. The new
version of the website was launched during the month of May 2016. We decided to analyze important areas
such as SEO, website performance, design, content and accessibility using the SiteAnalyser tool.
In terms of search engine optimization (SEO), which is defined as a process affecting the visibility of a
website in a web search engine unpaid results (Ortiz-Cordova and Jansen, 2012), the NTB needs to make
effort on improving various parts.
Header
Informations
Meta
description is
too short

Indexation
Meta Robots
is missing.
Sitemap is
missing.

Duplicate
content
Canonical URL
is missing.

Multimedia

Networking

39/59 images
don't have an
atlternative
text.

There are too


many link tags
in the page.

Figure 45

In terms of website performance optimization, WPO refers to the speed in which web pages are downloaded
and displayed on the users browser. www.welcomenepal.com is performing well; however, some areas
still can be improve.

Download Optimization
Server execution time exceeds 0.5 s.

Loading Optimization
There are too many integrated scripts in the
page.
There are inline CSS in the page

Figure 46

Concerning the web design, which is defined as the different skills and discipline in the production and
maintenance of websites, www.welcomenepal.com is performing well; the Figure 47 shows the design
overview of important criteria.

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Figure 47: SiteAnalyser

Concerning the websites content, it is defined as the textual, graphic or audio content that is encountered
as part of the users experience on websites. The image below shows the content overviews and metrics.
These contents indicators show the most used keywords, as well as the text/code ratio, which is highly
considered by Google Ranking Algorithm, by the quantity of keywords, and finally by the keywords
repetition.

Figure 48: SiteAnalyser

In terms of accessibility, www.welcomenepal.com shows a good score in terms of mobile responsiveness.


The social media shared publications are on the website but they dont include Open Graph, Twitter card or
Google + Publisher.
Social Media:
NTB is present in all major social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube. Even
though, Instagram is not shown on the official website; the NTB has its proper page in one of the fastest
growing social media. Its important to underline that the NTBs marketing campaign NepalNow has its
own social media pages too.
Due to the fact that we do not have access to these social media accounts, we cannot analyze their current
traffic and data. However, we were able to analyze the Facebook page.

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According to our research and the use of social media


analytics tools such as fanpagekarma.com, the Figure 49
shows major information in terms of number of followers,
content and times & types of posts.
We can notice that in terms of followers, 53% are from
Nepal, and only less than 1% are from France and Spain.

Figure 49: Findpage Karma

We can notice from the Figure 50 that the majority of the posts are made on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday,
and Sunday. Moreover, during the month of May, 46 posts over 86 were pictures, 36 were links, 2 were
status and 2 were videos.

Figure 50: Findpage Karma

The graphics above summarize the engagement of followers per daytime according to GMT+1 time zone
which corresponds to Madrid, Paris and major European cities time zone. We notice that the posts are made
during the afternoon according to GMT+1. The color of the bubble indicates how well fans reacted. The
greener the more likes, comments and shares.

Figure 51: Findpage Karma

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Travel Agents Communication Practices
Nepalese travel agents communication and promotion of tourism products is key to the country brands
success since they are the stakeholders having direct contact with foreigners. The way they expose and sell
tourism products, activities and destinations defines the future of tourism in Nepal.
For this reason, applied Marketing from travel agents is key. The results of our online survey for travel agents
(Appendix 2) shared by the TAAN to its members allowed a brief analysis of their communication practices.
First, the fact that 42.9 percent of travel agents dont consider they are doing much marketing in general got
our attention. It means that they are aware that the way they communicate is not their current priority, or
that they cannot afford doing proper promotion.
Still, 71.4 percent of them own their own website, but only 28.6 percent do try to improve and implement
SEO or SEM strategies. Sales from their website vary a lot from a company to another (from 0% to 50% of
their total sales come from their website).
Also, 100 percent of the travel agents that filled our survey own a Facebook page, 57 percent use Google+
and LinkedIn, 42.9 percent are on Twitter and YouTube, and only 28.6 percent use Instagram.
The importance of the digital Era in the tourism industry
E-commerce is a fast-expanding business that is changing traditional retailing. Technology is now part of
everyday-life in most countries, and buying online is more and more used. According to Statista 2016, global
Business to Customers sales in Billion USD nearly doubled between 2012 and 2016, and the forecasts follow
the same lead. E-commerce becomes the main and most influential media, tool and platform to do business.
(B2C e-commerce sales worldwide 2018, 2016)
The same phenomenon and trend occurred in the travel Industry. It is now very common and safe to book
a flight online, to book a hotel on an OTAs website, or to buy a holiday tailor-mades package on a travel
agencys website.
B2C E-COMMERCE SALES WORLDWIDE
FROM 2012 TO 2018
This statistic provides information on B2C e commerce sales worldwide from 2012 and 2013
including a forescast until 2018. In 2016, global B2C
e-commerce sales are expected to reach 1.92
trillion U.S. Dollar

2500
2000
1500

1058

1233

1471

1700

1922

2143

2356

1000
500
0
2012

2013

2014*

2015*

2016*

2017*

2018*

Sales in bn U.S. dollars


Figure 52: Trip Cycle by Amadeus

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Figure 53: B2C e-commerce sales worldwide 2018 (2016)

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Nowadays the Internet plays a dominant role in travel planning in emerging markets such as China and Brazil
as well as in mature markets such the US and the United Kingdom. While some differences can be expected
in the online travel penetration and consumer behavior, the online travel trip cycle (see Figure 52) is likely
to follow a consistent curve. Across different markets, the usage of internet is high during the Inspire
phase. Inspire refers to emotions, to dreams, to story-telling, to beautiful visuals, or in other words, to
good Marketing/Branding. It is the first step of the discovery stage. Tourists generally turn to online channels
when picking a destination. However, the reliance on online sources usually increases during the shopping
phase. Once visitors develop interest to the proposed products and services, they might start looking into
details and think about booking a trip. This stages challenge is to keep the visitors interest; future travelers
rely on travel websites/applications and search engines to compare and decide which travel products they
will buy (see Figure 54). In many destinations, online usage slightly decreases during the booking phase;
visitors are converted into clients, and soon into tourists for the chosen destination. Payment is required,
and the customer must feel comfortable with the procedure, without a doubt; the decrease during the
booking phase can be explained by the fact that some travelers switch to offline sources to undergo their
transactions. It is within this booking phase that the differences between emerging and mature markets are
becoming more obvious. According to a report from Amadeus, In Russia, for example, 79% of leisure
travelers shopped online in the past 12 months, while just 61% purchased travel products online. In contrast,
among leisure travelers in the U.K., Australia and the U.S., online penetration remained in the 80-90% range
across both the shopping and booking phases. (Walsh and Gasdia, 2015) we can notice from the figure 54,
that from the 80% of the French travelers who shopped online, 77% made a purchase which is a strong
indicator that French travelers use payment gateways to buy their travels.

Figure 54: Search-Shop-Buy-Share Online Penetration (All Devices), by Amadeus

These numbers show that even in markets with traditional offline buying behaviors; online shopping
channels often influence travelers purchasing decisions. The rise of social networking and smartphones
happened when many destinations were still developing their online presence. Consequently, demographic
features of emerging markets caused the adoption of social networks and mobile devices to exceed that of
mature markets. For instance, the online travel population of countries such as Russian, China and Brazil
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tends to be young and technological oriented; thus, leading to an above-average incidence of travel sharing
on social media.
The usage of mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones for leisure traveling is growing exponentially
worldwide. Also, travel planning made on mobile devices is higher within the emerging markets. The figure
55 shows what kinds of use are being made when shopping online. According to the same report from
Amadeus, More than half of Chinese leisure travelers and 27% of Brazilian leisure travelers shopped for
their last leisure trips via smartphone. Of course, laptop/desktop computers continue to play a dominant
role in travel shopping; 60-70% of travelers across markets shopped for their last trips via PC. However, in
the most mature markets; PC usage is beginning to decline as some travelers choose to rely instead on
mobile device. (Walsh and Gasdia, 2015). Its very important to highlight that French travelers still tend to
shop using computers.

Figure 55: Devices Used to Shop, by Amadeus

The Importance of Digital Marketing within a Destination Marketing Strategy


Destination marketing strategies involved over the past decade as digital marketing and social media have
played a new role in campaigns development. Fresh and innovative types of content such as images, videos
and storytelling have been shared all over the world through social media, blogs and other digital platforms
(Shankman, 2015).
According to an interview from Jan Olsen, VisitDenmark CEO: One of the determining factors for choosing
a destination nowadays is other travelers experiences and recommendations of a given destination. Thats
why we work a lot with user generated content, both on social media and other conventional communication
channels. A visitors personal recommendation is key, and we believe that has an ever-increasing importance
in kick starting a travel dream in the trigger phase, and influencing those who are looking for good advice in
their travel research. Because the value chain is changing, digital development is dictating where we need
to be as a destination if we wish to influence a travel decision (Shankman, 2015).
As part of this series of interviews with CEOs of major DMOs, one common point that rises is the importance
of digital marketing and social media as part of destination promotion. Internet is used in a way that social
media platforms play an important role that allow users to collaborate in communicating and publishing
unique content such as videos, blogs, reviews or photos (Boyd and Ellison, 2008).

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Nowadays social media and digital marketing take part on the demand and supply of tourism, permitting
destinations to act directly with visitors and future travelers through different digital channels. It allows
DMOs to monitor and react to travelers opinions and reviews. During decades DMOs mainly used traditional
sources of promotions such as travel agencies, tour operators and commercials. These days, digital tools
have become major instruments as well. The main reason behind this shift toward digital marketing is the
fact that it is cost effective with a large reach; moreover, digital marketing has the ability to be easily
customized in order to take advantage of current trends. Digital marketing is particularly important for
tourism because this industry is information intensive (Gretzel et al., 2000, p. 147). Currently, more travelers
plan their trips on their own, and share their choices online (accommodations, visits, attractions, and
restaurants). Tourism is a kind of product that is intangible, and it cannot be evaluated or tested before
consumption, thus personal recommendations from travelers are key and very influential (Social Media
Marketing Plan, 2011). Consequently, travel companies such as Lonely Planet or TripAdvisor developed
their own communities forum where travelers can engage conversations and share their respective
experiences. According to Chung and Buhalis (2008, p 272), the increasing popularity of online travel
communities is due to the fact that it gains more trustworthy reviews. Moreover, communication is no longer
within the boundaries of producer-to-consumer. It is more on the side of consumer-to-consumer, and going
back to consumer-to-producer nowadays (Buhalis, 2003).
According to Gretzel et al. (2006), DMOs will have to face many challenges in the near future. One of those
challenges was to adapt to technological change. Internet evolved from Web 1.0, where DMOs had websites
and purchased online banners and advertising to Web 2.0 with the rise of social medias and finally to web
3.0 with new mobile and connected devices such as tablets or smartphones; changing the behavior of
customers online and generating new trends.

A digital communication success story


One country above all the others showed a national interest in promoting its destination by
betting on digital marketing. This country is Australia.
Back in 2010, the Australian government asked a simple question, How do you content market an entire country,
when the country started their ambitious Theres nothing like Australia campaign.
In 2016, Tourism Australia has the most popular destination page on Facebook, with more than 7 million engaged
followers, and 2.2 million followers on their Instagram page. According to Jafri (2013), the success of Australias
implementation of social medias practices relies on 9 content lessons:

The first one is In-House social media team. Back in 2013, Australias SM team consisted in only three
members, according to Nick Baker, EGM of consumer marketing for Tourism Australia. In 2013, the aim of
the Australian government was to reach 4 million Facebook fans by involving the 23 million Australians and
the 6.1 million tourists who visited the country during the previous year. Their objective was to become

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part of the worlds largest social media team and ambassadors. To do so, the social media team gathered
thousands of images of Australia which had been shared with them by Australians and tourists who visited
the country. Thus, Tourism Australia was able to convert these images into content (Jafri, 2013).

As we stated above, Tourism Australia bet on the content generated by tourist, so the fans are more than
welcome to add their pictures in a Photoboard app. All these photos are then subjected to a vote from the
social media team and published on Facebook and Instagram every Friday (Jafri, 2013).

Followers become brand ambassadors. A single picture can get thousands of likes, shares and comments,
and it gives the snappers a chance to show their hard work and fans to share their vacation pictures. Hence,
everyone become an expert about the destination and happy at the same time (Jafri, 2013).

Tourism Australia strongly believes that travel decisions are largely made via word of mouth and sees all its
fans, residents and visitors as brand promoters. Generally, travelers book their trips once or twice a year
and put a lot of effort into it, so consistency and social sharing matters in brand recall (Jafri, 2013).

The customer is the Hero of the tail. Giving the power of storytelling to its followers is what made Tourism
Australia successful. 95% of the content published is generated by fans (Jafri, 2013).

Fans own their content. In 2011, Facebook revealed its new Timeline. Tourism Australia didnt miss the
chance to invite all their fans to share their images from way-back (Jafri, 2013).

The concept of NewsJacking is growing within the online marketing community. The concept is defined
by injecting an idea into breaking news in order to generate media coverage and make a buzz around it.
Tourism Australia takes advantages of specific stories to gain attraction on its social media websites. One
of the best examples was the end of the world predicted by the Mayans in 2012. Tourism Australia turned
the story into a funny joke by publishing a post where they stated: Dont worry about the world coming to
an end today. Its already tomorrow in Australia (Jafri, 2013).

Stories need to develop on their own. Social sharing is part of Tourism Australias main digital marketing
strategy. When a fan shares an image, he also reaches out his network of friends which is a kind of Word of
Mouth. Giving a tool that allow tourist to share their experience is essential in order to have a successful
digital marketing strategy (Jafri, 2013).

Finally, to have a successful formula of fans posting images, DMOs need to keep in mind that every Social
Platform has its own rules; thus, making a generality is a big mistake (Jafri, 2013).

To sum up, Tourism Australia relied on specific objectives in the implementation of their digital strategy. These
objectives are to move away from own generated types of content and instead hold on the participatory nature of
social media. Not to only focus on marketing future prospects that havent visited the country yet, and instead focus
on tourists and Australian citizens who already travelled there in order to become their brand ambassadors. The
main goal at the end was to build up a natural level of pride and belonging.
The nature of social medias imposes the importance of testing continuously to find the best strategy and practices
that are best for developing your destination. Making mistakes shouldnt be an end, but it gives the possibility to
improve what has been done so far.

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SWOT Analysis for the Nepalese Tourism
The SWOT analysis is a method or a strategic analysis tool that a company or organization can use for
marketing purposes. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses (SW: internal diagnosis), Opportunities and
Threats (OT: external diagnosis). It allows us to have an overall picture of the current situation of Nepal
(tourism oriented).

Strengths

Natural Assets (Himalayas, Climate, Tropical


National Parks, Fauna and Flora)
Demand / Supply gap
UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Variety of Activities available
Cultures, multi-ethnic groups, Food
Most Tourism agents speak English
Attractive prices (depending on products)
Educated workforce
Friendly People
Quick tourism recovery from the earthquake
(Back on Top of the World, Nepal Now)
The NTB new digital implementations

Opportunities*

Global Tourism Constant Increase


Tourism Trends match Nepali offer (adventure,
well-being, )
Hotel and Resorts joint ventures (FDIs)
Unexploited geographic areas to develop
Public-Private partnerships
Growing tourism outbound of immediate
neighbors
Spill over effects from adjoining destinations of
India and China
Emerging middle class (increasing domestic
tourism expenses)
Digital marketing: rising trends, cost effective,
allows good targeting and broad reach

Weaknesses

Pollution, noise, traffic jams


Low capacity (beds)
Lack of Infrastructures, access to electricity,
clean water, landlocked country, limited
connectivity and access
Lack of communication in Europe
Brand Image (extreme sports, Everest)
Very few French and Spanish speakers
High prices (depending on products)
Relatively low Attractiveness of FDIs Regulations
Political risk and instability
Low online marketing effectiveness up-to-date

Threats*

Competition from other tourism destinations


Destruction of cultural values
High Seasonality of Tourism
2015s Earthquakes Recovery delay and
improvement of infrastructures / Capacity
Political instability
Geopolitical tensions with India
Insufficient educated labor

*Notice: Threats can be turned into opportunities if Nepals tourism stakeholders take advantage of them.
For example, if seasonality is overcome by new measures, it can become an opportunity.

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A journey of a thousand miles must begin with


a single step.

Tatopani, Langtang, Nepal

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1 - Nepal Tourism Analysis .................................... 4


2 - The French and Spanish Markets .................. 46
2.1
2.1.1
2.1.2
2.1.3
2.1.4
2.1.5
2.1.6
2.1.7
2.1.8

2.2
2.2.1
2.2.2
2.2.3
2.2.4
2.2.5
2.2.6
2.2.7
2.2.8

2.3
2.3.1
2.3.2
2.3.3

2.4
2.4.1

The Spanish Market .................................................................................................... 46


General Information .................................................................................................................................. 46
Spanish Tourism Destination: Presentation and main data ....................................................................... 46
The Growth of Spanish Tourism ................................................................................................................ 47
Spanish Tourism Key Statistic 2015 ........................................................................................................... 47
The Spanish Tourism Structure .................................................................................................................. 48
The Spanish Customer Behaviors .............................................................................................................. 50
Internet trends .......................................................................................................................................... 52
Social Medias in Spain ............................................................................................................................... 53

The French Market ..................................................................................................... 53


General Information .................................................................................................................................. 53
French Tourism Destination: Presentation and main data ........................................................................ 54
Growth of French Tourism......................................................................................................................... 54
French Tourism Key Statistic 2015 ............................................................................................................. 55
The French Tourism Structure ................................................................................................................... 55
The French Customer Behaviors ................................................................................................................ 57
Internet Trends in France .......................................................................................................................... 59
Social Medias in France ............................................................................................................................. 60

Customers Segmentation and Profiles ........................................................................ 60


Segmentation by kind of Tourism .............................................................................................................. 61
Segmentation by kind of tourists: .............................................................................................................. 64
Online Surveys Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 67

The French and Spanish Travelers to Nepal ................................................................ 75


SWOT analysis of the French and Spanish market ..................................................................................... 77

3 - Recommendations ......................................... 80
4 - References ..................................................... 99
5 - Appendices .................................................. 106

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2 - The French and Spanish Markets


France and Spain are two of the most important European markets. Unfortunately, because of a lack of
information and promotion concerning Nepal, these two markets are among the secondary countries list in
terms of tourism arrivals in Nepal.
In this part we will analyze the French and Spanish markets thanks to the primary and secondary data we
collected. This part aims to reach relevant conclusions that would allow to improve and increase Nepals
country brand awareness and tourism arrivals from these two countries.
In terms of structure, in the first part we will analyze the secondary data; general information about these
countries, the structure of the tourism for both markets and customer behaviors. In the second part, we will
analyze the primary data we collected thanks to our online Google drive survey and the interviews we did
with important associations and organizations of Nepal tourism. Finally we will see how these European
demands can match the offer of Nepals tourism.

2.1 The Spanish Market


2.1.1 General Information
Population:

46 423 046 (30th)

Area:

505 990 km2/ 195 364 sq. mi

Capital:

Madrid

Government:

Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy

Spain is a state located on the Iberian Peninsula of southwestern Europe, with


islands in the Atlantic Ocean (Canarias) and in the Mediterranean Sea
(Baleares). Its mainland is bordered in the south and east by the
Mediterranean Sea; in the north and northeast by France, Andorra; and in
the west by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean. Along with France and Morocco,
it is one of the only three countries that have both Atlantic and
Mediterranean coastlines. Spain is a decentralized state with 17 Autonomous
Communities and 2 Autonomous Cities in North Africa. Also, Spain is a
member of the European Union since 1986. (Figure 56)

Figure 56: Location of Spain

2.1.2 Spanish Tourism Destination: Presentation and main data


GDP:
Currency:

Nominal
Per capita

$1 199 trillion (14th)


$24 326 (29th)
Euro ()

Figure 57: Spain tourism statistics 2015

The Spanish economy until 2008 was considered one of the most dynamic in the EU, attracting significant
foreign investment.
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The Service Sector plays a key role in the country's economy, contributing over 70% of total national GDP.
The main trading partners are Germany, France, Italy and Portugal.
According to the World Economic Forum in its Global Competitiveness Report 2015/2016; Spain was ranked
33rd out of 144 countries.
The World Bank Group ranked Spain as 33rd out of 189 countries surveyed in its Doing Business Report 2015.
Spain has improved its performance in the last year, reaching 73.17 points (maximum 100).
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), confirmed its forecasts for the GPD of Spain with a growth of 1.4%
in 2014 and 3.1% in 2015. Spain will maintain one of the strongest growths among the developed countries.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the projections for 2016 forecast a growth of around 2.5% of
the GPD.

2.1.3 The Growth of Spanish Tourism


Domestic tourism:
Outbound tourism:
TOTAL:

157 331 084


15 139 656
172 470 740

+15%
+26%
+16%

Figure 58: INE 2015

The information provided by the Residents Tourism Survey elaborated by the INE (Instituto Nacional de
Estatistica) regarding the travel patterns of Spaniards shows an important increase in trips. The Domestic
Tourism recorded an increase of 15%, and Outbound Tourism kept its increasing trend of 2014, reaching a
+26% growth.
Regarding the figure 58, the available data covers periods from January to December 2015, pointing a total
of over 172.5 million trips (+16% compared to 2014), of which 157 million correspond to the domestic section
(+15% from the previous year) and 15 million to the outbound with a growth of 26%.

2.1.4 Spanish Tourism Key Statistic 2015

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Outbound tourism
growth of 26%

Expenses of spanish
tourism increase of
16%

International
tourism increase of
5%

3.1% GPD growth

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2.1.5 The Spanish Tourism Structure
The ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism is in charge of the country branding in Spain. To manage the
different branches of the tourism, there is a subdivision of the ministry: The Secretary of State for Tourism
which controls the tourism data base, the communication and the marketing of the country.
The tourism structure of Spain is also composed by other organizations and associations at national and
regional levels (Figure 59):

The central administration is divided in two: General and Touristic.

The Autonomous Communities administration is divided in three: Tourism Departments of the


Autonomous Communities, Tourist Promotion of the Autonomous Communities, and Tourism
statistics of the Autonomous Communities.

Organizational chart:

Figure 59: Turespaa

TURESPAA is an autonomous organization that promotes Spain as a destination. Its main functions are the
following (Figure 60):

Promotion and marketing of tourism products and destinations in international markets, in


collaboration with the regional authorities (Autonomous Communities), local authorities and the
private sector.

Drawing up the bases of tourism policy, in collaboration with other state organizations, public
authorities and the private sector through the Sector-Based Tourism Conference, the Spanish
Tourism Board and the Inter-ministerial Tourism Committee.

Supporting Spanish tourism firms abroad and expediting international tourism cooperation and
relations.

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Analyzing knowledge and intelligence of the tourism cluster and bringing it to wider notice.

Drawing up plans and programs to foster innovation, quality, sustainability and competitiveness of
tourism products and destinations.

Driving the modernization of the tourism sector, improving its scientific and technological capacity
and enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of management processes.

Strategy and investment of Paradores de Turismo de Espaa S.A (the company running the Stateowned hotel network).

TURESPAA carries out its activity abroad through a network of 33 Spanish Tourism Offices, which relie on
Spains embassies and consulates. They are organized in 8 geographical areas:
North America

Iberoamerica (Central and South America, Caribbean)

North Europe

Central Europe, South Europe, Mediterranean and Middle East

East Europe and East-Pacific Asia (zone A)

Pacific Asia (zone B)

There are around 500 persons working for TURESPAA and the budget for the branding of Spain was
approximately 225 million euros in 2009. A 33% of this amount was directly invested in the campaign and
the international activities of the tourism promotion.
TURESPAA Organization chart:

Figure 60: Turespaa

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The tourism structure of Spain is also composed by private organizations and associations such as Online
Travel Agencies (OTA), Travel Agencies (TA) and Tour Operators (TO)
In Spain there are around 1 800 Travel Agencies with more than 6 000 offices. 41.3% of the Spanish
consumers use this kind of agencies to organize their trips, compared to the 22.7% that use the OTA. The
36% of the market use a mix of both kind of agencies.
The 10 mains OTAs in Spain are: Booking, Expedia, Hotelbeds, Gulliver Travel Associates, Hotusa, Hotel
Reservation Service, Orbitz, The Booking Button, Agoda and Travelocity; with a large dominance of Booking
and Expedia which represent 63% of the market.

2.1.6 The Spanish Customer Behaviors


In 2015, the Spanish residents made a total of 172 470
740 travels, which is translated by an increase of 16%
compared to 2014. By destination, an important part of
the Spanish tourism is domestic (91.3%) but the
outbound tourism (8.7%) increased of 26% compared to
2014. (Figure 61)

SPANISH RESIDENTS
TRIPS BY DESTINATION
IN 2015
9%

91%

Domestic tourism

Outbound tourism
Figure 61: INE 2015

The distribution of the outbound tourism in 2014 was as described on the


table on the right.

Europe
America
Africa
Asia

77.1%
10.9%
8.7%
3.3%

The sociodemographic characteristics of the Spanish travelers population shows that, in 2015, 47.3% of the
Spanish tourists were women and the 52.7% were men. The large majority of the tourists are between 30
and 64 years old (69.3%), (Figure 62).
Total
15 to 29 years
30 to 44 years
45 to 64 years
+ 65 years
Woman
15 to 29 years
30 to 44 years
45 to 64 years
+ 65 years
Man
15 to 29 years
30 to 44 years
45 to 64 years
+ 65 years

Total
146 397 353
28 547 483,8
52 117 457,7
49 335 907,9
16 396 503,5
69 245 948
14 056 927,4
23 751 360,1
23 474 376,4
7 963 284,1
77 151 404
14 658 766,8
28 391 716,7
25 614 266,1
8 486 654,4

Percentage
100%
19.5%
35.6%
33.7%
11.2%
100%
20.3%
34.3%
33.9%
11.5%
100%
19%
36.8%
33.2%
11%

Length of stay (nights)


4.1
3.7
3.7
6.1
3.9
4.3
4.4
3.8
3.8
6.9
3.9
3.9
3.7
3.6
5.5

Figure 62: INE 2015

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For the following analysis, we will only focus on the Spanish outbound tourism.
On average, 36.1% of Spanish tourists travel during 1 to 3 days, 38.4% between 3 to 8 days and finally 25.5%
stay more than 8 days. Consequently, the Spaniards average length of stay while traveling out of Spain is
around 8.5 nights (Figure 65).
Trips
Length of stay
Between 1 to 3 days
Between 3 to 8 days
More than 8 days
Total

Total
5 487 075,8
5 836 667,9
3 875 912,3
15 139 656

Percentage
36.1%
38.4%
25.5%
100%

Figure 63: INE 2015

WHY THEY TRAVEL?


0.1%

A large majority of tourists travel for leisure,


which represents 53.8% of the total outbound
trips. Moreover, 26.1% of travels have as a
purpose to visit family members, and around
15% travels are made for business reasons.
0.1% of the tourists travel for other reasons
(Figure 64).

15%

56%

27%

Leisure

Visit of family members

Business

Other reasons
Figure 64: INE 2015

The accommodation trends for Spanish outbound tourism show a clear predominance of the hotels with
51.5% of stays (length of stay of 5.4 nights), followed by the houses of family and friends (29%) but with
longer stays (12.8 nights). A 7% are vocational rentals and the length of stay is 11.1 nights. The rest of the
tourists choose other kind of accommodations to stay in (12.5%) and stay for 9.8 nights (Figure 65).

Hotel
Family member house
Rent
Other
Total

Number of tourist
7 796 922,8
4 390 500,3
1 059 775,9
1 892 457
15 139 656

Average stay (nights)


5.4
12.8
11.1
9.8
9.8

Figure 65: INE 2015

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The predominant mean of transportation used
by Spanish outbound tourists is the airplane with
a 63% share. 27% of tourists use their own
vehicle, and 9.5% use another kind of
transportation.
When traveling by airplane, the tourists stay, on
average, 9.5 nights, more than the 6.6 nights
when they used their own transportation, and
around 9.8 nights for the tourists that use
another kind of transportation (Figure 66).

KIND OF TRANSPORT

10%
27%
63%

For the organization of their trip, most of the


tourists travel without a touristic package
(85.3%) and 14.7% will choose a package to travel (Figure 67).

Airplane

Other

Figure 66: INE 2015

Number of tourist
2 225 529
12 914 127

With package
Without package

Own vehicle

Length of stay
6.8 nights
8.8 nights

Figure 67: INE 2015

The expenses of the Spanish tourism abroad in 2015 (January-October) represent 13.1 billion euros with an
increase of 16% compared to 2014, which represent a new record. It should reach 15 billion euros by the
end of 2015 (1EUR = 110.54 NPR on average in 2015).
In 2015, the average expenses per Spanish tourist was 767.3, around 90 per day of holiday. But the daily
expenses for the cultural tourism was higher, with around 120 spent per day and 100 spent per day for
the sport tourism. The visit of family is the tourism with the lowest expenses (45), (Figure 68).

Total

Expenses (in billion)

Change 2014/2015

Expenses per trip

13.1

+ 16%

767.3

Figure 68: INE 2015

2.1.7 Internet trends


Another important trend is the increase of the internet use in the Spanish tourism industry. According to the
report of the National Institute of Statistics of October 2015, 79% of Spanish households had access to the
Internet (increasing of 5 points compared to the previous year). The segment of intensive internet users
(daily use) represented 25.8 million people, in which 64.3% of the population is aged 16-74 years old.
E-commerce in Spain continues to increase progressively. According to the report published by the National
Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC); sales continue to gain weight in overall trade at high
speed, reaching a turnover of 4.4 billion of euros (24.5 points more than during the previous year). The size
of the sector has almost tripled since 2009.
Online businesses related to tourism, such as transport ticket and room reservations continued to lead the
industry in 2015. Travel agents, tour operators, hotels and airline tickets lead with more than 16% share.
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The firm eMarketer expects the Spanish ecommerce turnover nearly to double in the next two years,
reaching 30 billion euros per year in 2016. This figure puts Spain as the European market that will grow the
most between 2013 and 2017.
According to the Observatory Cetelem eCommerce published in December 2014, Travel represents the first
purchases made on the internet within the last 12 months, with a 54% share. The average expense on travel
purchases is 678 euros.
The most used payment tool was PayPal, with 71% of the online buyers using it; followed by debit cards
(51%).

2.1.8 Social Medias in Spain


The report of the National Institute of Statistics reveals that 9 out of 10 Internet users use social networks
(generally, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram); the young people aged 16 to 30 years old being the most active.
We can notice an increase in the number of owned accounts by person (from 2.3 to 2.5).
LinkedIn and Instagram are the 2 social Medias with the most important users increase with 7% and 6%
respectively. YouTube is used by more than 95% of the social media users.
Data from the report published by Deloitte Global on mobile consumption in Spain in 2015 concluded that
Spain is one of the most advanced countries in terms of smartphones use. More than 83% of mobile phone
users have smartphones, ranking Spain as the second country among the developed countries in market
penetration of smartphones, behind Singapore.

2.2 The French Market


2.2.1 General Information
Population:

67 227 000 (20th)

Area:

643 801 km2/248 600 sq. mi

Capital:

Paris

Government:

Unitary semi-presidential constitutional republic

France is a state including territories overseas in several overseas regions.


The European and main part of France called metropolitan France, extends
from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel, the North Sea, and from
the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It shares its border with Spain, Andorra,
Monaco, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium. It is a
unitary semi-presidential republic, and its capital city is Paris. France is
divided into 18 administrative regions: 13 in metropolitan France and 5
located overseas. It is a member of the European Union (EU) since its creation
in 1954 (Figure 69).
Figure 69: Location of metropolitan France

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2.2.2 French Tourism Destination: Presentation and main data
GDP:

Nominal
Per capita

Currency:

$2 422 trillion (6th)


$37 675 (20th)
Euro ()

Figure 70: France tourism statistics 2015

In 2014, internal tourism consumption grew at a rate of 1.9% and accounted for 7.4% of the countrys GDP,
with 158.3 billion. French tourists represented two thirds of this consumption, with non-resident tourists
making up the remainder. Growth was higher from foreign tourists (+3.7%) than for French holidaymakers
(+1.0%). Accommodation rentals by individuals also progressed, driven by the expansion of dedicated
websites in this area.
The World Economic Forum in its Global Competitiveness Report 2015/2016 ranked France 22 nd out of 144
countries in the ranking (23 in 2014).
According to the World Bank Group and its Doing Business Report 2015, France was ranked 31st out of 189
countries surveyed. France has improved its ranking compared to the previous year, with a score of 73.88
points (maximum 100).
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) confirms its forecasts for the GPD of France growing of 0.2% in 2014
and 1.1% in 2015.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the projections for 2016 forecast a growth of around 1.1% of
the GPD.

2.2.3 Growth of French Tourism


Domestic tourism:
Outbound tourism:
TOTAL:

181 million
24.9 million
205.9 million

+0.2%
+8.3%
+1.1%

Figure 71: France tourism statistics 2015

The information provided and elaborated by the DGE (Direction Gnrale des Entreprises) regarding the
travel patterns of French travelers shows an increase in the trips made. The Domestic Tourism is almost
stable, with an increase of 0.2% and Outbound Tourism continues the increasing trend of 2014, reaching
+8.3% (Figure 71).
Regarding the figures, the data covers January to December 2015, pointing a total of over 205.9 million trips
(+1.1% compared to 2014), of which 181 million correspond to the domestic section (+0.2% from the
previous year) and 24.9 million correspond to the outbound tourism with a growth of 8.3%.

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2.2.4 French Tourism Key Statistic 2015

Outbound tourism
growth of 8.3%

Expenses of french
tourism increase of
4.7%

International tourism
increase of 5%

1.1% GPD growth

2.2.5 The French Tourism Structure


The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development is in charge of the country branding in France.
To manage the different branches of the French tourism, there is a subdivision of the ministry, the Secretary
of State for Foreign Trade, Promotion of Tourism and French Citizen Abroad which control the tourism data
base, the communication, the marketing and promote the country.
Organizational chart:

Figure 72: Conseil National du Tourisme

The tourism structure of France is also composed by other organizations and associations at National and
regional level (Figure 72).

The National Tourism Council (Conseil National du Tourisme, CNT): It depends on the Minister of
Tourism.

Atout France: Private organization having the status of an economic interest group in charge of the
promotion of France as a destination within the country and abroad.
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National Agency for Holiday Vouchers (Agence nationale pour les chques-vacances, ANCV).

The National Federation of Tourist Offices (Fdration nationale des offices de tourisme et syndicats
d'initiative).

Concours des villes et villages fleuris (Floral contest of towns and villages).

CNT Organizational chart:

Figure 73: Conseil National du Tourisme

The National Tourism Council has a role of reflection, advice, exchange and consultation to assist the
definition of state policies in the field of tourism. Its main functions are (Figure 73):

Emits its own initiatives, opinions, reports and recommendations on any field relevant to the tourism
sector.

Carries a mission of monitoring and forecasting, and it is informed of draft national programs in
engineering and promotion abroad.

Minister for Tourism can seek advice about all matters concerning tourism including legislative or
regulatory texts which have an impact on tourism.

The tourism structure of France is also composed by private organizations and associations such as Online
Travel Agencies (OTA), Tour Operators (TO) and Travel Agencies (TA).
In France there are around 6 000 Travel Agencies offices. In 2015, bookings in travel agencies decreased
slightly by 0.4% in passenger numbers. They climbed, however, from 5.8% in sales volume.
According to the barometer conducted in 2013 by the firm Raffour Interactive, nearly 30 million of French
(62%) viewed upstream websites to prepare their holidays.
In 2013, 14.1 million French have booked some or all of their trips on the Internet by paying fully online,
which represents 45% of the French who traveled during this year.
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The 5 mains OTAs operating in France, during the first semester of 2015 are: Voyages-Sncf.com,
Booking.com, Air France, Vente-prive.com and Blablacar. But Booking, Expedia and HRS dominated the
French e-tourism market with 70% of the share. (Appendix 2).
The tourism online sales of the French market represent 18% of the European market (23 billion euros).

2.2.6 The French Customer Behaviors


In 2014, the French residents realized a total of
205, 9 million travels (increase of 1.1% compared
to 2013). It is important to highlight that 88% of
French residents travels were made domestically
and 12% abroad.
(Figure 74).

FRENCH RESIDENTS TRIPS


BY DESTINATION IN 2015
12%

88%

Domestic tourism

Outbound tourism

Figure 74: France tourism statistics 2014

Europe
America
Africa
Asia

77.6%
7.6%
9%
5.8%

On the left we can see the distribution of the outbound tourism in 2014

In 2013, the highest rate of departure was from the French residents aged between 25 and 50 years old
(80.3%). They usually travel around 4.8 times a year and stay on average 4.9 nights in the destination. Senior
citizens aged more than 65 years old are the ones who stay longer in the destination with 7.8 nights.
In total, 75.1% of the French population older than 15 years travels (domestic and outbound tourism). They
do, on average, 4.8 trips per year and stay 5.8 nights in their destination (Figure 75).

Age
15-24 years
25-34 years
35-49 years
50-64 years
More than 65 years
Total

Rate of departure 2013


73,7 %
79,8 %
80,7 %
74,9 %
66,6 %
75,1 %

Number of trips
4,5
5,1
4,5
5,3
4,7
4,8

Length of stay
5,2
4,5
5,3
5,9
7,8
5,8
Figure 75: France tourism statistics 2013

For the following analysis, we will only focus on the French outbound tourism.

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88% of French outbound tourism is for personal reasons
which generally are for leisure purposes. However, the
remaining 12% is travels for business trips (Figure 76).

WHY DO THEY
TRAVEL?

21.5% of the French residents travel between 1 and 3 days


and stay 2.2 nights and 78.5% travel for personal reason
stay more than 4 days with an average of 11.3 nights in the
destination. The average length of stay for the outbound
tourism is 6.8 nights (Figure 77).

12%

88%

Personal

Business

Figure 76: France tourism statistics 2014

Length of stay
Between 1 and 3 days
More than 4 days
Total

Trips
Percentage
21.5%
78.5
100%

Total (million)
5 360
19 550
24 910

Length of stay
2.2 nights
11.3 nights
6.8 nights
Figure 77: France tourism statistics 2014

A large majority of the French


tourists stay in a hotel (50.5%) or
houses of family and friends (24.9%).
13.3% of French tourists stay in a
vacation rental. It is an upward trend
(+92.2% since 2012). The rest of the
French tourists choose other kind of
accommodations to sleep (3%),
(Figure 78).

Hotel
Family/friends house
Rent
Other
Total

9%
8%

Airplane

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Own vehicle

57%

Train

Percentage
50.5%
24.9%
13.3%
3%
100%

Figure 78: France tourism statistics 2014

KIND OF TRANSPORT

26%

Number of tourists
(million)
12 582
6 212
3 311
748
22 412

Other

The way of transportation most used by the


outbound tourist is the airplane (57%) follow by
their own means of transportation 25.8%. An 8.2%
use the train and 9% another kind of
transportation.
When they use the airplane, the tourists stay, on
average, 10.7 nights, more than the 7.7 nights
when they used their own transportation. The
tourist that travel in train stay on average 5.7
nights and the tourist that use another kind of
transportation to travel stay around 8.7 nights in
the destination (Figure 79).
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Figure 79: France tourism statistics 2014

For the organization of their trip, most of the French tourists reserve through Travel Agencies and Tour
Operators (39.5%), Services Providers (44.6%) and Others Reservation Agencies (15.9%). 9.7% of the
travelers dont book their trips in advance (Figure 80).
Number of tourists (million)

Percentage

With reservation

22.5

90.3%

TA and TO (OTAs included)


Services Providers
Others Reservation Agencies

8.9
10
3.6

39.5%
44.6%
15.9%

Without reservation

2.4

9.7%

Total

24.9

100%

Figure 80: France tourism statistics 2014

In 2013, the expenses of the French tourism abroad represented 25.1 billion euros with an increase of 3.8%
compared to 2012. 12.2% of this amount is for the accommodation, 17.6% goes to the transportation and
the other expenses represent 29.5%. The 40.8% of the expenses is for a package (Figure 81).
The average expenses for a night abroad for the French tourist is 116.

Package
Accommodation (Without Package)
Transport (W.P)
Others (W.P)
Total

Expenses (in billion)


10.2
3.1
4.4
7.4
25.1

Percentage
40.8%
12.2%
17.6%
29.5%
100%

Change 2012/2013
+ 3.8%
+ 5.4%
+ 3.9%
+ 3.1%
+ 3.8%

Figure 81: France tourism statistics 2013

2.2.7 Internet Trends in France


Another important data is the increase of internet use in the French tourism industry. According to
Mdiamtrie//NetRatings (January 2016), 83% of French households have access to the Internet. The
segment of intensive users (daily use) totaled 45.5 million people, in which 68.8% of the population is aged
more than 15 years. 43% of this segment (18.2 million consumers) use computers, tablets and mobile phones
daily.
71% of French reviewed Internet websites to prepare their holydays in 2014, an increase of 9 points
compared to 2013, according to the Barometer 2015 Interactive by Raffour cabinet for Opodo.
Also, 45% of French who traveled in foreign countries in 2014 have booked all or a part of their leisure stays
on the internet, paying fully online (14.8 million French).
32% have used their smartphone to book their leisure stays, either to prepare their stay or in order to plan
their holidays and weekends according Raffour Interactive.

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Using mobile technologies becomes a habit: queries related to travel, performed on Google for smartphones
in France represented 24% of total French requests in during the first quarter 2015, against 17% in 2014. The
professionals are well aware. They are increasingly likely to think mobile-first in their digital strategy.
E-tourism in France continues to increase progressively. According to the report published by the
PhoCusWright, sales continue to gain weight in overall trade at high speed, reaching a turnover of 18.3 billion
euros (increase of 4 points compare to 2014). In 2016, the penetration rate of online tourism (web + mobile)
will reach 45%, against 42% in 2012 (PhoCusWright).
In 2013, 57% of the transactions were done using credit cards, 25% using a service of microcredits (paypal
for example), the online payments represented 9% of the transactions and the 9% left represents other kinds
of transactions.
In France, offline distribution channels (telephone, travel agencies ...) lose ground, they are supposedly going
to own a 53% market share in 2016, against a 58% market share in 2013.

2.2.8 Social Medias in France


The report of the ARCEP (Autorit de Rgulation des Communications Electroniques et des Postes) reveals
that 68% of the population have been using social medias at least once. The people aged between 12 to 39
years old are the most active (83.3% of the users), but also 50% of the French aged over 50 years used
Facebook in December 2015.
In France the most important social medias are: Facebook (30 million users, 42% of the French population),
YouTube (23 million users, 35%), Google+ (10 million users, 15%) and Twitter (6 million users, 9.2%).

2.3 Customers Segmentation and Profiles


At this point, we will analyse both the French and Spanish markets, the French and Spanish culture being
very similar. We based our affirmation on Prof. Emeritus Geert Hofstede's validated research. The Hofstede
Centre offers valuable tools to help visualize cultural differences and similarities, and their characteristics
(Figure 82).

CULTURE COMPARISON
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

86

86

71
58

57

63
51

Power distance Individualism

43

48

42

Masculinity

France

Uncertainty
avoidance

Long term
orientation

48

44

Indulgence

Spain
Figure 82: The Hofstede Centre 2016

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Power Distance: is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and
organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.
Individualism: The fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is the degree of interdependence a society
maintains among its members. In Individualist societies people are supposed to look after themselves and
their direct family only. In Collectivist societies people belong to in groups that take care of them in exchange
for loyalty.
Masculinity: The fundamental issue here is what motivates people, wanting to be the best (Masculine) or
liking what you do (Feminine).
Uncertainly avoidance: The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or
unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the score
on Uncertainty Avoidance.
Long term orientation: This dimension describes how every society has to maintain some links with its own
past while dealing with the challenges of the present and future, and societies prioritize these two existential
goals differently. Normative societies.
Indulgence: This dimension is defined as the extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses,
based on the way they were raised.
As we can see, in 4 of 6 cultural features; France and Spain are almost equal. The two main differences
between the French and Spanish cultures are the Individualism and Long term orientation. But in general,
they remains cultures with very similar behaviors. (Figure 64)
Concerning the segmentation of the tourists profiles, there are various ways to classify groups (by
age/sex/budget/interest/etc.). In part of the report, we categorized the French and Spanish segmentation
by kind of tourism, and by kind of tourists. In the segmentation by kind of tourism and its sub-categories,
we defined more precisely the segments and profiles of tourists concerned and the why it is interesting to
target them for Nepal (cultural/medical/sport/educational/etc.).

2.3.1 Segmentation by kind of Tourism


Business tourists
Tourist traveling for business purposes. Part of his expenses is usually cover by the company. The length of
stay is generally short (a few days).
Example: Convention/meeting/politics
Millennials

BOBOs

Foodies

LOHAS

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Education tourists
Tourists traveling to a locals home in order to improve his/her educational qualification. There are also
group of people who travel to attend workshops to upgrade skills.
Example: Yoga/Religion/Culture
Volunteers

Z-Generation

Foodies

Millennials

Backpackers

LOHAS

PANK.s

Adventure tourists
Adventure tourists look for some unusual or special experiences. They seek adventurous activities that may
be considered extreme, such as rock climbing, river rafting, skydiving, shark cave diving and bungee jumping.
Example: Extreme sport/Mountaineering/Everest/Trekking
Volunteers

Backpackers

BOBOs

PANKs

Millennials

Luxury travel

WHOPs

DINKs

Z-Generation

Foodies

LOHAS

Cultural tourists
These types of tourists travel to experience the essence of other cultures, their history, folklore and its
people.
Example: Religion/Ethnizes/World Heritage Sites
Volunteers

Backpackers

BOBOs

PANKs

Millennials

Luxury travel

WHOPs

DINKs

Z-Generation

Foodies

LOHAS

Eco-tourists
They travel through the world in search of destinations that are not affected by pollution or much human
intervention. Ethic is important for them.
Volunteers

Z-Generation

Millennials

Backpackers

LOHAS

Leisure tourists
These tourists want to rejuvenate and revitalize with comfort. To escape the routine of daily life.
Millennials

Luxury travel

WHOPs

Z-Generation

Foodies

PANKs

Backpackers

BOBOs

DINKs

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Religious tourists
Religious tourist travel to sites of religious significance (pilgrimage). Nepal is dotted with a number of
religious locations.
Example: Boudhanath/Lumbini/Buddhas birthday
Volunteers

Backpackers

BOBOs

PANKs

Millennials

Luxury travel

WHOPs

DINKs

Z-Generation

Foodies

LOHAS

Backpackers or youth tourists


This group of tourists is of young age.They travel with minimum luggage and on a limited budget. But they
are very passionate. They seek excitement and adventure while traveling. They generally have no specific
travel schedules and tend to travel independently.
Volunteers

Backpackers

BOBOs

Millennials

Z-Generation

Foodies

Wellness tourism
Travel for the purpose of promoting health and well-being.
Example: Yoga/Meditation
Millennials

Luxury travel

LOHAS

Backpackers

BOBOs

WHOPs

PANKs

Wildlife tourism
An ecological and animal friendly tourism. Wildlife tourists are watching and appreciate fauna and flora
attractions, as to see animals in their natural habitat.
Example: Chitwan/Natural parks
Volunteers

Backpackers

BOBOs

PANKs

Millennials

Luxury travel

WHOPs

DINKs

Z-Generation

Foodies

LOHAS

Special Interest Tourist (STI)/Niche markets


They cultivate particular interests for different things.
Example: Bird watching/Fishing/Dark tourism, etc.
Volunteers

Backpackers

BOBOs

PANKs

Millennials

Luxury travel

WHOPs

DINKs

Z-Generation

Foodies

LOHAS

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2.3.2 Segmentation by kind of tourists:
For this sub-category of tourisms, we classified the tourists analysing their purchasing power, mobility,
demand, etc.
This scoring method is supported by the information collected (primary and secondary data) and analysed,
but it also includes personal interpretation/deductions for each item.
All the attributed grades of this table are between 1 and 10, 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest.

Purchasing Power (P.P): Depends on the income of the tourist(s).

Mobility: The tourist willingness to travel.

Physical Aptitude (P.A): If the tourist is used to do sport and maintains a good physical condition.

Length of stay (L.S): Depending on the usual length of stay while traveling.

Demand: The capacity of Nepal to satisfy the demand of


the tourist.

Receptivity (Recept.): The way the communication affects


and influences the tourist in his decision making
(marketing through social medias, traditional medias, word of mouth, etc.)
Solidary and volunteer

Points
Less than 1 week
1-2 weekst
2-3 weekst
3-4 weekst
More than 1 month

1-2
3-4
5-6
7-8
9-10

They visit cities/regions/countries to help and support the local population and communities through
organizations, associations or by themselves.
P.P
Mobility
P.A
L.S
Demand
Recept.
Volunteers

10

10

Millennials
The generation born in the 1980s and 1990s, comprising primarily the children of the baby boomers and
typically perceived as increasingly familiar with digital and electronic technologies. They are propitious to
travel and usually have a good purchasing power for their holidays.
P.P
Mobility
P.A
L.S
Demand
Recept.
Millennials

Z-generation
It is the new generation of travellers. They are typically comfortable with technology and interacting on
social media websites which is a significant part of their social life.
P.P
Mobility
P.A
L.S
Demand
Recept.
Z-generation
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Backpacker premium/ High tech (flash packer )
They embody a form of independent travel. Including the use of a backpack and a control on their budget.
They often have a longer duration for their trips when compared with most segments. The new generation
usually has technological devices (cameras/smartphones/tablets) to share and publish their adventures.
P.P
Mobility
P.A
L.S
Demand
Recept.
Backpacker

10

10

Premium/ Luxury travel:


Traveller that has an important purchasing power. For their holidays they search for exclusivity and
authenticity, and they are willing to pay the price for it
P.P
Mobility
P.A
L.S
Demand
Recept.
Luxury travel

10

Foodies/ Gastronomads:
Travelers with special interest in Food, capable to travel to discover other food cultures around the world.
P.P
Mobility
P.A
L.S
Demand
Recept.
Foodies

BOBOS/ Bourgeois Bohme:


Often from social upper classes, they claim highly tolerant views of others, purchase expensive and exotic
items. They have an important purchasing power and are interested in travel and other cultures.
P.P
Mobility
P.A
L.S
Demand
Recept.
BOBOs

WHOPs-Wealthy Healthy Old People:


Senior travelers with good physical condition, interested in outdoor activities and sport in general.

WHOPs

P.P

Mobility

P.A

L.S

Demand

Recept.

LOHAS-Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability:


Tourists that take care of their own physical condition, well-being, and are interested by a tourism that
respect the environment and the nature.
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P.P
LOHAS

Mobility

P.A
9

L.S

Demand

Recept.
5

PANKS-Professional Aunt No Kids:


Professional with no kids but with the possibility and budget that permit him/her to travel.
P.P
Mobility
P.A
L.S
Demand
PANKS

Recept.

P.A

L.S

Demand

Recept.

DINKS-Double Income No Kids:


Couple with no kids and a high purchasing power.
P.P
Mobility
DINKS

Results of the Scoring Analysis:


Rank

P.P

Mobility

P.A

L.S

Demand

Recept.

TOTAL

Backpackers

10

10

47

Volunteers

10

10

43

BOBOS

40

Millennials

36

LOHAS

36

WHOPs

35

DINKS

35

Z-generation

10

33

Luxury travel

10

33

10

Foodies

31

11

PANKS

26

According to the results of our scoring method, the Backpackers, volunteers and BOBOS are the three
segments that would be the most attracted and willing to travel to Nepal among the French and Spanish
populations, according to the defined criteria and scores we attributed to each segment. Then come the
millennials, LOHAS, WHOPs, DINKS, Z-generation and Luxury travel segments.
Finally, the foodies and PANKS would be the less apt to travel to Nepal up-to date.
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2.3.3 Online Surveys Analysis
The survey was opened from the 18th of April 2016 to 17th of May 2016 to the French and Spanish citizens.
We reached them by e-mail, by Facebook posts in groups, and direct messages. The first questions provide
basic data about personal information and travel behavior. The second part of the survey aims to know the
perception and awareness concerning Nepal by the French and Spanish people (Appendix 1).

GENDER
The surveys received 473 responses in total with 128
male respondents which account for 27.1%% of the
participants, and 345 female respondents, accounting
for 72.9%. Since this survey has been largely shared
through Facebook, most of the responses are by the
ones who use internet the most, meaning that most of
the participants to the survey are young people, mostly
from 18 to 30 years old not representative of the overall
populations of France and Spain), (Figure 83).

27%

73%

Women

Men
Figure 83

There are 367 French and Spanish respondents between 18 to 30 years old (77.6%), 82 people among 31 to
45 years old (17.3%), 18 people between 46 to 64 years old (3.9%), and just 3 people are less than 18 years
old and over 65 years old (0.6%), (Figure 84).
Age

Number of person

Percentage

0.6 %

18-30 years old

367

77,6 %

31-45 years old

82

17.3 %

46-64 years old

18

3.9 %

More than 65 years old

0.6 %

473

100 %

Less than 18 years old

Total
Figure 84:Online Survey

The French and Spanish respondents generally take their holidays during the months of July (56%) and
August (67%) followed by December (31%), June (25%), September (24%) and February (21%). The month
with fewer travelers departures is November, with only 6% of the respondents that take their holidays
during this month (Figure 85).

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MONTHS TO TRAVEL
318

350
300

263

250
200
150

98

100
50

88

62

54
21

13

11

19

148

118
71
15

25

112
56

67

59
24

12

31

31

Percentage (%)

Number of person
Figure 85: Online survey

LENGTH OF STAY
The length of stay for most of the people is
between 1-2 weeks (50%), 21% use to travel for 23 weeks. There is 12% of the persons that travel for
less than a week and 10% for 3-4 weeks. Finally,
there are 7% of the respondents that travel for
more than a month (Figure 86).

BUDGET FOR HOLIDAYS

17%

3%

22%

3%
19%
36%

Less than 500

Between 500 and 900

Between 900 and 1800

Between 1800 and 2500

More than 2500

N/A

10%

7% 12%

21%
50%

Less than a week

1-2 weeks

2-3 weeks

3-4 weeks

More than a month

Figure 86: Online survey

For the budget, the respondents estimate their


budget for holidays to be between 500 and 900
(36%). 22% of them spend less than 500 and
19% between 900 and 1800 . Only a 6% of the
respondents spend more than 1800 for their
holidays (3% between 1800 and 2500 and 3%
more than 2500 ). Finally, 17% of the
respondents dont estimate their average budget
(N/A), (Figure 87).

Figure 87: Online survey

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Finally, for the last question of the personal information about the behavior of the Spanish and French
markets, we asked what was the kind of holidays that interest them (Figure 88).
The tourisms that interest most French and Spanish are Beach and Sea (73%), Nature (52.6%), Adventure
(51.5%) and Culture (50.5%). The tourisms that interest less people are Religious (2%) and the organized
tours/holidays (5.7%), showing a high interest in exclusive and tailor-made journeys. 62.4% of the
respondents prefer to organize their holidays by themselves.

KIND OF HOLYDAYS
345

350
295

300
250

241

249

239
178

200
150

120

100
50

51

62,4

73

135
74

52

50,5
11

25,7

28,5

37,6

Percentage (%)

52,6

27
5,7

2,3

11

10 15,6

71
15

52
11

Number of respondent
Figure 88: Online survey

Combining the results, the typical profile of the French and/or Spanish traveler is a woman, between 18 and
30 years old that travels mostly during the months of July and August. Her budget is normally between 500
and 900 and the kind of tourisms that interest her are the beach and sea, adventure, cultural and nature
holidays. Finally she doesnt book a package when she travels, she prefer to organize her holidays by herself.
As we see, we can find some correlations between the demand and the offer (kind of holydays, budget) but
the main issue remains the months during which the French and Spanish tourists travel
(July/August/December, low seasons in Nepal).
Research result: Nepal Awareness
With the online survey, we tried to measure the awareness and perception of Nepal for the French and
Spanish citizens. To do so, we chose 5 representative pictures of Nepal and we asked to the respondents to
tell us in which country they though it was (up to this point, respondents didnt know the survey was about
Nepal).
Collecting the answers of the 5 pictures (2365 answers) we only have 216 good answers. In other words,
9.1% of the respondents didnt recognize Nepal and its main attractions in the pictures. Among their
answers, many people mentioned African countries for picture showing an elephant and a rhinoceros
(Chitwan), and many mentioned South-American countries for the photo of the Gokyo lakes, mistaking about
the continents themselves.
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Sacred Lumbini: 5.1% of good answer


Durbar Square: 13.7% of good answer
Chitwan wildlife: 5.1% of good answer
Gokyo Lakes: 17.5% of good answer
Nepalese food: 4.2% of good answer

HAVE YOU VISITED


NEPAL?
1.5%

98.5%

Figure 89: Online survey

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Yes

After the pictures quiz, we asked 2 questions to the


respondents, first, if they already came to Nepal and
second, to see what they know about this country.
Only a seven of the respondents (1.5%) already
came to Nepal and 466 never visited the country
(98.5%), (Figure 89).

No

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To measure what they know about Nepal we asked them to pick from a list of activities and ideas what
Nepal is for them (Figure 90).

WHAT DOES NEPAL EVOCATE FOR


YOU?
Percentage

Culture
Everest/Himalaya
Fauna & flora
Hunting & Fishing
Religions
Shopping/handcraft
Trekking
Well-being

27

42

11

54

50

256

197

128

71

32
7
35
2 9
3 14
45
5 23
4 21
55
58
37
32

0
50
Figure 90: Online survey

Number of person

336
149

215
258
153
100

150

175
200

250

276
300

350

The top 3 answers are: Everest: 336 answers (71%), Trekking: 276 answers (58%), Tibet: 258 answers
(54.5%).
As we can see with the results of this part of the survey, the French and Spanish dont know a lot about
Nepal. An important part of this population recognize Nepal having the Mount Everest, trekking trails and
Tibet related to it. The fact that they included Tibet in these answer proves that they dont know about
Nepal, and they probably thought that Nepal is the same as Tibet (54.5%). Another problematic we can see
thanks to the answer of the respondents is their belief, for an important majority, that Nepal is only about
the Everest (71%) and Trekking (58%).
That demonstrates, according to our survey, that Nepal doesnt have a strong brand image in these two
countries because most of the people dont know the products Nepal can offer them, like extreme sports
(11%), safaris (5%), fauna and flora (32%) and other niche products as fishing and hunting (2%), handcrafts
(4%) and gastronomy (7%), (Figure 72).
Another main result to highlight is that less than 1% of the respondents think about business when we asked
them about Nepal. It could mean they are not ready to invest in this country for the moment, mainly because
they dont know Nepal and dont received any kind of information about it (from all kinds of media). There
is a lack of efficient communication that educate the French and Spanish about Nepal, its culture and the
opportunities of business/investment they offer.
In the next section of questions, we educated the respondents with highlights of the country and an idea of
the costs of travelling in Nepal (Figure 91).

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Figure 91: Online survey

After this short summary, we asked to the respondents why they would go to Nepal and which of the
activities would interest them. (Figure 92)

WHY COULD NEPAL BE ONE OF YOUR NEXT


DESTINATIONS
1

Business

70

Culture

329

40

Everest/Himalaya
7

Extreme sport

35

Gastronomy

17
19

Handcraft

18

Fauna & flora

Other

82
89
86

17
12

Religions

57

16

Safari
1

Shopping

188

78

43

Trekking

205

24

Volunteer
0

50

100

114
Percentage

150

Number of person
200

250

300

350

Figure 92: Online survey

As we can see, culture (70%), trekking (43%) and Everest/Himalaya (40%) are the 3 items that interest most
of the respondents.
Gastronomy (19%), Handcrafts (18%) and Fauna and Flora (17%) can be very good items to promote for
Nepal, because with good marketing of these products in Europe, almost 20% of the respondents would
have be interested according to our survey. (Figure 73)
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For the last question of the survey, we asked the respondents to give us their opinion about Nepal, and why
they would go or not to this country. Here is a selection of answers:
Creo que es un pas con gran riqueza cultural, grandes paisajes para fotografiar y una riqueza gastronmica
estupenda.
"I think it is a country with rich culture, great landscapes to photograph and great gastronomic
wealth."
Viajara por la diferencia cultural, por su patrimonio histrico, su imponente naturaleza y la amabilidad de
su gente.
"I would travel for the cultural differences, historical heritage, its nature and the friendliness of its
people."
Pour moi, ce pays n'est pas encore assez dvelopp pour dlivrer un tourisme idal (transports, langue pour
converser,...) mais il possde toutes les richesses culturelles, naturelles, gastronomique pour attirer. Je pense
galement que le pays ne fait pas assez de promotion touristique afin de dvelopper le tourisme.
For me, this country is not developed enough yet to deliver an ideal tourism (transport, language to
converse ...) but it has all the cultural, natural, and gourmet attributes to attract. I also think the
country is not doing enough to promote tourism and develop tourism. "
a me semble compliqu d'y aller, mais c'est surtout un manque de connaissance et d'informations de ma
part.
"It seems complicated to go, but it is especially a lack of knowledge and information from my part."
Non, ce n'est pas dans mes pays faire car honntement je ne connais pas et de nombreux pays
communiquent sur la beaut de leur pays, etc. donc j'ai dj d'autres pays en tte mais pas celui-l
"No, it is not in my country list because I honestly do not know Nepal and many countries report on
the beauty of their country, etc. So I have other countries in mind but not this one"
Pour: prix bon march pour la vie en gnral, possibilits de tourisme en nature, pas encore envahi par les
touristes. Contre: les treks ncessite des priodes plutt longues que je n'aurais pas forcment l'avenir
(contrainte de temps), budget des treks quand guide obligatoire et prix d'entre des parcs naturels bien audel du budget, pas forcment ma priorit (beaucoup de pays dans le monde et des choix faire!)
"Pros: good value for money in general, natural/wildlife tourism opportunities, not yet overrun with
tourists. Cons: treks requires rather long time that I would not necessarily have in the future (time
constraints), trekking budget when trekking guide is mandatory and entry price of natural parks
beyond the budget, not necessarily my priority (many countries in the world and choices to make!) "

The great majority of the respondents are interested by Nepal, normally because of the culture, landscapes
and trekking but we have a significant part of the people that also criticize the lack of information and

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promotion about the country, and in some case, people saying they would not come to Nepal because of
this lack of country branding.
The reasons why a part of the respondents say they would not go to Nepal is also the lack of information
about the activities, the culture, security... Also the comparison with other countries of the region
(India/China) affect the choice of the tourists.
Finally, we also asked to the respondents that went to Nepal about their experiences, the places they visited
and if they would come back to Nepal again.
Only 1.5% (7 persons) of the respondents already came to Nepal, and they all came only once. The length of
stay of their trip vary between less than one week and more than a month and the budget of their trip was
never over 1800 (Figure 93 and 94).

LENGTH OF STAY
14%

BUDGET
14%

29%

29%

14%

57%

43%

Less than a week

Between 1-2 weeks

Less than 500

Between 3-4 weeks

More than a month

Between 900-1800

Figure 93: Online survey

Between 500-900

Figure 94: Online survey

When we asked them why they came to Nepal, the culture (71.4%) and trekking (42.9%) were the two main
reasons of their trip to Nepal, followed by the religion and volunteering (28.6%). (Figure 95)

WHICH REGION DID


YOU VISIT?

WHY DID YOU


COME TO NEPAL?

Annapurna

Culture
Extreme sport
Fauna & flora
Other
Religion
Safari
Trekking
Volunteer

Everest region
Kathmandu
Kathmandu Valley
Lumbini
Pokhara
0

20

40

Activities (%)
Figure 96: Online survey

60

80

20

40

60

80

100

Region (%)
Figure 95: Online survey

The most visited regions/cities by these respondents are Kathmandu (85.7%), the Kathmandu Valley (85.7%)
and Pokhara (57.1%), (Figure 96).
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Finally, we asked the respondents if they would like to come back to Nepal and why. 85.7% (6 of 7 person)
would like to come back to Nepal and only one person would not. The feedbacks we have from these
respondents are, for example:
C'est une culture magnifique avec des gens incroyablement bons. Les paysages sont sublimes. Nanmoins il
me reste tellement voir de ce beau pays!
It is a beautiful culture with incredibly good people. The landscapes are sublime. Nevertheless I still
have so much to see this beautiful country!
C'est le pays qui m'a fait tomber amoureuse de l'Asie.
This is the country that made me fall in love with Asia.
The comments of these tourists are very positive, but the NTB and some travel agencies dont use this kind
of feedback to promote and improve communication for tourism in Nepal.
It is imperative for Nepal to have tourists that had great experiences, want to come back and talk about the
country (directly or thought socials media). It is an important part of the promotion and branding.
One of the main problem of communication in the European markets and/or the French and Spanish markets
is the lack of marketing and branding about Nepal. The promotion of Nepal in Europe is made through fair
and conventions but the problem is that the average population doesnt participate to these kind of events;
there are more for professionals participants, so these fairs participation, even if very important, dont have
an important impact on the global population.
The awareness of Nepal through the social media is also very low. There are around 26 000 likes on the NTBs
Facebook page, almost 3000 on Twitter, 1316 followers on Instagram, only 173 in LinkedIn, 72 in YouTube
and 25 in Google+. All together, there are only 30 200 followers of the NTB the social medias, which is not
enough to promote the country correctly on the Internet, knowing that the French and Spanish represent
around 100 000 million highly connected persons.

2.4 The French and Spanish Travelers to Nepal


In 2014, the French and Spanish travelers to Nepal represented 3% and 1.7% respectively. The French
market, with 24 097 tourists, is more important than the Spanish market that only accounted for 13 110
tourist arrivals in 2014.
The months with more arrivals for the French market are October (18.2%), April (15.1%), March (12.7%) and
November (12.2%), (Figure 97).
French
Arrivals

Jan.

May

Jun.

2014

1639 1636 3084 3630 1293

578

(%)

6,8

Feb.

6,8

Mar.

12,8

Apr.

15,1

5,4

2,4

Jul.

Dec.

Total

1261 1340 1254 4385 2934 1063

24097

5,2

Aug.

5,6

Sep.

5,2

Oct.

18,2

Nov.

12,2

4,4

100,0

Figure 97: NTB

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The French have the advantage to have more holidays than the Spanish during the months of high season in
Nepal (March/April and October/November). That is partly why there are more French tourists than Spanish
during these months.
The month with more arrivals from Spanish tourists is August (23.5%), followed by October (10.9%), April
(10.3%). The Spanish usually go on holidays in August, which is the reason why this is the month with more
arrivals. Unfortunately during the European summer (July-August), it is the monsoon season in Nepal, which
explains why it is the low season. The others months with more arrivals, April and October, are during the
high season in Nepal. That is why adapted marketing and promotions of Nepal should be done for these 2
periods of the year (March-April and October-November), (Figure 98).
Spain

Jan.

Feb.

Mar.

Apr.

May

Jun.

2014

652

539

648

1345

758

417

(%)

5,0

4,1

4,9

10,3

5,8

3,2

Jul.

Nov.

Dec.

Total

1102 3085 1210 1427 1084

618

13110

4,7

100,0

8,4

Aug.

23,5

Sep.

9,2

Oct.

10,9

8,3

Figure 98: NTB

Both markets have holidays during the months of March and April (Easter Holidays). That is why for both
countries, there are more arrivals during these 2 months. Still, this fact can be improved by doing a good
promotion, by offering special packages, etc. for this season of the year. The French also have holidays in
October, which is the month with more arrivals in Nepal but the volume of French travelers also can be
increased with a better country branding.
One of the strengths of Nepal to receive French and Spanish tourists is the visa procedure. For both
countries, it is very easy to get the tourist visa since there is no need to prepare it before the trip (in
opposition with India or China for example), and it is relatively not very expensive (30 US dollars for 2 weeks).

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2.4.1 SWOT analysis of the French and Spanish market
In this SWOT we will summarize the reasons why the French and Spanish markets present opportunities and
threats for Nepalese tourism stakeholders, and describe the current strengths and weaknesses of Nepals
tourism, when related to France and Spain. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses (SW: internal diagnosis),
Opportunities and Threats (OT: external diagnosis).

Strengths

Purchasing power of these two markets

Various holidays along the year

High satisfaction from French and Spanish


travellers concerning Nepal

Holidays in March-April for both countries

Holidays in October in France

Easy tourist visa procedure

International airlines fly to Kathmandu (Air


France, Turkish, Fly Emirates)

FITUR, biggest International tourism fair in


Madrid.

Opportunities*

Correlations between Nepals touristic offer and


French and Spanish demand

Intensive use of Technology Social Mediain


France and Spain

Very low proportion of the population coming to


Nepal up-to-date

New offers (Eco-tourism, Luxury tourism, etc.)

Weaknesses

Some segments are not interested by the Nepal


offer (no beach and sea).

Spanish population prioritizes destination with


sea and beach activities.

French and Spanish usually travels in July-August


(monsoon season in Nepal)

Image of tourism as a sports destination


(trekking, extreme sports)

Lack of knowledge of Nepal

Confusion with neighboring countries (India,


China)

Iberia (1st Spanish Airline Company) doesnt


offer flights to Nepal

Threats*

Incapacity to catch interest from these markets

Incapacity to convince these targets to travel


during Nepalese low seasons (climate)

Image of the country after the earthquake

*Notice: Threats can be turned into opportunities if Nepals tourism stakeholders take advantage of them. For example, if
seasonality is overcome by new measures, it can become an opportunity.

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Nothing influences more people than a trusted


friend.

Tamang woman, Nagarkot, Nepal

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1 - Nepal Tourism Analysis .................................... 4


2 - The French and Spanish Markets .................. 46
3 - Recommendations ......................................... 80
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.9
3.10
3.11
3.12
3.13
3.14

Students Internship ................................................................................................... 80


Business Tourism (MICE) ............................................................................................ 82
Low season special offers, promotion and Yield Management ................................ 82
Prepare argumentation about security, sustainability, logistics ............................... 83
Contact travellers on their email thank to the immigration form they filled............... 84
Possibility of making and paying trekking permits online ........................................... 85
Participation to fairs ................................................................................................... 86
Welcomenepal.com website ...................................................................................... 87
SEO, SEM and SMM strategies:................................................................................... 88
Digital communication strategy: ................................................................................. 91
New partnership with Nepal Telecom at Kathmandus TIA......................................... 92
Online Reputation Management (ORM) ..................................................................... 93
The Importance of Social Influencers for DMOs ......................................................... 93
Action plan ................................................................................................................. 94

4 - References ..................................................... 99
5 - Appendices .................................................. 106

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3 - Recommendations
Recommendations are the ultimate achievement of this report. They aim to provide precise ideas that could
be implemented by Nepalese Tourism Stakeholders in order to improve country branding among the French
and Spanish markets.
Using mostly recognised authors publications, official reports, relevant articles and our personal knowledge,
we believe that we provided all the necessary data and analysis previously in the report to justify and give
credibility to our recommendations.
Anyway, we dont pretend our ideas and recommendations to be the best and only possibilities for improving
Nepals tourism current situation and practises. Every potential measure introduced in our
recommendations presents advantages, conditions, risks
Recommendations for various stakeholders: some recommendations are only applicable by the NTB, others
are applicable by more stakeholders.
Also, some recommendations are based on hypothesis and uncertain probabilities of the evolution of the
situation in Nepal, particularly for middle and long-term recommendations which will need to be actualized
to stay pertinent.
List of Recommendations:

Students Internship (NTB)


Business Tourism (Travel agencies)
Low season special offers, Promotion and Yield Management (NTB and Travel Agencies)
Prepare argumentation about security, sustainability, logistics (Travel Agencies)
Contact travellers on their email thanks to the immigration form they filled (NTB)
Possibility of making and paying trekking permits online (NTB)
Participation to fairs (All Nepalese Tourism Stakeholders)
Welcomenepal.com website (NTB)
SEO, SEM and SMM Strategies (All Nepalese Tourism Stakeholders)
Digital Communication Strategy (All Nepalese Tourism Stakeholders)
New partnership with Nepal Telecom at Kathmandus TIA (NTB)
Online Reputation Management (ORM), (All Nepalese Tourism Stakeholders)
The Importance of Social Influencers for DMOs (NTB)
Action Plan (All Nepalese Tourism Stakeholders)

3.1 Students Internship


Recommendation for all the Nepalese Tourism Stakeholders
While talking with Sudhir (Secretary of the NATTA), one of the issues mentioned for tourism improvement
in Nepal was the lack of educated / specialized manpower. This recommendation intends to reduce this gap.
When your homeland needs a resource it doesnt have yet, it has to import it.
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Students from foreign countries could be an effective solution to this issue.
As a matter of fact, French and Spanish students, like most of International students, have to do internships
during their university courses. From a few months to a whole year, students have to earn experience in the
specific field(s) they study to validate their degrees, and some of them are ready to travel far and accept
high responsibilities as long as they earn experience (personal and professional).
In the case of Nepal tourism, as we mentioned, the stakeholders need to increase their visibility on the
internet for example. Then, these same stakeholders could hire students to collaborate (even for a remote
internship) and benefit from their knowledge and achievements.
List of fields of studies that could be interesting for Nepalese Tourism Stakeholders:
-

IT (web development, e-design, SEO/SEM)


Marketing & Sales / Digital Marketing (Social Medias, branding, e-reputation)
Literature (traduce content)
Hospitality and Tourism
International Management

What to do with this list?


1 Pick a field of study that can improve your activities
2 Prepare a message explaining what your intention is
Personalized message / Preferably use a trustable email domain (to avoid SPAM) / Presentation of the
company / Description of the needs with details / Period and duration of the internship proposal / Terms
and conditions of the internship / Politely ask to for diffusion of the message among the interested students
/ Give all necessary company contact details + Links to webpages (website, Facebook page, Accreditations
and memberships) / Electronic signature.
Warning: All engagement from the company have to be realistic. The company has to be available for their
interns. The company has to know exactly the tasks the students have to fulfil and to be able to explain them.
3 - Send the message to as many relevant Universities and schools as possible to maximize chances of return.
4 If there are no returns from schools or students after a year, try to see if any of the conditions above
havent been respected. Rectify it (if necessary).
5 Send messages again using the same methodology.
Advantages of this measure:

It can be cost-free if the student accepts not to be paid.


It can bring new knowledge and vision to the company
It can improve the companys visibility and revenues
If the student comes to Nepal for his internship, he will be considered as a tourist (his spending will
benefit to the local Economy)

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It is a win-win situation for both parties. The students can learn and put into practise the theory
learned in class, and the company benefits from the students knowledge and work.

Risks of this measure:

If it doesnt end with an internship


If the student doesnt fulfil his engagements, the companys visibility or reputation can decrease
(depending on the focus)
If the company doesnt fulfil its engagements, it might lose interest from the students school

Mandatory conditions to develop this kind of actions:

Be willing to fulfil the companys engagements


Be available to school and students
Sign a convention to make the internship official between the student and the company.

The convention must give all details concerning the company, the student, the students school and their
engagements between each other.

3.2 Business Tourism (MICE)


Recommendation for Travel Agents
The Meetings Industry has come of age. It has placed itself at the centre of tourism as one of the key drivers
of the sectors development and an important generator of income, employment and investment ,
according to the UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai.
From our studies, very few Nepalese travel agencies propose business tourism products in their catalogues.
This kind of product could be added to the tailor-made products offer.
To do so, the Nepalese travel agents need to be very flexible in terms of offer (most of the time, these travels
have to be tailor-made), to be reliable (display evidence of the companys capabilities, reliable
partnerships...), to deliver excellent service, and to be able to handle large groups (full logistics capacity,
adapted accommodation, provide facilities such as meeting rooms, adapted restaurants, leisure advices,
provide translators if necessary, to be able to organize short tours and visits...).
Advantages:
New target, potential customers and source of revenues
More elaborated offer from the company
Risks:
Relying on partnerships, terms and conditions and agreements between parties could not be
favourable to travel agencies
If the agency is not used to sell this kind of products, service delivery could be low and generate low
satisfaction rates
If none or very few of these products are sold
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3.3 Low season special offers, promotion and Yield Management
Recommendation for the NTB and Travel Agents
What is the best option?
- Having 1 client paying 1000$ for his package (Total: 1000$)
- Having 10 clients paying 500$ for their package (Total: 5000$)
Well, it all depends on the commercial margins applied to the final price paid by tourists because the ultimate
goal of businesses is to make profit. The point is the following: It is better to apply reasonable discounts
during low seasons if it attracts more tourists and if it is more profitable. This notion refers to Revenue or
Yield Management.
According to the website Investorwords, yield management is the process of examining and factoring in
consumer behaviour to achieve the maximum amount of profit from a perishable good. Consumer behaviour
is examined to determine the correct price level to make the item enticing to the consumer. The idea is to
coordinate timing, price, and consumer buying patterns to achieve the best return.
Also, as we have seen, the low season in Nepal occurs when most of the French and Spanish go on holidays
for climate reasons. Nevertheless, Nepalese travel agents should react to this fact when targeting the French
and Spanish market.
To do so, we believe that the Travel agencies of Nepal should highlight and promote touristic products that
are not much affected by the rainy season for this period. These are the items that are not badly affected
by the rainy season, from our studies:

Trekking in Dolpa and Mustang regions (micro climates).


Indoor activities (Well-being, spa, yoga and meditation, shopping, cultural visits and activities)

If the Nepalese travel agents adapt their communication to the French and Spanish markets, promoting
these items and applying yield management to their pricing, they could fight against the high seasonality of
Nepals tourism by attracting more tourists, especially in September and August.
Also, we would advise the costs of access to the Dolpa and Mustang regions to be significantly reduced by
the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation of Nepal for July, August and September, so they could
attract more tourists from France and Spain.

3.4 Prepare argumentation about security, sustainability, logistics


Recommendation for Travel Agents
As we saw, French and Spanish people are sensitive to many subjects such as sustainability, security, and
logistics. For this reason, it is primordial for travel agents to have the right arguments to keep their prospects
interest and maximize their chances to end a discussion with actual sales.
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It is important to be convincing while a sales process, but it is essential to say the truth. Reality of Nepal
today could seem scary to many occidental people that dont have the same culture, infrastructure and living
standards than in Nepal. The unknown is perceived as potentially dangerous. So, it is necessary to inform,
and reassure someone who asks about these topics seriously (safety and ethics).
Concerning this kind of tricky topics, we recommend an answered with this chronology:

Acknowledge the risk / unethical practises


Contrast the risk / unethical practises
Support says with data or facts
Mention ethics and measures the company takes to reduce the risks and unethical practises (Our
guides know perfectly these places, so the risk is very small)

For example, if someone asks a travel agency if it is safe to travel to Nepal now, we believe the right answer
should be like:
Of course Nepal is not a 100% safe destination just like anywhere else on earth; but in the case of Nepal,
the political situation is stable and the geological situation is like always before the first semester of 2015
(earthquakes). Concerning transportation, many options are available, including comfortable and pretty safe
private transports (like jeeps). In our company, we are experts in this destination and aware of the risks it
presents. We treat this subject very seriously and always do the most we can for our travellers to have the
best experience possible.

3.5 Contact travellers on their email thank to the immigration form they filled
Recommendation for the NTB
Collecting data and analysing it every year is mandatory to improve tourism flows efficiently (Results,
Analysis, comparison with objectives, review of objectives and strategy, definition of a realistic action plan
for the year coming, and start over again the following years).
This recommendation came from a very simple fact: every traveller crossing the Nepalese border has to
provide personal information.
The Immigration authorities could implement a new regulation in order to collaborate with the ministry and
the NTB: Require the travellers to give a personal email address and put a cross in a check box, giving their
authorisation to the Nepalese Tourism Organizations to contact them after their journey. Example:
I accept to receive a survey by email after my travel to Nepal and to fill it.
Then, the following data would be addressed to the NTB or Ministry:
Nationality
Date of entrance in Nepal
Duration of the visa
Email address
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With this information, the NTB would be able to send an email to every single traveller, sharing a link to a
survey that would provide details concerning their profile, and their travel in Nepal.
Advantages of this measure:
Collect relevant data
Know better their travellers
Ability to take relevant strategic decisions
Risks:

Some tourists would not fill the survey


Some tourist would not provide accurate information in the survey

3.6 Possibility of making and paying trekking permits online


Recommendation for the NTB
Nowadays, most populations have access to internet through computers, smartphones or tablets, but Nepal
and the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) did not implement initiatives that could solve some administrative
matters that are mandatory for the tourists if they want to do trekking in Nepal.
Every tourist willing to do trekking in Nepals protected areas needs to pay an entrance fee and the Trekkers'
Information Management System (TIMS). When tourists decide to do a trekking with Travel Agencies, these
are the ones that take care of going to the NTB to request and pay for permits and TIMS. However, when
tourists decide to do a trek as a Free Individual Trekkers (FITs), its up to them to go to the NTB, request and
pay for these papers, which can be perceived as a waste of time. Moreover, some tourists do not spend a
lot of time in Kathmandu, and they could prefer to do visits and enjoy their time around the city instead of
spending time preparing the necessary paper work.
We strongly believe that the ministry in charge as well as the NTB need to launch an online platform
dedicated to both entrance fees and TIMS to ease the access to the FITs but also to the Travel Agencies. By
creating an online platform, individuals as well as travel agencies would earn time and money.
The idea is to create a platform of payment on the internet, which can be available through the NTB or TAAN
websites. A PDF form would confirm the request and the payment. At the end, the applicant would receive
a QR code and a PDF detailing the itinerary to download or print, with all the details.
On another side, all the guards/police officers/military at the entrances of the protected areas will have a
QR code scanner application that will identify and confirm the validity of the tourists entrance fee and TIMS.
The creation and implementation of this device is relatively cheap and can reduce the price of some permits,
relieving the administration in terms of work and staff involved.
The implementation of this measure doesnt mean the closure of the department that provides the entrance
fee or the TIMs, but a reduction of the staff and paperwork.
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Advantages:

Easy to implement
Relieves the administration
Easy procedure for the FITs
Easy procedure for the Travel Agencies
Safer
Faster than the traditional way
The creation of QR code is free
More sustainable
Reduction of costs
Less paperwork
All the information is already digital

Disadvantages:

Need to have access to internet


Transition to digital

3.7 Participation to fairs


Recommendation for all Nepalese Tourism Stakeholders
Fairs are the opportunity to be visible by professionals of tourism and potential tourists. Therefore, fairs
have their importance for every Nepalese stakeholders, and for improving the brand awareness where the
fair occurs.
The NTB and a few travel agencies do participate to international tourism fairs worldwide. Still, to be
attractive to the French and Spanish markets, their participation to tourism fairs in these countries could be
intensified and improved.
The important items to consider for an efficient participation to a fair are the following:
Effective trade fair participation:
By: Pr. Jos Maria de Juan Alonso, Koan Consulting SL

Stand location
Stand conception and design
Stand organization
Stand behaviour
Professional attention
General public materials
Trade materials
Merchandising and gadgets
Prestige materials
Stand animation
Side promotional events
Experience in the market
Evolution of visitors
Price
Quality of service
Image and prestige

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Location
Accessibility
Pre-fair activity
Public and confidential tariffs
Sources of trade appointments
Trade fair own platforms
Market intelligence data bases
Trade catalogues
Own agenda
PR appointment
Media agency appointment
Pre fair media communication
Post-fair activity/ follow-up
Identification-selection-justification of
attendance to a trade fair based in criteria

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Commercial workshop preparation and performance:
By: Pr. Jos Maria de Juan Alonso, Koan Consulting SL

Market identification: buyers and sellers


Market identification
Location
Trade material: confidential tariffs
Matchmaking/ previous agenda
Office support material and machinery
Market conditions: legal frame, market
structure, key actors
Promotional material: brochures and
catalogues
Trade material: product fiches/ sales
manual

Catering and coffee-break facilities


Timetable
Control of the agenda
Media coverage
Legal and commercial advice
Trade and products advice
Language advice
Cultural advice
Evaluation and follow-up
Media material: press releases, image
banks, market data

3.8 Welcomenepal.com website


Recommendation for the NTB
Concerning welcomenepal.com website, a set of recommendations has to be implemented in order to
improve the website organic search, according to our analysis.
First of all, within the header information, the Meta Description contains only 96 characters; normally, it
should contain between 140 and 170 characters. The Meta Description tag is read by search engines and is
displayed in the search engine result pages. This tag defines the pages content without being a straight
forward list of keywords. Nonetheless, it should contain the most important keywords of the page.
Moreover, each of the web pages need to have a unique Meta Description. Lastly, the Meta Description tag
should appear after the title tag inside the head tag.
In terms of indexation, the Meta robots are missing. It is very important to include them since they state
when search engines should explore, index or follow your page. This tag can be responsible for the absence
of the NTBs website in search engines index. The canonical URL is missing; it should be included in order to
avoid duplicate content. A canonical URL corresponds to the best version of a set of page with similar
content.
In terms of multimedia, the alternative text is missing in some images. This alternative text gives information
to search engines about the description of your online visuals and pictures. It is very important to place
keywords wisely since this tag is another way to boost you SEO. It is also imperative to keep in mind that the
textual alternative must be less than 80 characters.
Concerning the networking side, the websites page contains too many links. Having more than 100 links can
be considered by search engines as spams and thus it will lose efficiency. The solution is to spread links over
several pages.
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The server execution time exceeds 0.5 seconds by 9 milliseconds; it can be solved by optimizing the server
configuration as well as the code to reduce this time. The execution time is the time the server needs to
generate the webpage. The time is not linked to the internet connection but depends on the server
configuration. Moreover, the website does not allow page caching, caching webpages decreases loading
time by storing them temporarily in the users device.
In terms of loading optimization, there are too many scripts in the page, which can be solved by using
external files. It is better to include JavaScript in a separate file to optimize the loading time of the page.
Moreover, there are inline CSS in the page, this technique is not recommended since it puts more weight on
the page and thus slows down the page render. It is better to use CSS classes that enable the reuse of styles.
In terms of server configuration, the website is not IPV6 ready. This new version of the IP protocol, which is
the main protocol for routing packets used on the net, will soon replace the IPV4 protocol. The web server
must be ready for this change.
Concerning the websites security, the email addresses should be replaced by images or JavaScript in order
to avoid spams. HTTPS is not enabled, even though it is generally used for online transactions, search engines
consider that moving on to https guarantees your credibility.
In terms of content performance, the ratio text/code is too low with only 5.44% of the page content being
text type. The higher the ratio is, the higher the credibility of the page will be. A 15% ratio minimum is
recommended. Keywords used in Page Title do not appear in the most used keywords in the body.

3.9 SEO, SEM and SMM strategies:


Recommendation for all Nepalese Tourism Stakeholders
While purchasing online, visitors appreciate a website that is easy to use, that offers the best prices, that
they trust and the website already satisfied them. SEO allows web developers to improve and implement
structures and contents that contribute to all these characteristics

Figure 99: Top Drivers of Hotel Websites Selection, Amadeus

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First of all, according to the Destination Marketing International Association, Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
is defined as: paid advertising on search results pages in the top and side columns of organic search results
while Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is defined as: strategy of improving web content with the purpose
of increasing your organic rank on search engines (DIGITAL & MOBILE MARKETING TOOLKIT, 2013).
A good SEO strategy needs to be combined with an SEM strategy which includes paid advertising on search
results pages. Since DMOs an all tourism stakeholders can aggressively impact the content presented to a
traveler through SEM and SEO, search engines such as Google are the perfect medium through which one
can communicate to reach potential
consumers. The search terms travelers use
are expressing what they are seeking. If
communication objectives and messages
are relevant to these researches, then a
fruitful connection can be created with your
travelers. It is advised to use SEM to
manage thousands of keywords that bring
in targeted traffic to your web page while
using SEO at the same time to place your
destination or products in the search path
using relevant keywords (DIGITAL &
MOBILE MARKETING TOOLKIT, 2013).
Figure 100: SEO 2016, searchengineland.com

When choosing a list of keywords, you should keep in mind that they need to respect three sections:

The Short Head: very high volume keywords such as: Holidays, Vacations, Spring breaks, traveling
those keywords are normally generic terms.

The Fat Middle: medium volume keywords such as: trekking in the jungle, rafting in the river
these key terms are typically a variety of words.

The Long Tail: These types of keywords are generally for a niche markets corresponding to specific
attractions and long phrases. For example, Music festival in South East Asia during spring breaks.

Moreover, investing in Social Media Marketing is keen in Tourism industry since it can be a powerful tool to
seal a deal. SMM is defined as an interdisciplinary and cross-functional concept that uses social media (often
in combination with other communications channels) to achieve organizational goals by creating value for
stakeholders. (Felix et al, 2016). Nowadays, Facebook is still the most used social media tool, and among all
social networks, Facebook is said to achieve the best return on investment for travel brands. For example,
for travel agencies, the use of Facebook can be a powerful content amplifier since they can boost posts,
advertise a page, and create packages that stimulate engagement and redirect potential customers to travel
agencies webpage where they can buy the proposed service. It is also very important for tourism
stakeholders to cross their different social media platforms together; TripAdvisor is showing ranking
according to Facebook friends, Instagram is part of Facebook Inc. Thanks to Instagram, one can post the
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same content on different linked social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and so on.
The NTB, on its side, should invest in a very effective Facebook feature called Global Pages which is a new
platform that allows brands to maintain a single fan page with localized experiences for users in different
countries.
Global pages have an integrated Like and People Talking About This count; however, the language,
profile image, cover photo, posts and tabs can differ by region. Facebook users who land on a global page
are automatically directed to the version specific to their region, but they can access any regional or global
page through a drop-down menu. For instance, NTB can create its Global Pages and thus target specific
countries depending on seasonality, type of product, and so on. Its country specific page will be featured by
special type of post using the country language.
For more information about the implementation of SEO and SEM, please refer to our Google Drive Digital
marketing file, or visit the site-analyzer.com blog.
The development of e-commerce has had an enormous effect on travel and hospitalitys marketing.
Travelers once counted on travel agents and other intermediaries to help book and explore journeys, but
nowadays a number of growing websites such as Airbnb and Googles high-ranking are displaying travel
results by geographic areas and are triggering a change in consumers habits to purchase travel and
hospitality services. Consequently, marketing techniques are shifting too. Currently travelers rely more on
travel apps and websites to perform their own research and compare prices. Travel companies are
progressively selling directly to consumers. (Alton, 2015)
Like other activities, the travel and hospitality industry realizes that the e-commerce environment is
becoming highly competitive. With more websites and apps providing everything from owner-listed
accommodations to discounted flights, Nepalese Travel Agencies must find ways to differentiate themselves.
Successful companies are standing out by offering a wider range of content in multiple languages using an
incorporated Google Translator in their websites.
Future travelers usually spend an amount of time in research when planning a trip and making bookings.
They want to read about the destination, the hotel ambiance and amenities, possible excursions, and details
of flights they are planning to book. Moreover, many travelers are looking to local insights or access to
honest, same-language reviews from other travelers.
E-commerce travel agencies have numerous opportunities to grow in the future. Nonetheless, strategic
planning to target international markets is primordial. Up-to-date, it is important to invest into a content
localization strategy, to use the right travel translation source, and last but not least, it is important to
provide within the companys website, a payment gateway. All of these points have to be a top priority for
online marketing strategies. According to Alton, Hospitality sites that offer a significant amount of
information in consumers native languages and have applications and websites that are responsive on
mobile devices are most likely to stand out from the competition.
Nepalese Travel Agencies should seriously consider developing websites that offer the possibility for
consumers to select and buy their trips easily using payment gateways such as PayPal. The type of content
should be displayed according to the localization of the future prospects, and the most important is to invest
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in responsive websites since more consumers are connecting to the internet using their smartphones.

3.10 Digital communication strategy:


Recommendation for all Nepalese Tourism Stakeholders
As we described above, social medias play an important role in promoting
a destination. More travelers in France and Spain are connected to the
internet. Thanks to this connectivity, all stakeholders in the tourism
industry in Nepal as well as the population of Nepal must take part in a
national movement where Nepal would be promoted with a unified digital
communication strategy.

Figure 101: Digibrand.com.au

This digital communication strategy should be implemented by the Nepal


Tourism Board. The aim of this strategy is to convert travelers as well as
citizens of Nepal into Brand Ambassadors.

In order to establish this new digital communication strategy, a set of actions have to be realized as follow:

The NTB needs to unify its entire social media platform under one single brand which is Naturally
Nepal instead of Nepal Tourism Board. By doing so, it will be more appealing to travelers and easy
to find.

The NTB needs to increase user-generated content (UGC) creation. The major advantage that social
media platforms provide DMOs is the chance to shape content that displays the destination through
the standpoint of the residents who are appreciating it every day. For example, Instagrammers are
sharing pictures and videos of what they enjoy about your destination and this gives you an occasion
to take advantage of this UGC to showcase a true vision of your destination and all the amazing things
it has to share. In order to build a UGC that promotes your destination, NTB must create a contest
concept that encourages the community to share what they love about Nepal. It is the same type of
contest NepalNow.org created on Facebook with the Sunset Picture Contest.

To increase the efficiency of the content, its best to center the UGC creation on a unique hashtag.
Since your community will be sharing, all the tourism stakeholders need to bring all their effort on a
community-focused hashtag. Either for a specific contest or general sharing, the hashtag will support
your community to explore different content from other people, and it will increase your user
generated content efforts; this hashtag will build all of your social marketing hard work to focus on
sharing your UGC.

When promoting an event with UGC, NTB in partnership with the event organizer should display the
content being shared on screens. By displaying it will inspire other attendees to share it on their social
media platforms using the special community-focused hashtag. As an example where such promotion
can be applied is the Nepal Music Festival. During this Festival, the NTB and the event organizer can

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stream live the performance on Facebooks new feature as well as on YouTube.

NTB should create moments that inspire the creation of content that will be shared on social media.
In order to start up this visual content, NTB has to set displays up on strategic hot spot (airport, most
visited sites, unique attractions). Creating moments for your travelers can be made of as anything
that compels them to share by including a call of action where your special hashtag is well displayed.
NTB should carefully think about a design in where the display should be architecturally authentic in
order to not denature the sites and the attractions.

For more Best practices, please refer to the case of Australia.

3.11 New partnership with Nepal Telecom at Kathmandus TIA


Recommendation for the NTB
During the first trimester of 2016, the NTB, in an unprecedented partnership with Nepal
Telecom, launched the free SIM card service to tourists at Kathmandu Tribhuvan
International Airport (TIA). The objective behind this initiative is to provide tourists who
come to Nepal free SIM cards without facing long procedures to get one. This SIM cards
are already activated with 50 Rs pop-up as well as fast internet via 3G with a large
coverage including the Annapurna Conservation Area Project, Ghandruk, Langtang and
so on.

Figure 102: Nepal


Telecom's Logo

This initiative is very appreciated by tourists since it can be considered as a welcoming gift. In our point of
view, we strongly believe that this service can be enriched by providing a special package with a discounted
tariff that can include an unlimited bandwidth to Facebook and Instagram corresponding to travelers visa
duration. By implementing this plan, it would surely enhance the execution of the digital communication
strategies proposed above. Since tourists will have the chance to post their pictures and videos on the spot
using the special unique hashtag. For example, the inspire the moments strategy can be part of the SIM
cards speech process; since after getting their SIM cards, tourists can be proposed to take a picture with
operatives dressed in typical Nepali ethnic outfits and post their pictures on social media. This can be seen
as clich. Nonetheless, some destinations such a Tahiti are welcoming travelers with flowers as well as
traditional songs.
One among other countries that are implementing this kind of package is Japan. The sunrise country is
renowned for its exceptional hospitality culture. The country is preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by
offering new services and products to assist travelers and reduce the stress that arises with travelling in a
country where things can sometimes get difficult due to the language barrier. The latest display of
extraordinary hospitality comes from Saitama City, where the city council is proposing free SIM cards to its
foreign visitors.
Saitama City, located just 20 kilometers north of Tokyo, is offering the service to help foreign visitors in the
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area. Free local Wi-Fi hotspots arent as readily available as they are in the nations capital, so the city decided
to give free SIM cards to help visitors connect to the local network, and search inquiries, post on social media
and share their experience about the destination. The free SIM cards can be used in tablets and
smartphones, with a 3GB data pop-up available for 30 days. In this case the use of the SIM cards is solely for
internet usage.

3.12 Online Reputation Management (ORM)


Recommendation for all Nepalese Tourism Stakeholders
The main role for a DMO is to attract tourists and investors to their country, but all their efforts can go in
vain if, on the other side, all the tourism stakeholders (OTA, travel agencies, hotels, restaurants) dont play
a collaborative role in analyzing and implementing an online reputation strategy to deal with customers
reviews on the internet.
First of all lets define an ORM, (ORM) is the process of monitoring, reporting and reacting to online
feedback and opinions about your business and its people, products and services. It involves actively
participating in social networking by engaging travelers and generating content, as well as using customer
feedback to strengthen your business and build loyalty and advocacy. (Online Reputation Management,
(2012))
The impact, spread and trust level of UGC (User Generated Content) has made online reputation
management a crucial role for tourism operators, large and small. Nowadays, consumers seek transparency
and accountability from the ventures they go to. If consumers feel cheated, they will eventually spread the
word online. Social media use by travelers gained more impact over the years since during and after their
trips, tourists share their requests and reviews in real time, and quick responses are expected. Negative
reviews shouldnt be an end; they provide valuable feedback for improving your business. However, it is on
stakeholders side to determine if they will be taking into consideration those remarks or if they are going to
ignore them which may lead into frightening future visitors. (Online Reputation Management, (2012))
According to a 2011 Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, the results show that while consumers dont
really rely on strangers opinion as much as the opinions of people they are familiar with, they trust them
more than traditional advertising and slightly more than the opinions of professional journalists (Online
Reputation Management, (2012)). This survey shows the importance on following on consumers reviews
and responds to their inquiries and reviews both negative and positive ones, and that consumers tend to
trust reviews of people they dont know over advertising and journalists opinions.
Tourism stakeholders must keep in mind the prominence of reviews in online researches. By performing a
simple Google search for a destination, hotel, or travel agency, reviews and links to reviews websites
normally show up in the first page in addition to links to companies websites and resellers. Its important
for companies to create their Google Places page since this google tool will link reviews from websites such
as TripAdvisor, Frommers and so on under one aggregated star rating. These reviews and ratings can have
an important impact on click-through traffic if you are undergoing an SEM strategy.
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So the next step for all tourism stakeholders in Nepal is to be present in major social media platforms as well
as in review websites such as TripAdvisor. They should keep in mind that they have to answer to both positive
and negative reviews.
For more detailed information about how to implement Online Reputation, you can refer to our Google Drive
Digital marketing file.

3.13 The Importance of Social Influencers for DMOs


Recommendation for the NTB
Throughout the report, we argued that social medias have revolutionized the how to do business, and the
tourism industry is no exception. Nowadays, the inspiration phase described in Amadeus graph starts while
using social media and the internet. NTB needs to contract social media influencers in order to take NTBs
social promotional programs to the next level.
One cannot argue that social medias influencers (such as bloggers) know how to engage their followers
using photography. They are able to create an eclectic range of photography from the National Geography
quality pictures to funny combinations with emoji on Snapchat. Moreover, they know how to create twists
and creative sparks that would get people to recall and share.
Its worth mentioning that the millennial generations are increasingly skeptical about exaggerating
advertisements. However, working with influencers may lead your campaign to reach the targeted audience
while remaining personal. Social influencers fans seek recommendations on where to travel, party, and
spend good time. When they are surfing on social media for travel ideas, they must surely trust influencers
advice over information found on the net.
Influencers guide their fans into exciting journeys; with few photo filters and well creatively-taken pictures,
they can make generic and random things into a trend. It can be a picture of forest, a lake, or a cozy guest
house. But their fans can easily discover where these pictures are taken through the geotagging functions.
This way, NTB can breakdown what Nepal has best to offer into different segments such as local culture,
culinary, adventure and so and partner with influencers who specialize in these areas.

3.14 Action plan


This action plan aims to put our recommendations into a timeline. We are conscious that not all
recommendations are easily applicable, depending on the size, funds and manpower of the stakeholder
concerned. Nevertheless, we made a general action plan that classifies our ideas according the ease of
implementation, time and funds required.
We tried to come with SMART recommendations, S standing for Specific, M for Measurable, A for Achievable,
R for Relevant, and T for Time-Oriented. In other words, we wanted our recommendations to easy, quick
and effective to improve Nepals tourism activity on the French and Spanish Markets. Please note that most
recommendations can also apply to wider targets worldwide.
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For this reason, we did not propose any Long-Term recommendations (5+ years).
Short-Term
We estimated the short-term recommendations to take up to 1 year to be implemented, and to be relatively
easy to implement.

Students Internship (All Nepalese Tourism Stakeholders)


Business Tourism (Travel agencies)
Low season special offers, Promotion and Yield Management (NTB and Travel Agencies)
Prepare argumentation about security, sustainability, logistics (Travel Agencies)
Participation to fairs (All Nepalese Tourism Stakeholders)
Welcomenepal.com website (NTB)
SEO, SEM and SMM Strategies
Digital Communication Strategy (All Nepalese Tourism Stakeholders)
Online Reputation Management (ORM), (All Nepalese Tourism Stakeholders)
The Importance of Social Influencers for DMOs (NTB)

Middle-Term
We estimated the middle-term recommendations to take 1 to 5 years to be implemented, and to be more
complex to implement.

Contact travellers on their email thanks to the immigration form they filled (NTB)
Possibility of making and paying trekking permits online (NTB)
New partnership with Nepal Telecom at Kathmandus TIA (NTB)

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Conclusion
Branding a country is a long and lasting process that can take decades to achieve. Nonetheless, effective
tourism strategies can be undergone in order to realize at least some goals. In our case, we decided to come
up with an analysis of how Nepal is currently branding its country, followed by an analysis of the touristic
demand of the French and Spanish markets, and finally we came up with recommendations that we believe
will bring more visibility to the country in the short and middle run without a consequent budget.
However, such recommendations couldnt be applied efficiently unless all the tourism stakeholders in Nepal
work hand in hand for the best interest of the country. As you may have noticed one major recommendation
is recurrent within the report and it is the important role of the internet and the digital marketing in shaping
the future of tourism; global internet users is set for explosive growth over the coming years and the majority
of them will be mobile. So its time for Nepal to take advantage of the innovation and push everybody,
tourists and citizens, to be part of a national movement in where everybody will be a brand ambassador of
Nepal; one quote from Sheryl Sandberg COO of Facebook summarize in a way what we brought forward to
you, and she said: Social media has created a historical shift from the historically powerful to the historically
powerless.
Now everyone has a voice and this voice is what Nepal needs to nurture and promote. Nowadays, we as
human beings will tend to believe our families, friends, acquaintances and strangers rather than a simple
advertising. So its time to shape the Future of Nepal by betting on technology for promoting the brand
image of the country.

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If your advertising goes unnoticed,


everything else is academic

Nyatapola Temple, Bhaktapur, Nepal

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1 - Nepal Tourism Analysis .................................... 4


2 - The French and Spanish Markets .................. 46
3 - Recommendations ......................................... 80
4 - References ..................................................... 99
4.1
4.2

Primary data ............................................................................................................... 99


Secondary data ......................................................................................................... 100

5 -Appendices ................................................... 106

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4 - References
4.1 Primary data
Interviews with representatives of:

NTB: Sunil Sharma, Officiating Director of PR & Publicity


HAN: Prabesh Aryal, Executive Director
TAAN: Gangasagar Pant, CEO
NATTA: Prof. Dr. Hari Sarmah, CEO and Sudhir Kumar Upadhyay, Secretary
Himalaya Hotel: Mahesh Phuyal, Sales & Marketing Manager
More than 10 Travel Agencies:

Rishi Prasad, Encounters Nepal

Altruism Travels

Krishna Man Shrestha, Nepal-Tibet trekking

Synergy Travels Pvt Ltd

Vistas Himalaya Tours And Travels

Rainbow Safari Tours & Travels P.Ltd

Destination Nepal Tours & Travels Pvt. Ltd.

Ime Travels Pvt.Ltd

Mikel Leizeaga, Asian Adventure Treks &


Expedition P.Ltd

Gaama Travel And Tours Pvt Ltd

Travels to:

Kathmandu
Kathmandu Valley (Chisopani, Nagarkot, Bhaktapur)
Pokhara
Langtang
Annapurna

Google Drive Online Surveys:

French Tourism
Spanish Tourism
Nepalese Travel Agencies

Illustrations:

Pictures shot during our travel in Nepal:

Pierre Muglia, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of these pictures without express and written
permission from this reports author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

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4.2 Secondary data
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Data by itself is useless. Data is only useful if


you apply it.

Tamang Heritage Trek, Langtang, Nepal

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1 - Nepal Tourism Analysis .................................... 4


2 - The French and Spanish Markets .................. 46
3 - Recommendations ......................................... 80
4 - References ..................................................... 99
5 -Appendices ................................................... 106
5.1
5.2

Appendix 1: French and Spanish Market survey: ...................................................... 106


Appendix 2: Travel Agencies survey .......................................................................... 113

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5 - Appendices
5.1 Appendix 1: French and Spanish Market survey:

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5.2 Appendix 2: Travel Agencies survey

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It is good to have an end to journey; but it


is the journey that matters, in the end

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Phewa Lake, Pokkara, Nepal

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