Tourism and aviation are coexisting organization. One cannot flourish without other. As people started to travel for the sake of business, pleasure and other activities, modes of transport played vital role in this process. Thomas cook started to take people for travel from place to place. He used railways as the source of transportation. After the end of World War II most of the structure got damaged leaving airways as the only source of transportation. Since then the aviation has played vital role in travel and tourism sector.
Air transport is playing a dominant role in international travel. It plays a dominant role in inter regional movement of people that generally takes a long period of time. Its importance is seen mostly in those areas where roadways are unable to provide the service of transportation. For instance, Lukla airport is the only means to reach the world highest peak,the Mt. Everest (Sagarmatha). So we can evaluate the importance of air transportation.
Different domestic airlines, both private and public are providing service to different regions of the Nepal. Due to difficult geographical diversity, the country is only able to make small airports which can account small aircraft that can takeoff in short area only. Such aircrafts are designed with SOTL (short takeoff and landing) purpose to accompany with short runway of such airports.
Development of such airports in various areas has helped for transportation as well as to aid rural areas for its development. We can find many airlines operating in such areas to uplift the tourist destination area. Establishment of Lukla Airport has provided aid to those tourists who would like to visit the top of the world, Mt. Everest and its surrounding areas. Nepal Airlines, Summit Air, Tara Air, Shree Airlines are some of the top domestic airlines providing their service in rural areas. These airlines have been focusing to take tourist to places like Phalpu/Dolpa, Khanidanda, Simikot etc. Apart from these airlines, private companies owing helicopters, ultra light aircraft also help to provide their services to tourist by taking the flights of different places renowned as tourism destination. Beside tourism sector, they are also helping for local people to travel from place to place. Helicopters are mainly used for rescuing peoples. Pokhara ultra light is one of the best tourist attractions that allows to have a glimpse of the spectacular valley.
In a nutshell, we can easily conclude that aviation and tourism complement each other highly. Due to availability of tourism destination aviation industry are able to carry their services and due to aviation industry tourism sector is flourished and is able to uplift the quality of the specific area.
Impacts of aviation in Nepali tourism industry
Aviation has variable impacts in Nepali tourism industry. Recently, the number of tourist both National and international are increasing rapidly and TIA is providing its full service to the passengers or the tourist.
Aviation has helped a lot towards tourism as it has promoted both national and international tourist. Being a landlocked country, the foremost way to inter into Nepal is by Airway. By the year 2016, number of tourist to travel by air was 572563 which are 41% more than that of 2015. It has helped to generate more revenue than other modes of transportation. TIA is functioning for both national and international tourists.
Aviation also seems to show negative impacts in our country as TIA is facing lots of disruptions being the only international airport of Nepal and having only one runway. Various airlines, both national and international perform their task through this airport only causing delay in flights. Also the maintenance of the airport is questionable as the news of aircraft accident, human and drug trafficking etc. is common. During peak season it represents lack of proper management of the airport. There is absence of good equipment to function properly.
To reduce all these negative impact the country should focus on establishing new international airports. For the time being the country should basically focus on hiring effective human resource. The airport should improve its quality thoroughly and start to upgrade the technologies.
