January 1: Sauraha, a renowned tourist destination in Chitwan district, witnessed a large number of people on Sunday to celebrate the English New Year. The number of domestic tourists has increased due to a public holiday on the New Year ’s Eve.

Tourists visit Sauraha to enjoy the tourist activities such as elephant ride, jeep safari and boating.

Regional Hotel Association’s Vice President Om Prakash Pandey said that has been a good influx of tourists since September.

"In the last few days, the occupancy of hotels in Sauraha is encouraging,” said Pandey, adding that his hotel – Forest Park – had  75 percent occupancy.

He said that the presence of Indian and Chinese tourists along with domestic tourists is also encouraging in Sauraha.

The general secretary of the association, Gunaraj Thapalia, said that all the rooms were full on Saturday as expected for the New Year’s Eve on Sunday.

According to Thapalia, the owner of Unique Wild Resort, 30 rooms in his hotel have been fully booked till January 4.

According to Deepak Bhattarai, outgoing president of the association, there are around 160 hotels in Sauraha. The hotel has the capacity to serve seven thousand people at a time. Sauraha can accommodate more than 10,000 people for one night with the homestay facility.

Tourists who come to Sauraha go for a jeep safari in the nearby community forests. They can also enjoy jeep safari inside the Chitwan National Park. According to Bhattarai, around 100 jeep safaris are taking place daily in the community forest alone. Tourists have to wait for their turn for the jeep safaris.

Suman Ghimire, the former president of the association, said that the arrival of tourists was unprecedented during this period. According to him, tourists are coming now as in the pre-Covid situation.

“Tourists prefer to visit here in winter season. Booking for the coming days is good. This has made us hopeful," he said.

According to the outgoing president of Restaurant and Bar Association (REBAN), Dipendra Khatiwada, there is a good presence of tourists in the restaurants of Sauraha since Dashain.

Along with Sauraha, there is also a good presence of tourists in Patihani, Jagatpur, and Meghauli. There is a good presence of Indian and Chinese tourists as tourists from third countries go home to celebrate New Year and Christmas.

Ganesh Paudel, owner of Jungle Villa in Patihani, said that the arrival of tourists is encouraging. He said that they are hopeful that tourism industry will return to the pre-covid situation.