The number of hotels has increased in the Thamel area of Kathmandu, which is a popular tourist destination. This is the result of businessmen resuming the plan to build hotels that was put on hold due to Covid-19. With the announcement of the government to celebrate 'Nepal Visit Year' in 2020, businessmen had planned to open more hotels and restaurants in Thamel area. The government had announced an ambitious plan to bring 2 million tourists in the tourism year. 

However, the the Covid-19 pandemic slowed down the tourist activity, and the businessmen stalled their plans. Bhaweshwar Sharma, chairman of Thamel Tourism Development Council informed New Business Age that the number of hotels have increased in the Thamel area as businessmen increased their investment as the Covid-19 pandemic has subsided.

“As the Covid-19 has subsided, the infrastructure development increased rapidly. Some are under construction,” said Sharma. Some of the added hotels include Aloft, Barahi, Agantuk, Kailashkut, and Surya. Sharma informed that the work of collecting data of various businesses in this area is continuing even after the pandemic. He said, “During the collection of data, it was found that a total of 573 hotels are currently operating in this area. Before the onset of Covid-19, only 373 hotels were operating in this area in 2019." 

At present, the hotels in this area have the capacity to serve 35,000 tourists on a daily basis. Although the hotel infrastructure has increased, the number of tourists has not increased proportionately though. Before Covid-19, around 5,000 to 7,000 tourists used to visit this area daily, which is around 4,000 to 5,000 at present.

With the increase in the number of tourists coming to the country, the number of people arriving at Thamel has also increased. General Secretary of HAN, Sajan Shakya, said that cooperation is necessary to create an environment where they can safely visit Thamel.