It has been a while since the Department of Immigration, Nepal has shut down all of its visa related services due to the rapid increase in the cases of corona virus which forced the government to impose an even more strict lockdown. Now, since the lockdown is set loose and many services and facilities are now open in Nepal, the immigration department has issued a notice regarding the resumption of all the visa related services in Nepal. The services resumed from 13 September 2020 and as per the notice there will mot be any late fees and penalties till 27th of September, 2020. So if anybody is left you better hurry up and get your visa renewed or if you need any more services then you can head on now before they come up with any new decisions.
On the other hand, the international flights are being effectively operated at Tribhuwan International Airport since the resumption of the regular international flights in Nepal. Only few of the selected airlines are operating international flights in Nepal and now government has decided to increase the number of these flights. Qatar airways is planning for a weekly three flights to Nepal and many other new flights are set to be added very soon. However, these International flights can only fly the Nepali citizens as the foreigners are still not permitted to travel to Nepal due to Covid-19 concerns. Meanwhile, many passengers have complained about the high air fare rates that the airlines has been charging to its customers when the flights first started to resume. Maybe with the increase in flights, these high airfares might climb back down to the normal rates.
While the Government intends to increase the number of international flights to Nepal, the recent cabinet meeting has decided to lift up the suspension and resume domestic airlines from 21 September 2020. As the government has finally decides to resume domestic airlines which has been suspended for quite a while, the cabinet meeting has also decide to resume the long distance travel throughout the country by following the health and safety guidelines. When talking about domestic airlines, one of the top domestic airlines of Nepal, Yeti Air has been permitted to operate International flights. According to them, they will be operating chartered flights at first and the first flight will be operated from the new international Airport which will soon be completed. Yeti airlines will not be the first one to fly International flights as Budhha Air has already been flying to Varanasi, India for years now. Along with the aviation sector, Nepal has worked on different cultural and heritage sites and resumed different services and facilities lately. Well, it seems like Nepal is slowly getting back to the normal state despite the daily new cases of Covid-19.
Not only the aviation sector but the hotels and restaurants in Nepal are now open as well but not tourism. Even though the international flights are now resumed, there is still a travel ban for foreign nationals in Nepal. However, a handful of tourists has arrived to Nepal even in the time of lockdown for special purposes. While Nepal has recorded few number of tourist arrivals in 2020, many who were in Nepal have already left the country which is no surprise at all. The department of tourism and concerned authorities are constantly working on to find an alternative solution for tourism to resume in Nepal.
As far as travelling to Nepal is concerned, travelling is still not safe as the Covid-19 cases are still not improving. While Kathmandu has started operating different services and resuming the economy, the capital has seen the most number of Covid-19 cases in the recent days. Although a certain group has been permitted to trek, it seems like the tourism in Nepal might take a while to resume. While virtual tourism is the only better option as of now, the tourism industry of Nepal might want to depend on the domestic tourism rather than the international tourism. On the other hand, a couple of countries has slowly started to resume tourism while the overall global tourism is still stuck and helpless. Even Bali where tourism was set to be resumed has now postponed its decision due to rise in Covid-19 cases and is now likely to open for tourism in only 2021. Nepal, despite working continuously to find an alternative to resume tourism has failed due to the helpless situation from the rapidly increasing cases of Covid-19, so government is not ready to open tourism in Nepal yet.
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