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By Shashi P.B.B. Malla

Like all the other sectors of the economy, the tourism industry has also suffered enormously during the current raging Coronavirus pandemic. And in this sector, it is the most bottom rung of the ladder – the porters in the trekking business – who have been the hardest hit. The government has opened up the country for foreign tourists as of October 17, but it will be a forlorn hope that their terrible lot will improve any time soon.

Last week in The Kathmandu Post, Tsering Ngodup Lama did yeoman’s service by highlighting the plight of the porters in trekking tourism, without whom it could not function at all (Wednesday, October 7, 2020).

Tsering describes how even in normal times, the porters have a difficult time making ends meet. Most of them literally live hand to mouth. Saving for a rainy day is an impossible proposition. Bringing up a family and educating their children entails financial juggling of the highest order. Considering that it is only their hard work – carrying clients’ duffle bags and all the other trekking gear, food and cooking utensils – up and down the mountain trails, that contribute in a large way to make any trekking trip a huge success. This means fat profits for the trekking agencies and hugely satisfied customers, who invariably promise to come back soon. Nepal is that type of destination – as the much hyped slogan of the Nepal Tourism Board: ‘Once is not enough!’ alludes.

Compared to other professions, it may seem that the daily wages of trekking porters are quite high. Depending on the route area and the altitude, these may range from Rs. 1,200 to Rs. 1,500 per day. However, there are various constraints. First, they do not earn all around the year and their earnings are restricted to the two trekking seasons: the first from around the middle of February to the middle of May [the spring season]. Winter is considered too cold, and the time after May too hot for trekking to take place comfortably. The heavy rains during the Monsoons would also make trekking a logistical nightmare. The second season would then be after or around the end of the Monsoons from mid-September to mid-December. The total period in which a porter could be gainfully employed would thus be only about half a year!

Second, it cannot be truthfully claimed that the porter is fully employed during the whole half-year. If she/he is very lucky, she will get two to three trips per season. With these total earnings, she/he will have to finance the expenses of the family for the whole year!

Third, what looks like a lot of money in daily wages on paper, peters out pretty fast in practice. As Tsering so eloquently documents, from the daily wage of Rs.1,500, the porter has to spend around Rs. 500 for food and tea every day. This amount rises the higher the altitude as everything gets more expensive. Thus a single meal can cost as much as Rs. 500, leaving the porter very little in savings.

How can the trekking industry as a whole take stock of the whole miserable situation and find ways and means to come out of the impasse? After all, the pandemic is also a time of forced rest and recuperation of sorts and a golden opportunity to right wrongs and make Nepal one of the world’s most attractive tourist destinations and a trekker’s paradise.

For what they are worth, here are some suggestions from decades of experience in the office and in the field.

First and foremost, it is essential that the government (Ministry of Tourism), the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) and the Trekking Agents Association of Nepal (TAAN/ the umbrella organization speaking for all the trekking businesses) get their act together i.e. initiate a public-private partnership that could be a trailblazer for other sectors.

The first order of business would be to organize a fund so that porters currently without any work can be helped to tide over the period of immense financial crunch. Why only for the porters? Because they are at the very bottom of the trekking business and their need is most pressing. Moreover, we have to start somewhere and we are not the government which has to act in many sectors at the same time.

The ‘Fund for Porters’would be funded by donations from airlines (e.g. Qatar International Airlines, a key player for tourism to Nepal), banks and insurance companies, NGOs specializing in social service (like the ‘Himani Trust’). The point is to have sufficient funds for porters to tide over their present difficulties. This is for the immediate short term. It doesn’t look as if the autumn trekking season is going off to a good start. The porters will, therefore, need financial help to tide them over until the start of the next spring season when – hopefully – we will start anew.

However, it will be a fatal mistake if we just start where we left off this spring. It has to be a new beginning. We have to make essential changes and compromises.

Second, therefore, when we start anew, we will have changed the whole basis of the trekking business. Each trekking agency will have to hire their necessary porters – and sign a contract —  for the next two seasons. They will have to be provided:

  1. Fixed monthly salary for the next two seasons
  2. A daily allowance during the trek
  • Proper clothes and shoes for the duration of the two seasons
  1. Two full wholesome meals and two ‘teas’ during breaks
  2. Free lodging for the nights [Lodges must be encouraged to make arrangements for porter-dormitories for overnight stays FOC]

In return for this [normal] humane treatment, the porters will be ready to serve in a variety of ways:

  1. Repairing the trails
  2. Upgrading lodges
  • Community work: cleaning up the environment, planting trees and shrubs.

Special arrangements will have to be made for porter-guides, since this will be a hybrid service.

Nepal’s trekking agencies will have to plan carefully – the pandemic is a wake-up call. They will have to start calculating now, before offering their programmes to foreign tour operators. The whole tourism industry – including the government and the NTB – has to recognize now that trekking in Nepal and tourism in general does not come on the cheap and plan a sustainable strategy for the future. Porters can no longer be exploited. Nepal can no longer be a cheap tourist destination. Quality does have its price!

The writer can be reached at: shashipbmalla@hotmail.com

Our contributor has worked for many decades in the tourism industry – first as an executive in West Germany (Germany was not yet united!), then as a trekking/mountain guide for Germany’s leading tour operator for adventure tourism – the DAV Summit Club/Munich, the commercial arm of the German Alpine Club – in Nepal, Kashmir/Ladakh, Darjeeling/Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet; finally as that company’s country representative in Kathmandu. – Editor-in-Chief

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