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Posted
on 22-Sep-03 01:14 PM
You are reading: The Kathmandu Post >> Business
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Narayani Hotel to close down
Satyendra Timilsina
kathmandu, Sept 21 - After failing to cope up with survival threats posed to Nepali tourism industry by domestic violence since the past couple of years, Nepals first four-star hotel Narayani Hotel is all set to close down from October 1st.
Officials of the hotel said that were forced to take such a decision after they incurred heavy losses and the total loss accumulated to an unrecoverable level. The hotel was incurring an operational loss of Rs 1.3 million each month.
"We are looking for a fair close down of the hotel and have thus requested the Ministry of Labour for the settlement of employees," said Chandra Sekhar Gyawali, Chairman of the Narayani Group.
He further said that the ministry is yet to give the final approval for the Hotels shut down. "A total of 65 staff are presently working in the hotel and as per preliminary estimates, the Hotel needs around twenty million rupees to settle down the labour payments.
The hotel has a total investment of Rs 250 million and has been in operation since October 1975. The hotel is spread over an area of 10 ropanis at Pulchowk in Lalitpur Municipality. There are 68 rooms in the hotel with central air conditioning system.
"It was well evident that hotels were facing survival threats, but no one looked over the matter seriously," says Gyawali, adding that he could neither get loans from the banks, nor any facilities from the government.
"At least the government should let the hoteliers close down their Hotels if it turns unprofitable," he says. Gyawali had closed his Chitwan-based Narayani Safari last year citing similar reasons. This is the first such incident of the close down of a four star-hotel since the Nepali tourism industry crippled down due to the Maoist insurgency and the predicament of slump since the past three years.
In a similar incident last year, dozens of hotels and restaurants at Thamel, Pokhara, Chitwan and other major tourist destinations had closed down. The hotels and restaurants had cited the ever-dwindling tourist inflow as the major reason for their closure.
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