The Nepal Weekly 
November 7, 2023Tourism entrepreneurs are dissatisfied with the Machhapuchhre Rural Municipality’s decision to charge tourists who come here for trekking.
Following up on the proposal passed by its rural municipal assembly in June, the local level recently announced that foreign tourists need to pay Rs. 500 and domestic tourists to pay Rs. 100 to trek in places inside the rural municipality.
“The rural municipality will levy a tourism service charge to develop infrastructure, set up information centres, install solar lights, manage garbage and provide other facilities along its foot trails for the convenience of the tourists,” reads the notice issued by the local government.
Machhapuchhre plans to levy these charges on trekkers coming to the low camp of the Model Trek (Mardi Trek) and Luburak of the Khumai Danda-Korchang Great Machhapuchchhre Trek in the first phase. These charges will be imposed under the rural municipality’s Fiscal Act of 2023 and will come into effect from next week.
The Gandaki provincial branch of the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN) also issued a statement expressing concern that the decision would make the trekking process needlessly complicated and entangle tourists in bureaucracy.
