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Tourism Management: Tourism in Chitwan National Park (CNP) was started 1962 by then Director of
Tiger Tops Mr. Copeman with a 4 bed tented camp. Today there are 7
concessionaire hotels and their 3 tented camps operating inside the park with
492-bed capacity. The main attraction in the park is offered by its wilderness
areas, forests and grasslands, and wetlands areas with their outstanding
wildlife sighting opportunities. Tourism is developed in the eastern, central
and western sector of the park. There are 9 park entry gates for issuing park
entry permits to visitors all along the northern border of the park. There is no
tourism in the southern sector of the park. Highest tourism concentration in the
park is in eastern sector, followed by central and western sector. The number of
tourists visiting the park (based on entry permits sold by park) during 1998/99
was 10  5,880.
Likewise, there were 80,980 tourists in eastern sector. The ratio of visiting
foreign nationals to Nepali/Indian tourists visiting the park was almost the
same. These concessionaire hotels within the park occupy the best natural locations with rich wildlife concentration along the banks of Rapti and Narayani River. Geographical location of the hotels and their bed capacity is quite enough at the moment. All the 3 tented camps are seasonal and only operate only for 6-7 months (November to April), Four of the hotels operates for 8 months and are closed during the monsoon, while the Machan Wildlife Resort, Gaida Wildlife Camp and Island Jungle Resort operate the year round. The hotels caterd to a total of 38,582 tourists in 1998/99, out of which about one of the third was Nepali and Indian visitors per day in the tented camp and hotel is 24 and 64 respectively. Contracts of these hotels and tented camps are expiring in 2009 (2066BS). There are 211 buildings, 50 vehicles, 60 elephants, 930 full time staff (of which  80%
are locals) in these hotels.These hotels conduct several types of tourist activities. Of these, Elephant rides is teh most popular activity and prefered by about 85% tourists, followed by boating/canoeing 80%, Jungle walk 80% and jungle drive 60%. The average duration of tourist activities varies from half and hour to 2 hour except for hiking, which is offered to only a few tourists. Elephant safari The elephant back safari is one of the best ways to obverse wildlife’s of the park, because it allows you to go deep into the jungle through tall elephant grass and get a good outlook from a vantage point. Jungle walk The jungle walk is leaded by a certified trained naturalist, trained by the park and it takes you deep in to the forest to observe various wildlife. There are several watch towers along the routes in which you may go up to get a better view of the surrounding. Canoeing trip A canoe ride is gently floating down the Rapti River, which forms the northern boundary of the National park.  You
may see two different types of the crocodiles in sunny winter days, Gharial and
Marsh Mugger, basking along the River banks and get to see flocks of aquatic
water fowls and waders.Jeep safari Jeep safari is one of the most thrilling activities for wildlife viewing, because it takes you deep into the jungle, through all kind of park’s vegetation and wildlife’s habitats. It allows you to see several ox-bow lakes of the park which are really popular for spotting variety of wildlife. |