Machhapuchhre Rural Municipality Charges Entry Fee From Pedestrian Tourists

Pokhara, Machhapuchhre rural municipality of Kaski is going to collect entry fees from internal and external tourists who reach the tourist trail. The rural municipality will charge 500 rupees from foreign tourists and 100 rupees from domestic tourists as an entrance fee.

Gopikrishna Aryal, the chief administrative officer of the rural municipality, published a notice on Friday and said that tourism service fee will be collected for the construction and management of facilities such as the construction of general infrastructure, the establishment of information center, installation of solar lights, waste management and other facilities on the tourist trails within the village. According to the decision of the village assembly, the decision to collect tourist service fee was made by the meeting of the village executive. In Schedule 6(7) of the Economic Act 2080 passed by the village council, there is a provision to collect service fee from pedestrians.

Executive member Ram Gurung said that in the first phase, a fee will be charged to the tourists who reach the Mardi Himal footpath the Great Machhapuchhre Trail, and the Machhapuchhre Model Trek leading to Khumandanda. "Until now, there is no data on how many tourists have entered the rural municipality," he said, adding that service fees had to be charged for the convenience of tourists. He mentioned that the rural municipality set the fee according to the provision in Schedule 8 of the constitution that the local level can collect tourism fee. According to him, at present, for the Mardi Himal trekking route, there is an arrangement to collect a fee in Lubruk for the Great Machhapuchhre trail that reaches Humal (Low Camp) and Khumandanda.

He said that the hiking route from Bhurjungkhola to Tara Hilltop via Ghalekhark is in the stage of promotion so no fee will be charged. He said, "This fee is only for tourists who go on a trek, not for those who go to a homestay."