NATHM Souvenir 2014_2

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SOUVENIR 2014i

It gives me an immense pleasure to know that Nepal Academy of Tourism

and Hotel Management (NATHM) is going to bring out Souvenir 2014 on its

41stAnniversary.

NATHM has been actively involved in producing trained human resources

since its inception through academic as well as vocational training courses

for the development and promotion of tourism and hospitality industry in

Nepal. As we are all aware that Government of Nepal has placed tourism in

one of its priority sectors for the development of Nepal, the contribution of

NATHM has been appreciable in this regard. Equally important is the fact

that Nepal Government is also on the verge of amending tourism policy

which will provide more emphasis on promoting sustainable, eco-Friendly,

responsible and tourist-Friendly tourism in Nepal.

All of these efforts require a team of dedicated human resources who are

capable enough to handle and manage inflow of tourists and meet their

requirements in most hospitable and professional manner. I express my sincere

thanks to NATHM Family for working hard in this regard and best wishes

for its 41stanniversary.

Bhim Acharya

Minister

Message from the Minister



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I am delighted to know that Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management

(NATHM) is celebrating its 41stanniversary this year. With a long way already

been passed contributing in the hospitality and tourism sectors of the country.

NATHM is a pioneer for the development of human resources needed by the

industry in order to fulfill its present and Future demands.

Tourism is one area that has grown enormously as a result of the citizens

wish to travel and see the world. If we look into the statistics, the number of

tourists worldwide has increased tremendously in the past couple of decades

and it has become a major contributor in the global economy.

Similarly, the amount of revenues related to tourism has also increased

significantly at a rate higher than the increase in the number of tourists. In

such a progressively changing world scenario, the role of NATHM has been

more crucial in producing trained human resources who have knowledge and

skills in managing such demands effectively.

I congratulate NATHM for endeavors so Far and wish prosperous Future ahead.

19 March 2014

Sushil Ghimire

Secretary - Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation

Chairperson - Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management

Message from the Secretary



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Sushil GhimireChairperson - NATHM

SecretaryMinistry of Culture, Tourism & Civil Aviation

Mr. Madhusudan PokharelMember

Joint SecretaryMinistry of Finance

Mr. Puspa Lal ShakyaMember

Joint SecretaryNational Planning Commission Secretariat

Mr. Rabindr Mohan BhattaraiMember

Director GeneralDepartment of Labour

Mr. Subash NiraulaMember

Officiating Chief Executive OfficerNepal Tourism Board

Mr. Dal Bahadur LimbuMember

PresidentNepal Association of Tours & Travel Agents (NATTA)

Mr. Shyam Sundar Lal KachhyapatiMember

PresidentHotel Association of Nepal

(HAN)

Mr. Ramesh Prasad DhamalaMember

ChairmanTrekking Agencies Association of Nepal

(TAAN)

Mr. Chuda Mani Sharma KattelMember Secretary

Executive DirectorNepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management

(NATHM)



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One more year older, NATHM completes its 40 years of generating qualified workforce to meet the human

resource requirement of the hospitality industry. Generating an average of 800 students a year, the academyhas fulfilled the requirement of 32300 potential employees into the market at various levels of hotel and

tourism industry.

Maintaining its Status Quo of being one of the sought after institution in the country, NATHM will soon be

launching a 4 star hotel with 83 rooms to provide in house training to its students. This project is in line with

making Nepal the destination for hospitality education among SAARC nations.

The team editorial would like to thank all the writers and article contributors of this issue, without which the

magazine would have been of only few pages and not much reader friendly. My sincere thanks to the editorial

team on mission accomplished.

Besides the annual magazine, we publish NATHM UPDATES 4 times a year. We would like to request all the

well wishers and graduates to send contributions for the updates, achievements and even suggestions for

improvement to make it a Centre of Excellence.

Till the next issue when we become 41 years old.

Ujjwal Satyal (HOD)

Editor

From the Editors DeskFrom the Editors Desk

OLD



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NATHM Introduction __________________________________________________________ 1

Views expressed in the articles are those of the authors that do not necessarily represent the views of Editorial Team or Nepal Academy of Tourism and

Hotel Management (NATHM). All rights reserved to NATHM.

Chief AdvisorChuda Mani Sharma Kattel

EditorUjjwal Satyal

AdvisorKeshav Prasad Thapaliya

CoordinatorSurya Kiran Shrestha

AdministratorGyan Bahadhur Karki

Assitant CoordinatorRabin Sapkota

Members

Nima Nurbu SherpaAakriti Shrestha

Malati Pujara

Binaya Adhikari

Swastika Bista

Akanchhya Dahal

Saneep Mainali

Design & Print ProcessDREAMWORKS

Tel: 9851005177

E-mail: [email protected]

PhotographyPradip Shakya

NATHM students & staff

C O N T E N T S

E d i t o r i a lE d i t o r i a lE d i t o r i a lE d i t o r i a lE d i t o r i a l

T E A MT E A MT E A MT E A MT E A M

E d i t o r i a lE d i t o r i a lE d i t o r i a lE d i t o r i a lE d i t o r i a l

T E A MT E A MT E A MT E A MT E A M



SOUVENIR 20141

Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management(NATHM)

Nepal Academy of Tourism & Hotel Management (NATHM) formerly

known as HMTTC was established in 1972 by Government of Nepal

with the technical assistance of UNDP/ILO to produce skilled

workforce required by the Hospitality and Tourism Industry. Eversince

its birth, the academy has played a crucial role in developing the

human resources for this industry with the aim of enhancing the

level of quality in services. Apart from academic courses such as

Bachelor of Hotel Management (BHM) and Bachelor of Travel andTourism Management (BTTM) and Master of Hospitality

Management (MHM), it has been providing craft and supervisory

level skill oriented trainings, guide trainings, small hotel and lodge

amangement training, food preparation and control, food and beverage

service, front office, house keeping and so on to cater to the demands

from this particular sector. Amidst the growing need of higher level

human resources in tourism and hospitality. This premier academy

is renowned for generating qualified workforce for the ever-increasing

demands of the hospitality and tourism sectors.



SOUVENIR 20142

VISION

Nepal will be established as a preferred

destination for tourism and hospitality

education in the SAARC region.

MISSION

NATHM as the pioneer nationalinstitution dedicated to human resourcedevelopment for tourism and hospitalitysector in Nepal, will facilitate andprepare quality human resources byimproving and expanding educational,training and research opportunities. Itwill thus be a Center of Excellence fornational and international student.

VALUES

NATHM recognizes and embraces the following values:

Team work and shared responsibilities

We, all the staff members of NATHM, are partners in business pursuing our sharedvision. We believe in team work and shared responsibilities.

Inclusion sensitiveness

NATHM will work hard to ensure that tourism training opportunity will be available for

everyone regardless of gender, caste or geographical isolation.

Quality assurance, efficiency and effectiveness

NATHM values on quality human resources preparation. It will strive hard to enhanceits past reputation as institution for preparing quality human resources

We value the public investment made in us and strive to deliver quality results in a mostcost-effective manner through a simple management structure, efficient processes,effective checks-and-balances and vigorous quality assurance mechanisms.

People

We provide a caring environment in which students and staff pursue personal andinstitutional development.

Performance

We demand high performance and reward excellence in performance. We encourageinnovation, practicality, entrepreneurship, and the pursuit of academic and management

excellence. This is applied to both staff members and students.



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BHM 5thSemester

BHM 5thSemester



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BHM 5thSemester

BHM 3rdSemester



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BHM 3rdSemester

BHM 3rdSemester



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BHM 1stSemester

BHM 1stSemester



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BHM 1stSemester

BTTM 5th Semester



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BTTM 5th Semester

BTTM 3rd Semester



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BTTM 3rd Semester

BTTM 1st Semester



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BTTM 1st Semester

MHM 2nd Batch



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MHM 3rd Batch

BHM students in F & B Service



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BHM students in Food Production



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BHM students in Housekeeping Lab

BHM students in Housekeeping Lab



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BHM Interns

BHM Interns



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Dance perform by BTTM studnts

Welcome and Farewell BTTM



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MHM Seminar

MHM Tour



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MHM Seminar

Orientation



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Extra Curricular Activities

Extra Curricular Activities



SOUVENIR 2014

Abstract

Conflict in organization is reality. Where people exist disagreement is common. It is the managerial ability to maintain

conflict in optimum level. Optimization of conflict can be obtained through enhancing functional and discouraging the

dysfunctional conflict. The current study presents the review of conflict related studies and views conflict as indispensable

managerial function. In addition, it explores management development as an important programme to make managers

capable to optimize conflict through improving their conflict management skills in the commercial banks in Nepal.

Keywords: conflict management, conflict management skills, commercial banks.

Managerial Conflict

Resolution Skills

Improvement throughManagement

Development: A Study of

Nepalese commercial

Banking sector

Dr. Dhruba Raj PokharelAssistant Dean, T U

Research Article

The Background

Conflicts may have either positive or negative consequences

for the organization; depending on how much it exists

and how it is managed. Organizations with optimum level

of conflict can be considered highly functional and helps

to generate positive performance. When the level of conflict

is too low, performance suffer, innovation and change are

less likely to take place, and the organization may have

difficulty adapting to its changing environment. If the low

level of conflict continues, the very survival of organization

can be threatened. On the other hand, if the conflict level

becomes too high the resulting chaos also can threaten

the survival of organization (Ivancevich et al., 2006:358).

The managers in the organization experience the different

stages of conflict. The stages consist of perceived, felt,

and manifest. Perceived conflict exist when cognitive

awareness on the part of at least one group that event

occurred or that conditions exist favourable to creating

overt conflict. The felt stage of conflict represents an

escalation that includes emotional involvement. It is

expressed behaviourally as anxiety, tension and hostility.In manifest stage of conflict, the conflicting groups

actively engage in the action.

Jehn (1997) stated the three types of conflict, namely

relationship, task, and process conflict. The relationship

conflict arises out of personal differences between people

differing goals, values and personalities etc. Individuals

involved in such conflict often report disliking one another,

being angry with or jealous of one another, having problems

with each other as enemies. Relationship conflict is likely



SOUVENIR 201422

Slocum, and Hellriegal (2007: 253) write the most difficult

conflict to resolve is diversity based conflict. Such conflicts

are based on the issues of race ethnicity and religion. Leading

organizations adhere to the letter and spirit of laws and

regulations related to nondiscrimination and affirmative

action to reduce diversity based conflict. The managers in

the organizations need to be proactive to prevent, minimize,surface, and resolve the diversity based conflicts.

The absence of any conflict at all can be a significant

sign that the group is not openly generating a sufficient

varieties of view points and potential approaches for solving

problems, bringing innovation and change, and making

good decisions (Hitt,et al., 2009:325). Thomas and Schimdt

(1976) suggest that mangers and team leader can work

as principal actor in conflict management. Lipit (1982)

showed that mangers spend approximately 25 percent of

time dealing with conflict, in some fields like hospitals

and municipal organization. Managers also can spend as

much as 50 percent of their time managing conflict in

other type of organizations. Managers rate conflict

management as equal to or higher in importance than

planning, motivation and decision making.

The rationale

Rahim (2001) suggests certain criteria to make conflict

management effective. First, conflict management

strategies should be designed to improve individual as well

as organizational learning so that managers should

challenge the status quo. Second, strategies should be

designed to find the right skillful persons to solve the

problems collectively. Finally, the conflict management

should be ethical. Gasline et al. (2001) - emphasize that

timely training of the managers and employees will help

to manage the conflicts by making management support

to create conducive organizational culture with fairness,

where the people will feel free to express their opinions

creatively and critically. Therefore, we feel the need ofmanagement, education, development, and training in

Nepalese commercial banks to improve the conflict

management skills of the managers. The current paper

tries to raise the issue and rich the answer to the query

whether management development practices are capable

to enhance such human skills for their managers to make

conflict management effective.

The objective

The present research aims to analyze the improvement in

the managerial conflict resolving knowledge, skill, and

attitude after participating in management development

programme. Managers were asked to rank the degrees of

improvement in the variables like understanding the

individual differences, ability to express disagreement,

influence to get ideas accepted, tolerance power, respect

to other, and interpersonal relation. All these constitute

the basis for bringing positive changes in the behaviour of

the managers in order to resolve the conflict and enjoy

organizational harmony in their work situation.

The research methods

This study is based on analytical com descriptive survey

research designe. The study units of banks werecategorized in three groups. Out of 25 "A" class commercial

banks, nine banks, three from each category were selected

(e.g. 3 private, 3 joint venture, and 3 government and semi

government banks). The responses were received from the

managers working in head / corporate offices of the

selected banks. Out of 321 total selected 266 usable

questionnaires were received. Among 266 usable answers

received, 37, 55 and 174 were form private, joint venture,

and government and semi government banks. The

compositions of the gender to answer the questions were

196 male and 70 female. Among 266 responses received,

111 were form senior and 155 were form the junior managers

working in the head office. A purposive and convenient

sampling procedure was applied to collect the data. The

response rate was 83 percent. The descriptive statistics

like mean and standard deviation were applied to analyze

the data and conclude the research. The reliability rate

was 80.30 percent.

The data analysis and discussion

The banks, under study were classified according to

ownership pattern. They were grouped as private, joint

venture and government and semi government banks. The

managers of all ownership patterns were asked to rank

the conflict resolution knowledge, skill and attitude in

different degrees as highly improved, improved, slightly

improved, remained same and unknown.



SOUVENIR 2014

Table 1

Managerial perception about improvement in managerial conflict resolution skills

Ownership Understanding the Ability to express Influence to get Tolerance power Respect to other Interpersonal relation

individual differences disagreement ideas accepted

Mean 2.43 2.49 2.49 3.11 2.68 2.97

Private Bank N 37 37 37 37 37 37

Std.Deviation .959 .768 .804 .906 .884 1.118

Joint venture Mean 2.16 2.47 2.67 2.62 2.22 2.31

Bank N 55 55 55 55 55 55

Std. Deviation .834 .604 .818 .933 .854 610

Government & Mean 2.43 2.46 2.56 2.62 2.33 2.31

semi-government N 174 171 171 172 173 173

bank Std.Deviation .895 .842. .841 .926 .890 .838

Mean 2.37 2.47 2.57 2.69 2.35 2.36

Total N 266 263 263 264 265 265

Std.Deviation .895 .785 .830 .937 .889 .877

The table above presents the mean values computed for

the responses of the managers of private, joint venture,

and government and semi government banks, in regard totheir ranking of conflict resolution attributes. The first

attribute asked to managers, was to understand the

individual differences. The mean value for the private bank

managers was 2.43, for joint venture bank was 2.16, and

for the government and semi government bank was 2.43.

The total mean value was 2.37. All the mean values, showed

the improvement in the ability to understanding the

individual differences. However the managers from joint

venture banks were improving higher in comparison to

managers from other banks.Ability to express the disagreement was the second attribute

given to rank to the respondents. All the managers from all

ownership banks found improvement in the ability to express

disagreement after the completion of management

development program. The representing mean values for

private, joint venture, government and semi government banks

were 2.49, 2.47, and 2.46 respectively. The improvement as

reported by all the managers was identical, irrespective of

ownership. The mean value for total respondents was 2.47

which also supported the findings positively.

The third attribute asked to mangers was the improvement

in the influence to get ideas accepted as a skill to manage

the conflict in their respective organizations frommanagement development. The computed mean values were

2.49 for private banks, 2.67 for joint venture banks and

2.56 for the government and semi government banks. The

total mean value for all the banks 2.57 revealed the

improvement in influence to get ideas accepted from the

management development in their jobs. The degree of

improvement is better in the private banks in comparison

to other banks i.e. joint venture and government and semi

government banks.

The fourth attribute ranked by the managers wasimprovement achieved in tolerance power. The computed

mean values were 3.11 for private bank, 2.62 for joint

venture banks, and 2.62 for government and semi

government banks. The total mean value for the total

responses was 2.69. The mean scores as shown in the

table above show the improvement in the tolerance power.

But for the managers of the private sector, the management

development programme could not contribute to bring

desired improvement in the tolerance power.



SOUVENIR 201424

Respect to other was the fifth attribute of conflict

management to be improved from the management training

programme in the organizations under study. The mean values

computed were 2.68 for private banks, 2.22 for the joint

venture banks, and 2.33 for the government and semi

government banks. The mean value for all the responding

managers was 2.35. According to mean values, themanagement development programme was able to bring

improvement in the skill to respect others for participating

managers. Whatever it showed the improvement in the

attribute but the improvement of the manager's skill to respect

other in the joint venture bank is higher than the managers in

private and government and semi government banks.

The next attribute asked to the managers to rank was

interpersonal relation as a recognized skill for effective conflict

management in their respective organizations. The mean

values were, 2.97 for private bank, 2.31 for joint venture

banks, and 2.31 for government and semi government banks.

The mean value of total responses was 2.36. The mean

values as shown in the table above showed that the

management development programme has been successful

to bring the improvement in the skill of respecting others.

The level of improvement felt by the managers in joint venture

banks and government and semi government banks was

higher in comparison to the private banks studied.

The findings andconclusigovernmentgovernmentons

On the basis of the analysis above, managers irrespective

of the ownership modality of their banks reported that

their conflict management skill was positively changed by

the management development practices. What so ever

improvements were reported, but these are not in the high

scales as desired. This study supports the propositions

forwarded by Rahim (2001) and Gasline et al. (2001).

This study has been concentrated only in banking sector,therefore, it cannot be claimed to be generalized. The

responses were received from the managers working in

head / corporate offices of the concerned banks. Therefore,

we can not claim that the research represents the views

of managers working in the branches. The statistical tools

applied in the study are very simple.

The implications and suggestions for future research

The current research is valuable for the practicing managers,

those managing the conflict in organizations. It also holds

importance to the process of designing implementing, and

evaluating the management development program in the

concerned banks. The future researchers are heartily invited

to find the more and more variables or managerial attributes

that can help the practicing managers to solve the

disagreements between and among the people working in

their respective organizations. It would be highly desirableto include such topics in the corporate executive

development progrmmes in the organizations.

ReferencesBrown, D. L. (1983). Managing Conflict at Organizational Interfaces. Reading

MA: Additional-Wesley.

Eisenhardt, K., & Schoonnhoven, C. (1990). Organizational growth: linking

funding team,Strategy, environment, and growth among US Semiconductor

ventures:1978-1988. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35:504-529.

Hitt, M A., Black, S. J. and Porter, & L W. (2009). Management. India,Pearson Education.

Hitt, M, A., Miller, C. C., & Colella, A. (2006). Organizational Behaviour: A

Strategic Approach, India, Wiley.

Ivancevich, J. M., Konopaske, R.,& Matteson, M. T. (2006). OrganizationalBehaviour and Management, India, Tata McGraw-Hill Pubilshing Company

Limited.

Jehn, K. (1995). A Multi method examination of the benefits and determinants

of intra group conflict. .Administrative Science Quarterly,40:256-282

Jehn, K. A. (1997). A qualitative analysis of conflict types and dimensions in

organizational group. Administrative Science Quaterly, 42:530-557

Jehn, K. A., and Manix, E. A. (2000). The dynamic nature of conflict: A

longitudinal study of Intra group conflict and group performance. Academy of

Management Journal, 44:238-251.

Kobanott, B. (1991). Equity, equality, power, and conflict. Academy of

Management review. April: 416:441.

Lippit, G.L. (1982). Managing Conflict in today's Organizations. Training andDevelopment Journal, 36:66-74.

Nixon,R. D., Hitt, M. A., Lee, H. & Jeong, E. (2004). Market reaction to

announcements of corporate downsizing actions and implementation strategies.

Strategic Management journal, 25:1121-1129.

Rahim, M. A. (1986). Managing Conflict in Organizations.Newyork;Praeger.

Slocum, J. W. Jr. & Hellriegal D. (2007). Fundamenta ls of Organizational

Behaviour.Thompson, India.

Thomas, K. W. & Schimdt, W. H. (1976). A survey of managerial interest with

respect to conflict. Academy of Management Journal, 19:315-318.

Thompson, J. (1967). Organizations in Action. In John M. Ivancevich, Robert

Konopaske, and MIchael T. Matteson. Eds (2006). Organizational Behaviour,India, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing. pp.360.

Wall, J. A., Jr., & Collister, R.R.(1995). Conflict and its management. Journal

of Management,21:515-558.



SOUVENIR 2014

Preamble

In the recent years there has emerged a new trend of development

and promotion of more applied higher education sectors almost in

every country thereby promoting education, research and

development, and institutional transformation through morespecialized and narrowly focused institutional systems promoted

as autonomous institutions having equivalent to university status.

Such specialized sector-wise areas of development in the national

context of Nepal may include i. tourism and hospitality

management, ii. snow and water resources management, iii.

agriculture and agricultural recreation management, iv. natural

resource management, v. public planning and governance, vi.

public health, medicine and healthcare management, vii.

management of information and technology, viii. polytechnic

studies, ix. rural development studies, and x. international

relations, justice and human rights promotion.

Greater emphasis is required on tourism, water and agriculture

these three sectors are the gift of nature and most of input

resources are either naturally gifted or can be developed with

less cost from the sustainability point of view. On the other hand,

such an institutional development would have depth impact for

multi-sectoral development since the establishment of one such

institution serves as a gateway for the establishment and

sustainable promotion of several other institutions that are

dependent on core or augmented products or services of these

sectors. In fact, tourism, hydropower production and agriculture

development would serve as the backbone of this countrys

economic transformation.

For this all what we require is a long-term shared vision, national

commitment, public-private collective efforts, and defined priority

of the country on its agenda of development. Best education,leveraged transportation facilities and widened communication

system serve as the key infrastructure required for the overall

development of any place or a country. In fact, very fast

development of China, South Korea, Singapore and HongKong

are the best examples of such transformation in Asia by promoting

these three drivers of socio-economic development. Among these

three requisites too, development of education should be regarded

as the primary driver as it leverages wisdom, liberation,

envisioning, empowerment, commitment, conceptual and technical

competence and leadership strength required for ideation, planning,

development and promotion of rest of sectors.For example, establishment of Kathmandu University as a new

model in Nepalese higher education did not only brought forth a

new era in Nepalese higher education, but also contributed

significantly in transforming the socio-economic status of the

localities nearby its main location in Dhulikhel and across the

country. Hundreds of foreign students have been obtaining their

technical higher education every year from Kathmandu University.

In this respect, Nepal has become a source country for delivering

higher education, especially in the area of general medicine and

surgery, biotechnology and water management. Promotion of

Dhulikhel Hospital to such an extent would have been almost

Dr Chandra P Rijal, PhD in Educational LeadershipSpecialist in Education and Management Sciences

A Concept note ONestablishing an

autonomousinstitution for

Hospitality studiesin nepal



SOUVENIR 201426

impossible in absence of its linkage with Kathmandu University.

We should be proud that not only thousands of Indian, but also

many Canadian, English and American graduates have already

obtained world class education from Kathmandu University.

Similarly, Nepal has a number of its nature gifted potentials and

opportunities yet to be cashed on in the international communities.

The Great Himalayas, rivers, lakes, forests, arts and crafts,cultures, customs, traditions and many similar entities may be of

more interest for international community than what we have

materialized as of date so far. A system of promoting systematic

studies, research and more exploration would definitely serve

instrumental in materializing the value of these opportune areas,

mostly granted in the forms of socio, geo and demographic gifts.

So, What Needs be Done?

The first and foremost thing we need to act upon is to identify,

recognize and prioritize the available sustainable opportunitiesthat we can go on utilizing and cashing on for long run. Providing

a worldclass hospitality experience in the nature-gifted setting

could be a strategic proposition for hundreds of years down to

our future generations. For this, we need to standardize our

services both at institutional as well as service delivery level at

par with international practices and benchmarks. Sooner or later,

we need to pin-pointedly identify and address for such a proposition

on sectoral development. Policy deregulation, global

mainstreaming, positive reinforcement to the early actors, hands

on research and innovation support to the institutions specializing

in hospitality sector, and wider publicity of each initiative have

become the imperative tasks today.

How to Move Ahead Then?

Among many solutions available, the core strategy should be aimed

at establishing mega resources covering higher education,

transportation and communication systems with priorities for

guiding the rest of socio-economic transformation missions. Here,

I would like to stress on one dimension among these three, i.e.,

promoting the hospitality the first priority with the great Himalayan

touch. For this, we need to have an authenticated and universally

recognized institution to take all this ownership. The idea could beestablishing an autonomous institution to provide advocacy, system

standards, education, research, publication, training and rest of

developmental support so that Nepal could be promoted as a main

tourism destination for rest of the world communities.

Structural Mandate

Such an institution should be established and promoted with a

mandate equivalent to a university but should be restricted to be

operating all services by its own without providing any affiliation

to avoid any unwanted and vested political influence, which has

already spread as an ugly disease today.

The structural headquarters should be located in Kathmandu and

operating units should be developed on needs and local capacity

basis in different places. For example, snow studies can be

promoted from Khumjung Valley, whereas the study aboutNepalese indigenous culture and customs may be better promoted

from Jumla. Agriculture, forestry and water-based recreational

studies may be promoted from Chitwan and Bardia. Similarly,

Karnali region may be targeted for education, research and

innovation related to water resources. Bhaktapur may provide

with natural setting for art and crafts studies whereas Pokhara

would serve as the best location for hotel management. Sauraha

may have tremendous potential in touristic events management

studies. These are only a few examples. Depth studies are

required to identify and determine such prospects.

The centers located in different places should be developed and

promoted as a public private partnership proposition under the

umbrella of National Institute of Hospitality Management (NIHM),

or something like this, by expanding the institutional system and

functional coverage of the present Nepal Academy of Tourism

and Hospitality Management (NATHM).

Functional Coverage

The core products on offer of such an institution should include

education, research, professional development, institutional

development and publications linked to hospitality. Areas linkedto hospitality need be revisited time again based on newer

developments in the sector. For this too, we need to conduct a

number of scientific inquiries.

Steps Next

It has become already late to take relevant action to promote this

very crucial sector of the country as one of the pillars for socio-

economic transformation leading the overall national development.

Moving ahead swiftly and sharply with more discussions, carrying

out many research initiatives, opening a number of dialogues withrelevant stakeholders, and wider publications would help make it

easier for realization of national policy makers in this respect.

Does the structural and functional mandate of the present NATHM

allow all these initiatives? This is the first and biggest question

facing the reform and promotion of NATHM as the ultimate institution

providing leadership for hospitality sector development in Nepal and

south Asian region, at large. But it is possible, quite possible, and also

quite important for which we all need to step ahead, together with

commitment and Truthful Commitmentfor development.



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Introduction to Sport Tourism

It is common to find the use of term "Sports Tourism"

rather than "Sport Tourism" to understand the concept

of sport-related tourism. However, the appropriate use of

the term should be "Sport Tourism", thus has been used

in the paper. Before discussing what Sport Tourism is?

And what are the benefits? Lets first discuss these two

words "Sport" and "Tourism" differently. Sport, an active

pastime; diversion, is an integral part of human life. Sport

activities are the process of common enterprise, through

which we learn different rules and self discipline. These

rules and regulations may be first-step on our social

adjustment. Sport helps in developing an individual not

only physically but also mentally, socially, emotionallyby means of physical activities. Whereas, tourism is the

activity of individuals travelling to and staying in places

outside their usual environment for not more than one

consecutive year or leisure (recreation, holiday, health,

study, religion and sport), business or any other purpose.

Tourism is one of Nepal`s major industries and our most

important service industry. It has been one of the fastest

growing segments of the Nepalese economy, and will

continue to be a key source of economic growth, jobs and

export earnings in the future.

Overview of Sport Tourism

"Sport Tourism" can broadly be defined to include any

tourism activity generated by involvement in sport.

Sporting events are now a recognized nice tourism market

with significant growth potential for both domestic and

inbound tourism. "Sport Tourism" flows from attendance

and participation at sporting events and training camps.

Spectators, media, officials, athletes and their support

teams all utilize the services used by tourists, i.e.

accommodation facilities, transport services, food and

beverage services, retail businesses and attraction.

The use of "Sport as a touristic endeavour" has been a

philosophical propulsion (impetus) and entrepreneurialdevelopment of the eighties and nineties.

Why Sport Tourism?

The consciousness of health through physical activities

for all age-groups regardless of language, culture, morals,

beliefs or geographical locations stimulated in the

participation of physical activities. Simultaneously, with

due change in time was escalated with tourism

phenomenon and concept of "Sport Tourism" occurred.

The "Sport Tourism" phenomenon has been evidenced

Dr. RAJIV DAHAL, PhDFaculty- MHM/BHM/BTTM - NATHM

Plausibility ofSport Tourism in

Nepal



SOUVENIR 201428

though worldwide popularity of sporting events such as

the Olympic Games, Football and Cricket World Cups and

professional "Super Championships". "Sport Tourism"

result of an interaction between Sport and Tourism, leads

to the execution of development plans, role in promoting

domestic, national, international friendship and brotherhood

through understanding among people and communities. Andthe cause for the mobility and stimulations towards sport

in this present context are the present day communication

networking in terms of roads, airways, waterways,

computerized scheduling, maintenance technology as well

as verbal, visual and printed communication worldwide. The

best medium today is the use of social media like, facebook,

twitter, and others.

"Sport Tourism" is big business and its potential is

enormous. In recent years, the continued growth of "Sport

Tourism" in the developed countries like the United States,

United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and other countries, the

tourpreneurs have increased the number of Sport Tourism,

thus fostering the development of sport specific resort

destination, initiation of sport theme parks, establishment

of specialized sport cruises, on the basis of sporting events

as a basis for tourism.

There has been growing interest among countries to

develop sport tourism. Ritchie and Adair (2004) states that

today sport and tourism are among the developed worlds

most sought after leisure experiences. UNWTO (2011, cited

in Ritchie and Adair (2004) pointed that German tourists

accounted for 32,000,000 sport-oriented trips a year, or

55% of all outbound travel, while 52% (7,000,000) of all

trips made by Dutch tourists included a sport component.

Regarding the importance of Sport tourism, World Sport

Destination Expos findings shows that Sport tourism is

the sleeping giant of the global travel and tourism industry

worth an estimated $600 billion dollars-this is not a niche

market but rather a significant part of the global market"

(cited in Tourism Insider, 2011). According to the MailOnline reporting about Sport Tourism on 22ndOctober 2012,

around 1.3 million tourists went to a live Sport event in

the UK in 2011, spending a total of 1.1 billion. However,

VisitBritain (cited in Mail Online, 2012) states Sport

Tourism is worth 2.3 billion to the British economy as

visitors who actually took part in Sport spent another

1.2 billion on their hobby. The average 785 spend by a

traveller attending a football match is 200 more than the

583 spent by the average overseas visitor who did not

end up on the terraces.

Plausibility of Sport tourism in Nepal

Well, talking about plausibility of sport tourism in Nepal,

two types of "Sport Tourism" can be developed. Firstly,

the adventure based Sport Tourism (more of nature based)

and secondly, general Sport (other than adventure). If we

consider first one, we have ample of natural resources

where adventure sport such as white-water rafting, rock-

climbing, ice-climbing, canyoning, skiing and snow-board

games can be staged. Whereas, in the later type. Sport

that are less risky and concentrated more on the urban

areas such as cricket, football, basket ball etc. can be

staged. In the past, Sport events such as Raid Gauloises

competition in 2000, Annapurna Mandala Trail, Everest

Marathon, Annual Elephant Polo competition, U-19 Cricket

tournaments, U-15 Football tournaments, AFC challenge

Cup, SAFF - Football Championships has been successfully

held in Nepal. These games were a boost for the tourismindustry, especially with the enormous surge in media

exposure, including the promotion of Nepal as a tourist

destination.

As per the moderate Climate, Nepal can be visited the

whole year-round. And with this most appropriate condition

of weather in the world in comparison to such a small

geographical region climate ranges from tropical in the

lowlands to the arctic in the higher altitudes various

Sport events can be staged throughout the year.

Considering accessibility, Nepal is well connected by air

to various SAARC region countries, Middle East and ASEAN

region countries, though greater efforts need to be

undertaken in operating direct flights from and to various

European and other developed nations. Along with this

the internal transportation system too needs grave

consideration.

There has been past deliberations on Sport Tourism in

Nepal. One such workshop on Prospects of sport tourism

had been organised by Trekking Agents Association ofNepal (TAAN) on January 27, 2006. The attendees

emphasised that the government and private sector have

to work together to give a boost to the sports and tourism

sectors (TAAN, 2013). Well, we can see some effort from

the government after that as well. Government has

allocated Rs 300 million for the infrastructure development

for the 13th South Asian Games (SAG) which include

constructing international standard stadium, multipurpose

covered hall and Sports Academy. Also, the government

has also separately allocated Rs 210 million for continued



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development of sports infrastructure. This budget states

the setting up High Altitude Sports Training Centres in Jiri

and Lukla (Cricknepal.com, 2014). However, not much has

been realised till date.

For the development of "Sport Tourism" in Nepal,

Government should plan, design, organize and introduceprogramme to involve and promote community and the

tourism industry in the development of Sport as a viable

contributor to the economic well-being of local communities

and to national economy as a whole. One of the spin-offs

of staging sporting events is their potential to raise the

profile of the host city, town or region, mainly through

coverage of the event. The marketing of these events

presents many opportunities for promoting broader tourism

attraction and highlights. Opportunities to maximize the

benefits of sporting events including assessing the scope

of staging more and different types of events and spreading

the benefits of new and existing events to more regions.

Furthermore, the National Sport Tourism Strategy needs

to be developed in partnership with the tourism, sport and

recreation industries to provide a strategic focus for

realizing opportunities of this potential and lucrative

market. Moreover, the strategy should be looking at the

ways to identify how the Sport and Tourism industries

can work together toward the outcomes of mutual-

benefits.

ReferencesCricknepal.com (2014). Cricket receives Rs 50m Budget in 2070/2071.Accessed on 05 February 2014 from http://www.cricnepal.com/7696/cricket-

receives-rs-50m-budget-in-20702071/

Mail Online (2012). Sport provides a boost for UK tourist industry as 900,000

football fans flock to Britain. Accessed on 05 th February 2014 from http://

www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2221300/Sport-provides-boost-UK-tourist-

industry-900-000-football-fans-flock-Britain.html

Ritchie, B. W. and Adair, D. (2004). Sport Tourism: an introduction and

overview. In: B. W. Ritchie and D. Adair (Eds.), Sport tourism interrelationships,impacts and issues. Clevedon, England: Channel View Publications.

Tourism Insider (Online Magazine) (2011). Sport Tourism, a new spin on an old

theme. Accessed on 05 February 2014 from http://tourism-insider.com/en/2011/05/english-sport-tourism-a-new-spin-on-an-old-theme/

Trekking Agents Association of Nepal (TAAN) (2013). Discussion on prospects

of sport tourism held. Accessed on 05 February 2014 from http://www.taan.org.np/newsdetail/discussion-on-prospects-of-sports-tourism-held

My Nathm is in Ravibhawan

Where I can feel very comfortable

NATHM is its logo

where QWQS is used as its motto.

Here, teachers acts as the priest, other staffs as

guide

where knowledge is spread as ray of light.

This college has got excellence in every sector

which has attracted us as insects by nectar.

Not only education, sport has also got equal facility

Students are rewarded as per their skill and ability

The environment here is cheerful in any place

Certificate of it is accepted in any place.

To be Nathm and Nathmian I feel Proud

I will spend my 3 years of happiness, there's no

doubt

Wherever I go it will remain in my heart & head

Anyway My Nathm is great

Anyway my Nathm is great.

My Nathm;

My College

Alina KhanalBHM, 1STSemester



SOUVENIR 201430

Abstract

The objective of the study is to validate a conceptual model to measure brand loyalty, as this is an important element

for gaining competitive advantage. The study primarily focuses on measuring brand loyalty using brand awareness and

perceived quality as independent variables across genders and geographic orientation of the customers. The study

reveals that brand awareness and perceived quality are positively related to brand loyalty. In other words, the higher thebrand awareness, the higher the brand loyalty. In addition, the study shows that brand awareness is positively and

significantly related to brand loyalty. The study further demonstrates that perceived quality is positively and significantly

related to brand loyalty. The study also suggests that fast food outlets should emphasize service and ambience quality.

Moreover, fast food outlets should be aware that consumers will evaluate perceived quality of a product and service

from their earlier dining experience. The results are same with the strata of gender and geographic orientation within

Kathmandu (KTM) and outside Kathmandu (OUT KTM)). The research is of value to fast-food owners, academia and

researchers.

Key words: Brand Awareness (BA), Perceived Quality (PQ), Brand Loyalty (BL), Fast food restaurant

IntroductionFast food industry is a fast growing industry that is rapidly

changing customer eating habits. This rapid growth of

fast food witness the increase in income level of middle

class consumers in third world and developing countries,

changing eating needs of young and adults and the rising

and penetration of multi-national food chains in these

countries. Small business purchase should also have rich

involvement. Scarce resources that are available to firms

cause greater business failure risk. In business sector,

relationship with customers and suppliers is becoming

highly important as well as accountability and decisionmaking is becoming most crucial. Study of consumers

attitude is important for the measurement of the impact

on the purchase behavior (Holbrook, 1999), (Keller, 1993).

Companies built the strong relation with customers through

different promotional appeals like Cash Discounts, Rebates,

and other benefits. These activities are helping the company

to enhance the loyalty of the brand. Through personal

selling companies promote the products and their service

and this efforts of the company increase the purchase

intension of the consumer and positive attitude towards

Bikash Shrestha,Mphil- Management 2012(T U)

The effect of brandawareness and

perceived qualityin brand loyalty: acase of fast foodrestaurant in

Kathmandu



SOUVENIR 2014

the product and as well as the image of the organization

(To and Leung, 2001) Recently, the rising of consumer

consciousness has made consumers choose to purchase

their familiar and favorable brand. Therefore, if businesses

want to defeat their competitors, they have to make

consumers love to buy their products and brands.

The remainder of the study is organized as follows. The

next section reviews existing literature and discusses the

motivation for the present study. Section II provides details

of the data and methodology utilized, and section III

examines the analysis and the regression results.

Conclusions are offered in the final section.

I. Review of Literature

"A brand is the total emotional experience a customer has

with your company and its product or service" (Hammond,2008, p.14). He further describes the brand to be an

experience that is implanted in the mind of customers that

have experienced an interaction with a company or that

got in contact with the companys staff, product or service.

Brand awareness means the ability of a consumer to

recognize and recall a brand in different situations (Aaker,

1996). Consumers purchase decision can be influenced if

a product has higher brand awareness (Dodds, Monroe,&

Grewal, 1991; Grewal, Monroe & Krishnan, 1998). This

explains why a product with higher brand awareness

willhave higher market share and better quality evaluation.

In addition, perceived quality is a relative concept which

possesses situational, comparative, and individual

attributes In sum totality, perceived quality is a consumers

subjective judgment on product quality on the basis of

previous experiences and feelings. The added value of

perceived quality is believed to result in higher brand

loyalty, larger customer base and more efficient marketing

programs (Aaker, 1991; Tellis et.al., 2009). In addition,

while consumers select a product, they care about perceivedquality and brand awareness. Perceived quality can help

consumers to have a subjective judgment on overall product

quality that make a product hold a salient differentiation

and become a selective brand in consumers minds (Aaker,

1991). Product Quality covers the features, aroma,

aesthetics and characteristics of a product or service that

allows satisfying definite or inferred needs of customers.

According to Russel and Taylor (2006), product quality is

the fitness of use of the conformance to the requirement

of customers. In service industry context product quality

is considered as service quality that includes the approach

how that service provider for example the airline,

restaurants, banks and retail stores serve their customers,

how the product they offer satisfy customer needs as

physical quality of product and how such particular product

apparently communicate that brand image to build brand

loyalty and in result brand equity (Bitner 1992; Boomsand Bitner 1982; Tsaur, Chang, and Yen 2002).

Besides, businesses have to build up brand loyalty.

Customers' brand loyalty is the tendency or frequency of

purchasing same brand again and again. Only satisfied

customers become brand loyal. Brand loyalty is consumer

attitudes on a brand preference from previous use and

shopping experience of a product (Deighton, Henderson,

& Neslin, 1994; Aaker, 1991), and it can be measured

from repurchase rate on a same brand. A satisfied customer

base sends a message to others that the brand is accepted

and successful (Aaker, 1991). If the consumers instead

continue to purchase the brand though competitors have

superior prices, features, and convenience, then the brand

has high loyalty. Brand loyalty means brand preferences

that consumers will not consider other brands when they

buy a product (Baldinger & Rubinson, 1996; Cavero &

Cebollada, 1997). Brand loyalty represents a repurchase

commitment in the future purchase that promise consumers

will not change their brand loyalty in different situations

and still buy their favorable brands (Oliver, 1999). Brandloyalty includes behavior factors and attitude factors.

Behavior loyalty represents repurchase behavior, and

loyalty attitude means psychological commitment to a

brand (Aaker, 1991; Assael, 1998; Oliver,1999; Prus &

Brandt, 1995; Farr & Hollis, 1997). Some studies suggest

that the cost to attract a new customer is more than five

times of maintaining a loyalty customer (Reichheld and

Sasser, 1990; Barsky, 1994). That is, the higher the brand

loyalty, the less cost businesses to pay.

When business develops a new products or a new market,it should promote brand awareness in order to receive the

best result because brand awareness is positively related

to perceived quality (Aaker & Keller, 1990). Grewal,

Krishnan, Baker and Borin (1998) conclude that brand

awareness and perceived quality have a positive and

significant relationship in brand of bicycle. Many researches

also maintain that the higher the brand awareness is, the

higher perceived quality is (Monore, 1990; Dodds and

Grewal, 1991; Wall, Liefeld, & Heslop, 1991). Judith and



SOUVENIR 201432

and brand loyalty have a highly connection, they will

positively influence brand loyalty. Kan (2002) further

suggests that the higher the brand awareness is higher

the consumers quality evaluation. Besides, Aaker and Keller

(1990) mentioned that a brand with high awareness and

good image can promote brand loyalty to consumers, and

higher the brand awareness, higher the brand trust andpurchase intention. Peng (2006) indicates that brand

awareness has the greatest total effects on perceived

quality and then brand loyalty. Thus, perceived quality

and brand loyalty are positively correlated. Likewise, if a

product has higher brand awareness it will have a higher

market share and a better quality evaluation (Dodds, et

al., 1991; Grewal, et al., 1998). A well known brand will

have a higher brand loyalty than a less well known brand

(Hsu, 2000). Garretson and Clow (1999) suggest that

perceived quality will influence consumer brand loyalty,and Monore (1990) indicates that perceived quality will

positively influence brand loyalty through perceived value.

Aaker (1991), Assael (1998), and Wang and Kan (2002)

also mention that consumers must have positive feelings

to a brand, and then they will produce brand loyalty.

Therefore, the purposes of the study are to explore: (1)

the influences of brand awareness on brand loyalty, (2)

the effect of perceived quality on brand loyalty and (3)

the influence of brand awareness and perceived quality

on brand loyalty, as a whole, and among the strata ofgender and geographic orientation.

II. Methodology

A screening process was deemed necessary in conducting

the study. The screening was initially based on a

convenience selection of respondent i.e. convenient

sampling method is used to collect the information. As

the potential customers size is very large, response from

540 valid respondents are collected though the valid sample

size of respondent becomes 384 (Sample size =

= = 384 at 95% confidence

level). For data collection purpose, questionnaire in 4 point

Likert scale were prepared measuring the brand awareness,

perceived quality and brand loyalty. In total 23 items

were designed but after the reliability test, only 18 items

were included for the study. For collecting the responses,

27 different locations were selected as the source of

getting information in Kathmandu valley. Respondents

include male and female and residents from within

Kathmandu valley and outside Kathmandu valley and the

respondents of various professions to reduce the bias. 540

questionnaires were delivered with the help of a team of

17 members in 10 different locations, popular as the

restaurant hub. The response from 450 was successfully

collected out of which 425 were valid respondents(78.70%).

The research participants were asked to respond to the

survey questions by using Four point Likert scale ranging

from 1 equals totally disagree, 2 equals disagree, 3 equals

agree and 4 equals totally agree. Gender was coded 1 for

male and 2 for female. Codes of Geographic orientation

were 1 for from within Kathmandu valley and 2 for from

outside Kathmandu Valley. The scales for three constructs

in the model were developed on the basis of previously

established studies. Descriptive and inferential statistics

(Cronbachs Alpha and Multiple Regression Analysis) were

conducted with the help of SPSS version 18 software

package. The analysis process was carried out using the

following tools.

A. Cronbachs Alpha

The multi-item scales developed above had to be evaluated

for their reliability and validity. Cronbachs Alpha is the

most commonly used approach to test reliability of items

of questions used in questionnaire. Cronbachs Alpha will

be high if the scale items are highly correlated. In the

current research, the main assessment method is simple

scale measurement for Cronbachs Alpha and if the

Cronbachs Alpha of each observation was above the

overall constructs then such observation were deleted.

However the study accepted the reliability of constructs

with Cronbach Alpha equal to 0.6.

B. Multiple Regressions

After completing the refinement, the multiple regressions

were implemented to identify quantitative relation of

antecedent factors and brand loyalty. In order to test the

model, this study adopts the quantitative approach in

which the data were collected by means of a questionnaire

survey. The following regression equation was regressed

to find out the percentage contribution of various factors

in brand loyalty for the whole sample, among the strata

of genders and geographic orientation of the customers.

Y =



SOUVENIR 2014

Where, Y= Brand Loyalty, = Constant, X1= Brand Awareness, = Perceived Quality and er = error terms.

III. Data Analysis

Table I

Summary Statistics of the respondents

Frequency Per cent Cumulative Per cent

Gender Male 282 66.4 66.4

Female 143 33.6 100

Total 425 100

Geographic Orientation KTM 250 58.8 58.8

OUT KTM 175 41.2 100

Total 425 100

Profession Business 105 24.7 24.7

Service 175 41.2 65.9

Students 129 30.4 96.3

Others 16 3.7 100

Total 425 100

Table one reveals the total number of respondents are 425, among which 282 were male and 143 female, 250 from

within Kathmandu valley and 175 from outside Kathmandu valley and 105, 175, 129 and 16 from the professions of

business, service, students and others respectively.

Table II

Reliability Test

Variables Measurement items Retained items Cronbach's Alpha

BA 9 7 0.667

PQ 6 4 0.597

BL 8 7 0.672

Following the procedures and criteria described in previous chapter, the process of refinement of measurement scales of

the constructs were carried out using SPSS Version 18. In this process, the items which did not meet evaluating criteria

were eliminated and reliability of scales was re-assessed by Cronbachs Alpha. Criteria of refinement of items include:

Cronbachs Alpha > 0.60. The table two reveals the reliability of all the antecedent factors and dependent variable are

above 0.6, which strongly supports the reliability about the questionnaires developed for the study.



SOUVENIR 201434

Table III

Estimated Relationship Between Brand Loyalty, Brand Awareness and Perceived Quality

Results are based on the regression model. The basic model is: Y =


Model BA PQ RSQUARE F VALUE P VALUE

1 0.795 0.641 753.795 0.001

(27.455)

2 0.723 0.563 103.788 0.001

(12.188)

3 0.716 0.674 0.679 445.306 0.001

(25.134) (8.547)

Brand Awareness and Perceived quality both have a reliably positive influence on Brand loyalty. Model 1 attempts tounravel the influence of brand awareness on brand loyalty with the beta coefficient of 0.795 and t-statistic suggests

that coefficient is estimated with a high degree of precision. The R Square value suggests that the explanatory power

of brand awareness on brand loyalty is 64.1 per cent. Adding the perceived quality as the next independent variable in

Model 3, the beta coefficients are found to be 0.716 and 0.674 with t-statistics of 25.234 and 8.547 respectively. The

R Square value suggests that the explanatory power using two independent variables increased to 67.9 per cent. The

brand awareness has the largest coefficient and the highest t-statistic in all the three models. The highly significant

value of F-test suggests the model is overall fit.

Table IV


among The Gender Strata



Gender Beta T RSQUARE F VALUE P VALUE

Male BA 0.822 21.685 0.627 470.234 0.001

Female BA 0.754 17.578 0.687 308.987 0.001

Male PQ 0.565 8.032 0.531 64.521 0.001

Female PQ 0.579 6.267 0.556 39.27 0.001

Gender Beta T RSQUARE F VALUE P VALUE

Male BA 0.737 19.92 0.665 276.431 0.001

PQ 0.767 7.311

Female BA 0.691 15.839 0.72 179.874 0.001

PQ 0.562 5.673



SOUVENIR 2014

Table four reveals that beta coefficient for male and female for brand awraeness and perceived quality are positive and

t statistics are also found to be highly significant on the brand loyalty. However, when both the independent variables

are introduced among the gender, the value of R Square was found to be higher in female(0.72) in comparision to 0.665

for male. This indicates brand awareness and perceived quality has more explanatory power for the female customers.

All the six models are overall fit with highly significant F value.

Table V


among The Geographic Orientation Strata



Location Beta T RSQUARE F VALUE P VALUE

KTM BA 0.835 22.604 0.673 510.934 0.001

OUT KTM BA 0.732 15.844 0.592 251.043 0.001

KTM PQ 0.589 7.771 0.512 60.385 0.001

OUT KTM PQ 0.542 6.574 0.543 43.221 0.001

Location Beta T RSQUARE F VALUE P VALUE

KTM BA 0.751 20.443 0.702 290.109 0.001

PQ 0.697 6.471

OUT KTM BA 0.665 14.763 0.647 157.682 0.001

PQ 0.529 6.18

Table 5 reveals the influence of brand awareness is positive

on brand loyalty for the respondents of within Kathmandu

and outside Kathmandu with the beta coefficients of 0.835

and 0.732 and t-statistics indicates the significance of

the independent variable. The same is the influence of

perceived quality on brand loyalty for the respondents on

the strata of geographic orientation. However, the influence

of brand awareness (0.835 and 0.732) is higher in

comparison to the perceived quality (0.589 and 0.542) inmodel 1,2,3 and 4. The influence of brand awareness is

higher when both the variables brand awareness and

perceived quality are introduced in the model 5 and 6

(0.751 and 0.665) in comparison to (0.697 and 0.529). It

is also noticed that, brand awareness and perceived quality

better explains the brand loyalty for the customers from

within Kathmandu (0.702) in comparison to 0.647 for the

customers from outside Kathmandu. All the six models

are overall fit with highly significant F value.

IV. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

The study reveals that brand awareness and perceived

quality are positively related to brand loyalty. It signifies

that consumers will buy a familiar and well known product

(Keller, 1993; Jacoby & Olson, 1997; Macdonald & Sharp,

2000). In other words, the higher the brand awareness,

the higher the brand loyalty. The results are the same as

the findings of Oliver (1999) that brand loyalty represents

a repurchase commitment in the future purchase whichconsumers will not change their brand loyalty under

different situations and still buy their favorable brands.

In addition, the study shows that brand awareness is

positively and significantly related to brand loyalty. The

result is the same as findings of Aaker and Keller (1990).

The study further demonstrates that perceived quality is

positively and significantly related to brand loyalty. The

result is the same as the results of (Judith and Richard

2002). The study suggests that fast food restaurant



SOUVENIR 201436

owners should pay much attention to the influences of

brand awareness and perceived quality on brand loyalty.

The study found that if consumers can identify a brand

name when they want to visit the fast food outlets, it

means that the outlets hold higher brand awareness. When

a product has a well known brand name, it can win

consumers preferences. Thus, fast food outlets ought tobuild a brand and promote its brand awareness through

sales promotion, advertising, and other marketing activities.

When brand awareness is high, its brand loyalty also

increases. The study also suggests that fast food outlets

should emphasize service and ambience quality. Moreover,

fast food outlets should be aware that consumers will

evaluate perceived quality of a product and service from

their earlier dining experience. A high evaluation indicates

that consumers are satisfied as a result, their brand loyalty

increase. The result was similar with the strata of genderand geographic orientation.

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SANDEEP BASNYAT

TourismManagement in

Post-Conflict Erain Nepal

Post Conflict Tourism in Nepal

The term post-conflict situation or post-conflict is usually

used when a war or violent conflict has ended be that in

the form of an armistice, a peace treaty, military victory,

a negotiated settlement or an external intervention. But

even in these contexts, violence and insecurity may be as

endemic as in contexts of open armed conflict and moregenerally in fragile situations (Leonhard & Wulf, 2010).

However, there is no accepted definition of what constitutes

a situation, country or society of post-conflict.

Practitioners in post conflict areas face specific challenges

of working in countries where a war or armed conflict

ended, most of them emphasize the difficulties in

differentiating between these countries and those in

conflict (Leonhard & Wulf, 2010).

Among other challenges in these contexts, such as

conflicting priorities or a lack of integrated approaches

(Kurtenbach, 2009), development cooperation have

expressed the concerned that they faces the problem of

how to cope with dynamic and high levels of insecurity

that cannot be reduced to the problem of backslide into

war or armed conflict. Hence, the widespread term of post-

war or post-conflict contexts used currently in academic

and policy debates is a misnomer since violent conflict

continues to play an important role even after conflict

settlements have occurred (Kurtenbach, 2009).

In November 2006, after considerable death and

destruction and several failed attempts at ceasefire and

negotiation, the Government and the Maoists signed the

Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which formally

ended a decade long conflict led by Maoists. Since then,

technically, Nepal entered into a post-conflict situation.

The following table shows the tourist arrivals in Nepalfrom 1996 to 2012. As seen from the table, the tourist

arrivals in Nepal has started to slow down from 1996 up

until 1998 and from 1999 there have been significant drop

in the arrivals data until 2002. It was only after from

2003, the slow pace of tourism arrivals has taken. From

2006, it is clearly seen that tourist arrivals has significantly

increased after the ceasefire agreement between Maoists

and the Government of Nepal (MoCTCA, 2013). As seen

from the following figure, there is a slowly increasing trend

of tourist arrivals in Nepal from 1996 to 1998 and from

1999 to 2002, there has been a dramatic decrease in the

trend. The trend has taken momentum from 2002 and

from 2006 it significantly increased up until now. The

overall trend in tourist arrivals has been found increasing

despite Nepal passing through post conflict situation where

the fighting between the Maoists and the government

security forces were taking tolls in lives of hundreds of

civilians all across the country.



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Tourist Arrivals trend in Nepal from 1996 to 2012

Source: Nepal Tourism Statistics, 2012

Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Government of Nepal

Post Conflict Tourism Management Strategies

Management of tourism activities had been a tremendous

task for the government of Nepal amidst the ongoing

conflict due to Maoists insurgency. However, with the

cooperation and assistance of the local people, civil society,

private sector tourism entrepreneurs and other

stakeholders, government of Nepal was not only successful

in maintaining a steady flow of tourists, but also organize

nationwide campaigns such Nepal Tourism Year 2011.

The concept of tourism management in Nepal has emerged

to manage and develop the tourism industry of Nepal by

cashing the expertise view, experiences and commitment of

government with public private venture. For that Nepaltourism board continued the promotional activity with public

private venture internally and externally. Campaigns such

as Visit Nepal Year 1998, Destination Nepal Campaign 2001

and Nepal Tourism Year 2011 have continued to promote

Nepal in international arena through its line agencies such

as Nepalese diplomatic missions abroad, I/NGOs, airline, and

national and international media, NRN community and

Nepals friends and well-wishers (NTB, 2066-67).

To primarily focus on the tourism sector and to promote

Nepal internationally, government of Nepal's prime objectiveof had been substantial growth of the tourism industry

attracting more than a million tourists. It had become

obligatory to revive Nepals image as the prime tourist

destination since peace & stability had been re-stored in

the country. Thus, to further address this issue also, the

ambitious campaign of NTY 2011 was announced in the

wake of historical transformation. The national campaign

of Nepal Tourism Year 2011 aimed to once again

rejuvenate the Nepalese tourism industry and establish it

as the countrys economic backbone (NTB, 2066-67).

Similarly, to allure and draw the highest possible amount

of tourists, the Tourism Ministry waived the visa fee in

2011 for those tourists who visit Nepal more than once

during the year 2011. To encourage more visitors to Nepal,

the national flag carrier (Nepal Airlines) extended its air-

service from Riyadh, Lhasa, Gwanjhau, Frankfurt and

London into Nepal by the end of 2011. From March 2011,flights to and from Mumbai, Shanghai and Tokyo started.

In addition, various infrastructure developments had been

planned to uplift the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).

These include; Discounts granted for landing and parking

except during the peak hours, construct a Ground Support

Equipment Parking area Extension, implementation of

Common Users Terminal (CUTE) etc.

Since mid August2008, Mountaineering expeditions had

been receiving a discount on the mountaineering royalties,

this policy will continue for another 5 years. To develop

tourism in Terai, a plan to promote Terai region was also

underway. The government launched special promotional

packages in the USA, Europe, Japan, Australia, South-

East Asia, Middle-East Asia and neighboring China & India

through high level Nepalese delegation teams. For the

further promotion of NTY-2011 various international

promotional activities were carried out by the Nepal

Tourism Board that includes sales missions and road

shows in the countries where the possibilities of tourism

is high. Likewise FAM tour of international journalists toNepal, high level delegation to different countries to interact

with the travel trade and media there. Further tourists

facilities were added with improved capacity of hotels and

other required services for tourists as well as creating

community capacity to meet the needs of tourist and

promoting domestic tourism also. Similarly, the Nepal

Tourism Year 2011, Marketing Action Plan (MAP)

incorporated the policy guidelines of NTB to develop

"Quality Destination" brand with the quality factors of

simple, convenient, safe, and unique.

Conclusion

The post-conflict peace process of Nepal is passing through

a fragile transition phase which has imposed a number of

new structural challenges to the tourism sector to grow

and sustain smoothly (Sharma & Upadhayaya, 2008). A

Post Editorial (2008) covering a report issued by UN World

Food Programme (WFP) states that there were a total of

755banda (closures) and strikes in the year 2008 in Nepal.

Nepal saw 125 days ofbanda(closures) in various parts of



SOUVENIR 2014

the country called by various political and non-political groups

in 2010 (Adhikary, 2010). Because of the uninterrupted state

of these internal conflict-related challenges too, the rate of

growth in annual tourist arrivals, their average length of

stay and the revenue earned from tourism in the post-conflict

years, especially from 1999 to 2002 has been affected. In

absolute number, the tourists arrival in Nepal in 2002 wasmerely 275,468 (MoCTCA, 2013).

However, the scenario has started changing since 2006.

In 2011, Nepal received 735,965 tourists, and the number

increased to more than 800,000 in 2012 (MoCTCA, 2013).

According to the WTTC, Nepal is expected to attract

approximately 1 million international tourists in 2013

(UNWTO, 2013). In this context, this paper aims to

investigate how post conflict violence has affected tourism

industry in Nepal and what are the strategies that Nepal

has implemented to counter such challenges to develop

the tourism industry.

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