ISSN : 2717-4948

Nepalese Journal of
Hospitality and Tourism Management
(The Double-blind, Peer-reviewed Journal of Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management)

Vol. 1 No. 1 March 2020

Government of Nepal
Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation
NEPAL ACADEMY OF TOURISM AND HOTEL MANAGEMENT
 ISSN No. 2717-4948

Nepalese Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management

[The Double-blind, Peer-reviewed Journal of Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management]

Vol. 1, No. 1 March 2020

Chief Editor
Prof. Arhan Sthapit, PhD

Associate Editors
Surya Kiran Shrestha, MPhil
Bikash Shrestha, MPhil
Shiva Prasad Jaishi

Published by
Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (affiliated to Tribhuvan University)
Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (Government of Nepal)
Rabi Bhawan, Kalimati, Kathmandu, Nepal
Post Box 4715
+977-1-4271028, 4270605, 4301419
Website: www.nathm.edu.np

Editorial Mailing Address

Chief Editor
Nepalese Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management
njthm@nathm.edu.np

Disclaimer
The opinions and data presented in the articles of the Journal (NJHTM) do not rep-
resent those of the Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM)
and the Chief Editor and other editors, but those of the author(s) and the referred
data sources.

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 ISSN No. 2717-4948

Nepalese Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management

[The Double-blind, Peer-reviewed Journal of Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management]

Vol. 1, No. 1 March 2020

Patrons
Mr. Kedar Bahadur Adhikari Mr. Dipak Kumar Thapa
Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Executive Director
Civil Aviation; Chairperson, Nepal Academy Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel
of Tourism & Hotel Management (NATHM) Management (NATHM)

Advisory Board
Prof. Dr. Dilli Raj Sharma Prof. Dr. Subarna L. Bajracharya
Dean, Faculty of Management Professor (Rtd), Faculty of Management,
Tribhuvan University, NEPAL Tribhuvan University, NEPAL

Prof. Dr. Dhruba K. Gautam Prof. Dr. Mahananda Chalise

Asst. Dean, Faculty of Management Director, School of Management (SOMTU)
Tribhuvan University, NEPAL Tribhuvan University, NEPAL

Prof. Dr. A. Harikrishnan Dr. (Mrs.) Zeinab Nawar

Registrar, Indus International University; Faculty of Business Administration & Economics
and Dean, School of Arts, Management The British University in Egypt, Cairo, EGYPT
& Education (SAME), Indus International
University, INDIA Prof. Dr. Bed P. Giri
Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social
Prof. Dr. Jeevan Bhattarai Sciences, Lumbini Buddhist University, NEPAL
Nepal Commerce Campus, Faculty of
Management, Tribhuvan University, NEPAL

Special thanks to:

Prof. Dr. Shilu Manandhar Bajracharya, Dean, Faculty of Management & Law, Nepal
Open University
Prof. Dr. Mahananda Chalise, Director, School of Management, Tribhuvan University
Asct. Prof. Dr. Jeetendra Dangol, Public Youth Campus, Tribhuvan University
Dr. Pushpa Maharjan, Public Youth Campus, Tribhuvan University
Dr. Kishor Hakuduwal, Bhaktapur Multiple Campus, Tribhuvan University
Niyam Raj Shrestha, Public Youth Campus, Tribhuvan University

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 ISSN No. 2717-4948

Nepalese Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management

Vol. 1, No. 1 March 2020

Editorial
Hospitality and Tourism Research Dissemination:
Crossing the Rubicon in Nepali Academics

Prof. Arhan Sthapit, PhD

Chief Editor

T
he inaugural edition of the NJHTM, a journal of Nepal Academy of Tourism
and Hotel Management (NATHM), has been brought out at a time when the
country has been all set to embark upon a decade of tourism development with a
national target to bring in 2 million tourists, branding Nepal as “Naturally Nepal,
Once is not Enough.” The campaign carries requisite creditability and impact,
because “heaven is a myth, Nepal is real,” as they say. Nepal’s flora and fauna,
cultural and heritage products, ethnic diversities, and neutral-ground status all
add substantial value to Nepal’s potential as a favourite destination for visitors
from all around the world for varied purposes.
Official data show that the hospitality and tourism sector contribute about 5
per cent of the total foreign currency earnings to Nepal (MoCTCA, 2019),
while its contribution to Nepal’s GDP accounts for about 7.8 per cent as per
an NTB report (NTB, 2018) and a little over 5 per cent according to a WTTC
Economic Impact report (WTTC, 2020). On the global front, travel and tourism
sector is one of the world’s booming industries, generating approximately US$
8.8 trillion annually and contributing 319 million jobs to the world economy
(WTTC, 2018). It also applies to Nepalese economic context, as hospitality and
tourism development can be instrumental to its national goal to make Nepalese
economy sustainable, by developing Nepal as an attractive, safe, exciting and
unique destination through conservation and promotion, which would lead
to equitable distribution of tourism benefits and greater harmony in society
(Sthapit, 2012).
Conspicuously, it requires our country to formulate and execute credible,
effective plans and strategies in the hospitality and tourism sector that, in turn,
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demands abundant, well-administered research works in this sector. But there
is dearth of research works and their dissemination in Nepal. To this end has the
present journal been launched under the aegis of NATHM, an academy under
the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation of the Nepal Government.
The inaugural volume of the journal has lumped together some of the scholarly
research works that shed light on the ever-changing scenarios of managing
hospitality business and tourism. The brand-new edition has included five
empirical papers, a pick made on the basis of quality and relevance to changing
trends.
It is also pleasing to note that this publication has covered a wide array of
constituents of hospitality and tourism management studies insofar as the
papers showcased in this edition are concerned. The topics of the papers ranged
from religious/spiritual tourism product, to knowledge management, employer
branding, labour legislation issues and general HRM practices in the hospitality
industry.
The publication has come in reiteration of our commitment to research, as we
strongly believe that teaching and research must constitute two equal halves
of what an academic institution does; failing which could cause substantial
damage to the quality of education and learning.
Paper-contributors and reviewers as well as the NATHM authorities and
employees deserve our sincere thanks for making this publication possible.
With all modesty, we hope that the readers and reviewers will find this issue
informative and interesting. We look forward to the constructive feedback from
our valued readers.

REFERENCES
MoCTCA (2019 May). Nepal Tourism Statistics, Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil
Aviation. The Government of Nepal. Retrieved from http://tourism.gov.np/
files/statistics/19.pdf
NTB (2018 Mar 28). Nepal Tourism Board. The Government of Nepal (Official
website). https://trade.welcomenepal.com/
Sthapit (2012). On research for tourism management, PYC Nepal Journal of
Management, 5(1), 103-107.
WTTC (2018). Annual research report. World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).
Retrieved from https://www.wttc.org/publications
WTTC (2020). Economic impact. A report of World Travel & Tourism Council
(WTTC). Retrieved from https://www.wttc.org/economic-impact/

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 ISSN No. 2717-4948

Nepalese Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management

(A double blind, peer-reviewed journal)
Volume: I No. 1 2020 March

Table of Contents
Title Authors Page No.
Editorial
1. Hospitality and Tourism Research Arhan Sthapit
Dissemination: Crossing the Rubicon
in Nepali Academics
Papers
2. Knowledge Management Enablers for Pushpa Maharjan, 1
Knowledge Creation Externalisation in NEPAL
Nepalese Hospitality Industry
3. Dimensions of Attractiveness in Arhan Sthapit & 13
Employer Branding for Employee
Retention in Nepalese Hospitality Bikash Shrestha,
Industry NEPAL

4. Human Resource Management Surya Kiran Shrestha, 27

Challenges in the Hospitality Industry: NEPAL
Insights from Nepal

5. Perception of Employees about Sandeep Basnyat, 34

the Regulatory Environment in the MACAO, CHINA
Tourism Industry: Insights from Nepal
6. What Motivates Tourists to Visit Sunita Dabadi & 49
Religious Sites: A Case Study of Sitaram Sharma,
Pashupatinath Area NEPAL
Guidelines to Contributors 60

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 ABOUT OF THE JOURNAL
PURPOSE OF THE JOURNAL
Nepalese Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management (NJHTM) is a double-blind, peer-
reviewed journal of Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM). The main
purpose of this refereed journal is to advance and foster hospitality and tourism education,
research, and professionalism through active engagement with different stakeholders including
academicians, researchers, policy makers, students and entrepreneurs. The journal aims at
providing a vehicle for increasing awareness, consideration and analysis of issues in hospitality
and tourism, and also promoting the interchange of ideas within Nepal and other parts of the
world.

PEER REVIEW STATEMENT

The NJHTM is a journal that operates a double blind, peer review process: every paper is
reviewed by subject and domain experts by ensuring anonymity of both authors and reviewers.
The chief editor sends the paper for blind, peer review after performing initial screening. Then,
the authors are apprised of the comments received from the refereed reviewers so that the
former incorporate the latter’s comments into their papers. So improved papers are submitted
to the editorial team following which the Chief Editor reverts them to the reviewers if the
improved submission does not still meet the scientific quality meant for a research journal. The
final, improved paper is finally edited and formatted by the Chief Editor for publication.

THEMATIC TOPICS COVERED BY THE JOURNAL

 Human resource management and labour issues in hospitality and tourism
 Hospitality and tourism education and training, and teaching-learning pedagogies and
e-learning practices
 Sustainable practices in tourism development and hospitality management
 Entrepreneurship and innovation in hospitality and tourism industry
 Emerging issues in hospitality and tourism
 Operational practices and service delivery in hospitality and tourism industry
 Corporate social responsibility practices in hospitality and tourism industry
 Product design, packaging and branding of tourism destinations, adventure tourism,
conference tourism, cultural tourism, homestay management
 Service quality management and customer satisfaction in hospitality and tourism
 Revenue management and strategic pricing of retail services in hospitality and tourism
 Environment analysis (economic, ecological, and socio-cultural) in hospitality and tourism
 Management of gastronomy, wine and food
 Practices of spirituality and wellness in hospitality and tourism
 Indigenous hospitality practices of Nepalese society
 Global warming, climate change and related challenges for hospitality and tourism industry
 Management of mitigation of risk and disasters in hospitality and tourism industry
 Research methods in hospitality and tourism industry

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 Nepalese Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Vol I, No. 1: March 2020

Knowledge Management Enablers for Knowledge Creation

Externalisation in Nepalese Hospitality Industry

Pushpa Maharjan1
Asst Professor
Public Youth Campus, Tribhuvan University, Nepal

ABSTRACT
This paper examines the relationships between the knowledge management enablers and
knowledge creation externalisation in the hospitality industry such as hotel, travel and trekking
agencies in Nepal. The study is based on primary data with 382 responses. The self-
administered questionnaires were used to collect the perceptive opinions from the
respondents. The study concludes that the key knowledge management enablers such as
collaboration, trust, learning, centralisation and information technology do influence to the
knowledge creation externalisation positively. Managers should promote collaboration, trust,
learning and information technology facilities for employees to create knowledge in
organisation.
Keywords: Collaboration, centralisation, externalisation formalisation, IT support, learning,
trust

I. INTRODUCTION
Externalisation (tacit to explicit knowledge) is a process of formalisation of tacit knowledge in
explicit concepts or understandable for organisation or any individual, through the own
articulation of this one and its move to support quickly understandable (Nonaka & Konno,
1998). Dialogue and deductive and inductive techniques such metaphors, analogies, or
construction of archetypes and stories shared (Nonaka, 1991; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995)
facilitated the expression of ideas or images in words, concepts, figurative and visual language
and they are basic tools that support externalisation. In socialisation and externalisation
knowledge is shared within the organisation. The socialisation of tacit knowledge from
collective experiences and mental models is disseminated in the company through
externalisation (Nonaka, 1994; Nonaka & Takeuchi 1995; Nonaka & Konno, 1998). To
formalise explicit concepts, the externalisation needs tacit knowledge achieved through
socialisation (Nonaka & Konno, 1998) to share it in the organisation (Nonaka & Takeuchi 1995;
Nonaka & Toyama, 2003). Processes of socialisation affect processes of externalisation
because the participants of these ones must share time and space to work through direct
experience for the interaction of this tacit and explicit knowledge (Nonaka & Toyama, 2003).

1Dr. Majarjan has published a number of articles in peer-reviewed journals. She worked as Deputy Director of
BTTM programme at Public Youth Campus, TU, some time back. She can be contacted at Email:
s3pushpam@gmail.com

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Therefore, tacit knowledge of socialisation is articulated into explicit forms through

externalisation activities (Li et al., 2009).
Externalisation also assists staff to convey pictorial information or thoughts as considerable
conceptions and ideas that are desired for new product development and improvement (Tsai
& Li, 2007). In externalisation, the employment of metaphors in discussions is fundamental at
a conceptual stage of a project (Li et al., 2009). In other words, externalisation is beneficial to
new product development and continuous quality improvement initiatives due to the
convenience and easily comprehensible methods available from forming explicit knowledge.
Migdadi (2005), Choi (2002) and Berraies et al. (2014) found that collaboration is positively
related with externalisation. But, Lee and Choi (2000) found that collaboration has no effect
on knowledge creation externalisation. Choi (2002), Lee and Choi (2000), Berraies et al.
(2014) and Migdadi (2005) found that trust is a significant predictor of externalisation. Migdadi
(2005) evaluated that learning significantly impact the externalisation. However, Lee and Choi
(2000), Choi (2002) and Berraies et al. (2014) found that learning does not affect the
externalisation mode.
Kandel (2015) suggested that the Nepalese telecom industry should be aware in making good
use of intranets to disseminate the information on products and processes within their
organisations. There is still need to develop metaphors and analogies to describe. Chalise
(2006 & 2011) suggested that Nepalese banking industry should be aware in making good
use of intranets to disseminate the information on products and processes within their
organisation.
In the context of Nepal, there is a need to study whether the impact of knowledge management
enablers on the knowledge creation externalisation is significant or not. Therefore, this study
seeks to examine whether knowledge creation externalisation, in a Nepalese context, have
been applied or not, and if applied, what the consequences of them are. Nepalese hospitality
industry is very competitive. Knowledge is a resource to gain competitive advantage in this
sector. It requires obtaining comprehensive information on how knowledge is managed and
utilised in hospitality industry. It is also necessary to examine the organisational culture,
structure and information technology that are essential in managing the knowledge creation
process in hospitality industry in order to make it more efficient.
The objective of the study is to evaluate the relationship between knowledge management
enablers and knowledge creation externalisation in the business enterprises of sectors such
as hotel, travel and trekking agencies. Remaining part of the paper has been divided in three
sections. Second section presents the research methodology, third section reveals results and
the final section presents the conclusion of the study.

II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Culture is important for facilitating sharing, learning, and knowledge creation. Culture is values,
beliefs, norms, and symbols (Price Waterhouse Change Integration Team, 1996). In general,
culture highly values knowledge, encourages its creation, sharing, application, and promotes
open climate for free flow of ideas. The development of such culture is the major challenge for
knowledge management efforts. Organisational cultures change over time as organisations
adjust to environmental contingencies. Every organisation has its own particular culture and

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its own unique practices (Schein, 1985). An effective culture for knowledge management
consists of norms and practices that promote the transfer of information between employees
and across department lines (Yeh, Lai & Ho, 2006). Building an effective culture where people
operate in an organisation is a critical requirement for effective knowledge management
(Gupta & Govindarajan, 2000). Many studies conducted to investigate causes of knowledge
management initiative failure, have recognised that organisational culture is the main barrier
to knowledge management success (Tuggle & Shaw, 2000).
Collaboration is an important feature in knowledge management adoption. It is defined as the
degree to which people in a group actively assist one another in their task (Hurley & Hult,
1998; Lee & Choi, 2003). A collaborative culture in the workplace influences knowledge
management as it allows for increased levels of knowledge exchange, which is a prerequisite
for knowledge creation. This is made possible because collaborative culture eliminates
common barriers to knowledge exchange by reducing fear and increasing openness in teams
(Lee & Choi, 2003).
Trust can be defined as maintaining reciprocal faith in each other in terms of intention and
behaviours (Kreitner & Kinicki, 1992). By alleviating the fear of risk and uncertainty, trust
encourages a climate conducive to better knowledge creation. Trust is critical in a cross-
functional or interorganisational team because withholding information because of a lack of
trust can be especially harmful to knowledge articulation, internalisation, and reflection
(Hedlund, 1994). Distrust leads people to hide or hoard their knowledge (Jarvenpaa & Staples,
2000). In a distrusted environment, knowledge will not be created, or will be created in a
restrictive manner. Therefore, facilitating trust among cross-functional or interorganisational
team members is important for the foundation of knowledge creation (Ichijo et al., 1998; Lubit,
2001; Nelson & Cooprider, 1996; Scott, 2000).
The capacity of knowledge creation can be increased by various learning means such as
education, training, and mentoring. Krogh (1998) proposed training programs as a means of
knowledge creation. Swap et al., (2001) highlighted mentoring as a key means in creating
organisational knowledge. Intense mentoring enables professionals to obtain a higher level of
knowledge. For the organisations to be successful in knowledge creation, traditional training
and development activities may no longer suffice; they need to nurture an environment with
continuous and persisting learning (Lubit, 2001; Eppler & Sukowski, 2000).
Centralisation refers to the locus of decision authority and control within an organisational
entity (Caruana, Morris, & Vella, 1998). The concentration of decision-making authority
inevitably reduces creative solutions while the dispersion of power facilitates spontaneity,
experimentation, and the freedom of expression, which are the lifeblood of knowledge creation
(Graham & Pizzo, 1996). Therefore, many researchers proposed that a centralised
organisational structure makes it harder to create knowledge (Teece, 2000). Moreover,
centralised structure hinders interdepartmental communication and frequent sharing of ideas
due to time-consuming communication channels (Bennett & Gabriel, 1999); it also causes
distortion and discontinuousness of ideas (Stonehouse & Pemberton, 1999). Without a
constant flow of communication and ideas, knowledge creation does not occur.

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Formalisation is an obstacle on the way towards externalisation, integration, and

internalisation processes. Zucker et al. (1996) have found that less centralisation and
formalisation can lead to higher degrees of knowledge management implementation and
process flow at all levels of the organisation.
Technology is a powerful enabler of knowledge management success. It is generally accepted
that databases, intranets, knowledge platforms and networks are the main blocks that support
knowledge management. Information Technology facilitates quick search, access of
information, cooperation and communication between organisational members (Yeh, Lai, &
Ho, 2006). There is an extensive collection of information technologies such as data
warehousing, intranet, internet, which can be implemented and integrated in an organisation’s
technological platform and work together as knowledge management system. Luan and
Serban (2002) grouped information technologies into more than one category: business
intelligence, knowledge base, collaboration, content and document management, portals,
customer relationship management, data mining, workflow, search, and e-learning.
Externalisation is a process of converting tacit knowledge into explicit notions and often occurs
in the conceptual stage generated by discussion or brainstorming (Choi & Lee,
2002). Externalisation results in the creation of ‘conceptual knowledge’ (Nonaka & Takeuchi,
1995). In short, externalisation involves the conversion of knowledge that cannot be easily
codified (tacit knowledge) into knowledge that can be easily codified (explicit knowledge). The
externalisation process aims at reducing an organisation’s reliance on individual team
members, thus making knowledge independent from individuals (Berends, et al., 2007).
According to Salmador and Bueno (2007), externalisation is a practice of elucidating the
knowledge obtained from know-how into concepts, hypotheses, models, metaphors or
analogies via communication. Externalisation happens when the organisation conveys
formally its internal rules of performance or when it unequivocally sets goals or targets (Martin-
de-Castro et al., 2008). Bolloju et al. (2002) stated that knowledge externalisation refers to the
use of existing knowledge to produce organisational yields. They elaborate that it occurs once
people utilise descriptions in articulating standpoints on revealing concealed and hard-to-
communicate tacit knowledge. Therefore, externalisation can also be driven by organisational
policies or strategies in addition to the practice of the employees in codifying their knowledge
and information for the benefit of the project as well as the organisation.
The studies on knowledge management enablers for knowledge creation externalisation
revealed that the knowledge creation externalisation is associated with collaboration (Lee &
Choi, 2000; Migdadi, 2005). Similarly, the study exposed that trust is significantly related to
the knowledge creation externalisation (Lee & Choi, 2000; Migdadi, 2005; Chen et al. 2011),
who found that trust, is significantly related to the. Limited studies are conducted regarding
knowledge management in Nepal. Chalise (2006 & 2011) conducted the study about impact
of knowledge management on banking innovation and performance. Shakya (2012)
conducted the research on organisational learning and performance. Chaudhary (2016)
performed the research on strategic alignment of knowledge management for organisational
performance. However, as reviewed this study in the area of enquiring enablers of knowledge
management in Nepalese perspective and their implications on knowledge creation
externalisation is amiss. In order to meet the identified gap, this study has been initiated.

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 Nepalese Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Vol I, No. 1: March 2020

Knowledge Management Enablers

Culture
•Collaboration (COL)
•Trust (TRU)
•Learning (LEA)

Structure Knowledge Creation

•Centralisation (CEN) Externalisation
•Formalisation (FOR) (KCE)

Information
Technology
•IT-Support (ITS)

Fig 1: Knowledge Management Enablers for Knowledge Creation Externalisation

III. RESEARCH METHOD
To examine knowledge management enablers for knowledge creation externalisation in
Nepalese hospitality industry, the study used the descriptive research design based on the
survey. The quantitative research design is applied to develop an understanding of the
research issue.
The study has used primary data collected from executives, managers, department heads,
sales officers, marketing officers, finance officers, guest relation officers, public relation
officers and human resource managers in the hospitality industry organisations. In the process
of gathering information, a structured questionnaire was used as the main instrument. The
primary data were collected by ‘delivery and collection’ methods.
The total of 458 responses was collected from 97 firms. Due to incomplete data, 76 responses
were eliminated. Consequently, 382 responses from 97 firms were taken for further analysis.
The total response rate was 83 per cent. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect
the perceptive opinions from the respondents.
Questionnaire items developed included a list of 56 items to measure the different constructs
in the study: collaboration, trust, learning, centralisation, formalisation, information technology
and knowledge creation externalisation. The development of the items was done by re-
evaluating intensively the literature review related to the concepts and constructs stated in the
integrative view. The aim of this empirical research is to test whether the dimensions proposed
in the above-mentioned integrative view support a significant distinction between different
kinds of knowledge management enablers.
To validate the proposed research model, this study conducted a pre-test. The pre-test was
conducted in the month of November, 2014. For the pre-test survey, this study developed
questionnaire and collected data from 36 potential respondents of the selected samples: both
hotels (20) and travel/trekking agencies of 16 respondents. Based on the findings of the pre-
test survey, research questionnaire was modified to improve reliability and validity of the study.
After the pre-test, the questionnaire was finalised and the main study was conducted.

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The study used regression analysis to test the interrelationship of knowledge management
enablers (independent variables) similarly their impact on knowledge creation externalisation
(dependent variables). The application of regression analysis to the present study is desirable
as they significantly help researchers evaluate the causal effect of one variable on other
variables.
Hypotheses
The study hypotheses were largely derived from theoretical statements made in the literature
on knowledge management. In the first hypothesis, the study analysed the collaboration
dimension of knowledge management enabler. In the second and third hypotheses, the study
analysed the trust and learning dimension. In the fourth, fifth and six hypotheses, the study
analysed the centralisation, formalisation and information technology support dimension.
Hypothesis 1: Collaboration
The study proposes to analyse the collaboration for knowledge creation externalisation. The
following hypotheses have been formulated:
Null hypothesis, H0: Collaboration does not affect knowledge creation externalisation.
Alternative hypothesis, H1: Collaboration affects knowledge creation externalisation positively.
The acceptance of alternative hypothesis associated with hypothesis 1 implies that
collaboration will have positive effect on the knowledge creation externalisation and it points
to the effective role of collaboration on knowledge creation externalisation. On the other hand,
if the tests reject the alternative hypotheses and it may suggest that the collaboration is not
helpful for knowledge creation externalisation.
Hypothesis 2: Trust
After determination of the collaboration for knowledge creation externalisation, the study
proposes to evaluate the trust dimension of knowledge creation externalisation. To test the
trust for knowledge creation externalisation, the testable hypotheses have been formulated:
Null hypothesis, H0: Trust does not affect knowledge creation externalisation.
Alternative hypothesis, H2: Trust affects knowledge creation externalisation positively.
The acceptance of alternative hypothesis associated with hypothesis 2 implies that trust will
have positive effect on the knowledge creation externalisation and it points to the effective role
of trust on knowledge creation externalisation. On the other hand, if the tests reject the
alternative hypotheses and it may suggest that the trust does not play important role for
knowledge creation externalisation.
Hypothesis 3: Learning
After determination of the trust for knowledge creation externalisation, the study proposes to
evaluate the learning for knowledge creation externalisation. To test the learning for
knowledge creation externalisation, the testable hypotheses have been formulated:
Null hypothesis, H0: Learning does not affect knowledge creation externalisation.

Alternative hypothesis, H3: Learning affects knowledge creation externalisation positively.

The acceptance of alternative hypothesis associated with hypothesis 3 implies that learning
will have positive effect on the knowledge creation externalisation and it points to the effective

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role of learning on knowledge creation externalisation. On the other hand, if the tests reject
the alternative hypotheses and it may suggest that the learning does not play important role
for knowledge creation externalisation.
Hypothesis 4: Centralisation
After determination of the learning for knowledge creation externalisation, the study proposes
to evaluate the centralisation for knowledge creation externalisation. To test the centralisation
for knowledge creation externalisation, the testable hypotheses have been formulated:
Null hypothesis, H0: Centralisation does not affect knowledge creation externalisation.
Alternative hypothesis, H4: Centralisation affects knowledge creation externalisation negatively.

The acceptance of alternative hypothesis associated with hypothesis 4 implies that

centralisation will have negative effect on the knowledge creation externalisation and it points
to the negative effect of centralisation for knowledge creation externalisation. On the other
hand, if the tests reject the alternative hypotheses and it may suggest that the centralisation
does not play important role for knowledge creation externalisation.
Hypothesis 5: Formalisation
After determination of the centralisation for knowledge creation externalisation, the study
proposes to evaluate the formalisation for knowledge creation externalisation. To test the
formalisation for knowledge creation externalisation, the testable hypotheses have been
formulated:
Null hypothesis, H0: Formalisation does not affect knowledge creation externalisation.
Alternative hypothesis, H5: Formalisation affects knowledge creation externalisation negatively.

The acceptance of alternative hypothesis associated with hypothesis 5 implies that

formalisation will have negative effect on the knowledge creation externalisation and it points
to the negative effect of formalisation for knowledge creation externalisation. On the other
hand, if the tests reject the alternative hypotheses and it may suggest that the formalisation
does not play important role for knowledge creation externalisation.
Hypothesis 6: IT Support
After determination of the formalisation for knowledge creation externalisation, the study
proposes to evaluate the IT support for knowledge creation externalisation. To test the IT
support for knowledge creation externalisation, the testable hypotheses have been
formulated:
Null hypothesis, H0: IT support does not affect knowledge creation externalisation.
Alternative hypothesis, H6: IT support affects knowledge creation externalisation positively.

The acceptance of alternative hypothesis associated with hypothesis 6 implies that IT support
will have positive effect on the knowledge creation externalisation and it points to the effective
role of IT support for knowledge creation externalisation. On the other hand, if the tests reject
the alternative hypotheses and it may suggest that the IT support does not play important role
for knowledge creation externalisation.

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Regression Equation Model between KCE and KMEs

Regression equation between the knowledge creation externalisation and knowledge
management enablers as follows:
KCE = α + β1 COL + β2 TRU + β3 LEA + β4 CEN + β5 FOR + β6 ITS +E
Where,
KCE = knowledge creation externalisation
α = constant number
β1 = change in knowledge creation externalisation associated with unit change in
collaboration
β2 = change in knowledge creation externalisation associated with unit change in trust
β3 = change in knowledge creation externalisation associated with unit change in
learning
β4 = change in knowledge creation externalisation associated with unit change
in centralisation
β5 = change in knowledge creation externalisation associated with unit change in
formalisation
β6 = change in knowledge creation externalisation associated with unit change in
information technology
COL = collaboration
TRU = trust
LEA = learning
CEN = centralisation
FOR = formalisation
ITS = information technology
E = prediction error (residual)

IV. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS

The regression results of knowledge creation externalisation on collaboration, trust, learning,
centralisation, formalisation, and information technology are presented in Models 1 to 6
include various combinations of the fundamental variables. Model 7 includes various
combinations of fundamental cultural variables. Model 8 has various combinations of
fundamental structural variables and model 9 includes all the six fundamental variables
simultaneously.
Table 1
Estimated Relationship between KCE and Fundamental Variables
The results are based on pooled cross-sectional data of 97 enterprises with 382 observations by using linear
regression model. The model is, KCE = α + β1 COL + β2 TRU + β3 LEA + β4 CEN + β5 FOR + β6 ITS + E. Where,
KCE, COL, TRU, LEA, CEN, FOR and ITS are knowledge creation externalisation, collaboration, trust, learning,
centralisation, formalisation and information technology respectively. Results for various subsets of independent
variables are presented as well.

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Regression Coefficients of Adjust

Models Intercept R2 ed R2 DW
F

COL TRU LEA CEN FOR ITS

1 2.263 0.511 0.245 0.243 123.417 1.981

(000)* (000)* (000)*

2 2.875 0.397 0.159 0.157 71.752 1.984

(000)* (000)* (000)*

3 2.093 0.585 0.345 0.343 200.293 2.056

(000)* (000)* (000)*

4 4.628 0.080 0.013 0.011 5.063 1.727

(000)* (0.025)** (0.025)**

5 4.713 0.055 0.006 0.003 2.205 1.742

(000)* (0.138) (0.138)

6 2.389 0.514 0.292 0.290 156.456 1.711

(000)*
(000)* (000)*

7 1.657 0.169 0.034 0.458 0.365 0.360 72.356 2.055

(0.014)** (0.561)
(000)* (000)* (000)*

8 4.627 0.079 0.001 0.013 0.008 2.525 1.727

(0.093) (0.981)
(000)* (0.081)

9 1.090 0.069 0.022 0.377 0.000 0.013 0.304 0.439 0.430 48.819 1.896
(0.305) (0.688) (000)* (0.991) (0.722)
(000)* (000)* (000)*

Note : Questionnaire survey, 2015

Notes : (1) Figures in parentheses are p-values.
(2) * and ** denote that the results are significant at 1 per cent and 5 per cent level of significance respectively.

In the context of collaboration, trust, learning, centralisation, formalisation, and information

technology variables are found to be essential for knowledge creation externalisation. (β=
0.511, p < 0.05) in model 1, which supports H1. It indicates that the good coordination among
different units and people in the hospitality industry promote expression of ideas and concepts.
The result is similar to Migdadi (2005), Choi (2002) and Berraies et al. (2014), which found
that collaboration is a positively related with externalisation. But the study result contradicts
with Lee and Choi (2000), which found that collaboration, has no effect on the knowledge
creation externalisation. In model 2, trust is a positively significant predictor of the knowledge
creation externalisation (β = 0.397, p < 0.05), which supports H2. It indicates that the mutual
faith promotes to formalise of the tacit knowledge in explicit concepts. This result is similar to
Choi (2002), Lee and Choi (2000), Berraies et al. (2014) and Migdadi (2005), which found that
trust is a significant predictor of externalisation. From Table 4-6 (c), it is clear that learning is
a positively significant predictor of the knowledge creation externalisation (β= 0.585, p < 0.05)
in model 3, which supports H3. In the Table, centralisation positively affects the knowledge

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 Nepalese Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Vol I, No. 1: March 2020

creation externalisation in model 4 (β = 0.080, p < 0.05), which is contrary of the study
expectation, centralisation has a positive effect on the knowledge creation externalisation,
indicates that it does not support H4. From Table 4-6 (c), it is clear that formalisation does not
affect the knowledge creation externalisation in model 5 (β= 0.055, p > 0.05), which is contrary
of the study expectation, formalisation has no effect on the knowledge creation externalisation;
it indicates the lack of support H5. However, in model 6 information technology is a positively
significant predictor of the knowledge creation externalisation (β= 0.514, p < 0.05), which
supports H6.
The knowledge creation externalisation is positively influenced by collaboration, trust,
learning, centralisation and information technology, and not significantly influenced by
formalisation. The overall results show the positive relationship of knowledge creation
externalisation with collaboration, trust, learning, centralisation and information technology,
and not with formalisation.

V. CONCLUSION
The study has concluded that the key knowledge management enablers such as collaboration,
trust, learning, centralisation and information technology do influence to the knowledge
creation externalisation positively. The study result supports to Lee and Choi (2000) and
Migdadi (2005) from the collaboration point of view. Similarly, the study result supports to Lee
and Choi (2000), Migdadi (2005), and Chen et al. (2011), who found that trust, is significantly
related to the knowledge creation externalisation. Centralisation positively affects the
knowledge creation externalisation, which is contrary of the study expectation, centralisation
has a positive effect on the knowledge creation externalisation. Formalisation does not affect
the knowledge creation externalisation, which is contrary of the study expectation,
formalisation has no effect on the knowledge creation externalisation
In addition, the study results have revealed the culture as the most vital enabler of knowledge
creation externalisation. Thus, building and supporting a culture which rewards and
encourages employees for seeking, sharing, formalising and creating knowledge attributes
will most probably lead to the successful capture, absorb, creation and implementation of
knowledge management.
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Dimensions of Attractiveness in Employer Branding for

Employee Retention in Nepalese Hospitality Industry

Arhan Sthapit2
Professor
Faculty of Management & Law, Nepal Open University, Nepal

Bikash Shrestha3
Asst. Professor
Faculty of Management, Tribhuvan University, Nepal

ABSTRACT
The topic of employer branding and employee retention is attracting great attention of
management researchers and practitioners. Employer branding is one way that increases
value of organisations, which integrates two significant organisational fields of branding and
human resources, and together they give an adjusted view on the most proficient way to pull
in and retain required employees. In this regard, the present study aims at investigating the
major dimensions of attractiveness in employer branding for human resource retention in
Nepalese hospitality industry. The study employed a cross-sectional descriptive survey design
including four out of seven dimensions of attractiveness in employer branding with a sample
of 292 respondents from six five-star hotels of Nepal stationed in the capital Valley of
Kathmandu. Using Kendall’s tau, correlation analysis and Jonckheere-Terpstra test— the
descriptive statistics, the study discovered that economic value and interest value dimensions
of attractiveness in employer branding for HR retention significantly vary according to
hierarchy of the employees in Nepalese hospitality industry.
Keywords: attractiveness dimensions, employer branding, employee retention, economic
value, interest value

I. INTRODUCTION AND STUDY OBJECTIVES

Employee commitment, productivity and retention issues are emerging as the most critical
workforce management challenges in the global business environment (Caplan & Teese,
1997). Employee skills, employee knowledge and experiences, recruitment and retention of
employees has become a major concern for organisations due to increasing levels of

2 Prof. Dr. Sthapit is a management practitioner-turned academician with 23 years of experience in commercial
banking, development management and English journalism/editing. Educated in Nepal, India and USA in
Management, Mass Communication, Global Trade and IPR, he has three dozen of papers in peer-reviewed
journals of international repute and 7 text books to his credit. Email: arhansthapit@gmail.com
3 Shrestha, an MPhil from Tribhuvan University, has published six papers in peer-reviewed journals of repute.
Also educated and trained in hospitality and hotel management in India, his current area of interest includes
value creation and service failure recovery in hospitality marketing. He can be reached at
bikashshrestha@kcm.edu.np

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importance for recognition of the workforce (Arachchige & Alan, 2013). High employee
turnover is one of the major problems (Fladetta, Fasone, & Provenzano, 2013) and a
continuous challenge for the hospitality industry (Brown, Thomas, & Bosselman, 2015) . The
hotel industry is a dynamic service sector where optimal human resource management is
required to ensure professionalism and efficiency in service delivery (Hanzaee & Mirvaisi,
2011). Ogbonna and Lloyd (2002) perceived employee retention as indispensable for the
hospitality sector, as it employs more people than any other industry within the private
segment, both domestically and globally.
Consumer brand management has been used for decades in order to communicate a
distinctive customer experience and make the company externally attractive (Mosley , 2007).
In recent times, organisations have realised the value of using these marketing efforts in
personnel management and making the employment experience unique by generating and
communicating an employment value proposition (Allen, Bryant, & Vardaman, 2010). Past
literature well accepts the understanding that employees bring value to companies. Employer
branding is one way that increases value of organisations, which integrates two significant
organisational fields, branding and human resources, and together they give an adjusted view
on the most proficient way to pull in and retain reasonable employees (Backaus & Tikoo,
2004).
Employer branding, as an important retention management technique focuses generally on
how to make the employer attractive or the employer of choice, in order to lure the best
possible talent to the company (Berthon, Ewing, & Hah, 2005). Companies that have been
managing their employer brand consistently have been able to bring value to their employees
thus leading to increased commitment, loyalty and retention (Ambler & Barrow, 1996; Moroko
& Uncles, 2008). Supporting the statement, Riston (2002) emphasised on the importance of
employer branding in reducing costs of recruitment, enhancing employee relations and
retention and in the ability to offer lower salaries, compared to the companies with weaker
brands. Likewise, Dell and Ainspan (2001) affirmed that effective employer branding would
lead to competitive advantage, assist employees, internalise company esteems, and aid in
employee retention.
However, it is extremely challenging to attract and retain a skilled workforce in this industry.
Hence, employees have become the primary market for many, especially service companies
such as hotels. Yet, the way the employer branding in Nepalese five-star hotels is utilised and
what methods and interventions are used is commonly left unattended. Moreover, the link
between the employer branding practices and employee retention is yet to be chalked out.
Employer branding is a valuable concept for both managers and research scholars. Managers
can use employer branding as a shade under which they can channel diverse employee
recruitment and retention activities into a planned human asset methodology. Accordingly,
employers can control brand capacity to engage their employees in passionate manners to
achieve change, remarkable results or increase attraction and retention. Low retention rates
in hotel industry has affected the ability to deliver a consistent brand experience, harming
business; and the fact that not enough people see the growing industry as somewhere to build
their careers (Druce, 2007). It can be an issue worth studying also in the hospitality industry
of Nepal, a country with the 7.8 per cent of the GDP contribution (NTB, 2018) and at least 5

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per cent of the total foreign currency earnings from the hospitality and tourism sector
(MoCTCA, 2019). These issues have entailed formulation of the following research objectives:

x To identify the dimensions of attractiveness most preferred in employer branding for

employee retention in Nepalese hospitality industry; and
x To assess the differences existing at dimensions of attractiveness in employer branding
for employee retention across management hierarchies

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

With a view to gaining critical grasp of the topic of attractiveness dimensions in employer
branding for employee retention in Nepalese hotel industry, past literature has been reviewed
at two levels: Conceptual Review and Review of Related Studies.
2.1 Conceptual review
The theoretical perspective of employer branding has largely been guided by the human
capital theory and the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm. According to the theoretical
viewpoint, employer-branding concept is the sum of a company’s efforts to communicate to
existing and prospective staff that the organisation is a desirable place to work (Ewing,
Leyland, Nigel, & Pierre, 2002). Potential workers see employers, who have high employer
brand value as more alluring than those with lower employer brand esteem (Berthon, Ewing,
& Hah, 2005).
The theoretical basis for the current study includes Social Exchange Theory (SET). The SET
has become an instrumental theory in research regarding relationships at the workplace. The
SET is founded on the idea that human behaviour or social interaction is an exchange process
involving tangible and intangible costs and rewards (Homans, 1961). Blau (1964) asserted
that SET involves a series of social and economic interactions and exchanges that generate
obligations to reciprocate, engendering feelings of personal obligations, gratitude and trust.
Social exchange hypotheses present social change and stability as a procedure of negotiated
exchanges between parties (Emerson, 1976). The use of the SET to workplace relationships
depends on the premise that certain predecessors at the workplace generate social exchange
connections (Cropanzano, Byrne, Bobocel, & Rupp, 2001).
The social exchange theory assumes that even though the benefits exchanged need not be
tangible, the recipients value these benefits exchanged between the parties involved in this
mutually interdependent relationship. It implies that employees value the incentives offered by
the employer, while the employer, in return, values the reciprocal contributions made by the
employee. For the present examination, the social exchange theory gives the premise to
demonstrating the way that in situations where an employer or and enterprise offers its
employees value, proposition will result in elevated levels of employee loyalty and reliability
(Molm, Peterson, & Takahashi, 1999). Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002) brought up that
employees structure their thoughts and sentiments about the concern and care of their
organisation towards them through the approaches, strategies and the core values authorised
by various agents of the organisation. This is directly related to the conservation of an
organisation’s reputation, its future and its idealistic picture, as a result this social exchange
among employer and employees, demonstrating it to be a two-way thing (Cropanzano &
Mitchell, 2005).

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2.2 Review of related studies

As indicated by a hypothetical viewpoint, employer branding concept is depicted as the total
of an organisations endeavour to communicate to existing and forthcoming staff that the
organisation is an alluring place to work (Lloyd, 2002; Ewing, Leyland, Nigel, & Pierre, 2002).
Sullivan (2004) characterised employer branding as focused on a long-haul strategy to deal
with the awareness and perceptions of employees, potential employees, and related
stakeholders about a specific firm. The employer-branding idea got the consideration due to
the growing challenge among rival companies, which expected ability to contend and achieve
growth and sustainability (Mosley, 2007). Employer branding is a moderately new
methodology towards recruiting and retaining the most ideal human talent within a recruiting
environment that is getting progressively aggressive and it has captured impressive
consideration in recent times. Attracting skilled people is equally as important as acquiring the
equipment or technological resources that are required to build competitive advantage
(Backaus & Tikoo, 2004).
Employer branding is the arrangement of functional, economic and psychological aids
provided by employment, and recognised with the employing company (Ambler & Barrow,
1996). The study further probed into the concept by focusing on five dimensions; namely, the
interest value, social value, economic value, development value and application value, and
opined the way organisational brands convey the advantages of utilising a product or service
to potential consumers. Employer brands impart the advantages of employment to potential
employees. The interest value assesses the degree of appeal of an employer who is
responsible for providing a work situation with innovation and creativeness opportunities.
Social value calculates the mark of appeal of an organisation or a company providing a work
environment with good and welcoming team spirit and decent respectable relations among
co-workers. An economic value estimates the amount of attraction of an employer providing a
worthy remuneration and profits. The development value is an attribute that estimates the
degree of attractiveness of an employer providing career development and the application
value determines the level of attraction of an establishment giving the opportunity to exercise
and prepare what is found out.
The term employer branding does not just allude to recruitment strategies that are short term
and bound to employment opportunities; employer branding is a long-haul technique, which
centres around on the continuous flow of innovative skills in the organisation (Srivastava &
Bhatnagar, 2010; Suikkanen, 2010; Sokro, 2012). Furthermore, Alniacik, Alniacik, Erat, and
Akcin (2014) advocated employer branding as a contemporary approach that is continuously
expanding and it could keep up the firms’ reputation in attracting and retaining employees.
Dell and Ainspan, (2001) found that effective employer branding led to competitive advantage
that would help employees internalise company values and assists in retaining employees.
Collins (2006) discovered in a conference board report that organisations having effective
employer branding leads to competitive advantage, assists employees internalise company
values and aids in employee retention.
Employer branding consists of three crucial benefits for the organisation associated with
recruiting, retaining and performance (Lievens, Greet, & Frederik, 2007). Organisations with
a strong brand image can gain workers at relatively low cost, improve employee relations,

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increase employee retention and offer lower pay scales when contrasted with its rivals (Riston,
2002). A solid employer brand will make the organisation an alluring place for a talented work
force and will pull in potential employees. A tough employer brand increases organisational
commitment levels once workers identify with their organisation’s values (Ind, 2007). Davies
(2008) showed the role of the employer brand in influencing employee’s perceived
differentiation, affinity, satisfaction and loyalty. A good and sturdy employer brand urges the
workers to put in extra effort, which benefits the organisation. Therefore, a maintained
employer brand increases factors such as employee engagement and productivity efficiency
(Xia & Liu, 2010). Similarly, as per Tanwar (2017), the dimensions of employer branding
elucidate differences in levels of employees’ organisational commitment and through it,
enterprises can enhance its employee retention levels. In addition, if the organisation is a
desirable place to work, employees will enjoy working there which will increase their work
performance (Taylor, 2010).
Dabirian, Kietzmann and Hoda (2017) added two more dimensions on employer branding;
namely, management value and work life balance value. Management value is the good or
bad influence of supervisors at work that determines employee retention. It is more a result of
the manager’s mentality and their conduct towards their employees that the workers decide to
stay in or leave a company, as opposed to due to the organisation itself. Good and bad
supervisors influence employees tremendously. An employee’s positive and negative
experience with the boss also affects his/her social relationships. Work-life balance value is
an attribute determining that a proper balance between the employees’ work and life allows
them to work in harmony with all their identities. It is important to consider that they have a
personality outside the work. An appropriate balance between work and social life makes
employees work more efficiently and effectively. Armstrong, Riemenschneider, Allen and Reid
(2007) defined the quality of work-life as satisfying an employee’s needs via the resources,
activities and outcomes that arise from involvement in the workplace.
Although there has been much research on work life balance (WLB), still it is an area of
concern for any industry, and hospitality industry is not an exception either. Striking a good
work-life balance is arguably a factor that helps retain employees in the organisation. Rowley
and Purcell (2001) argued that the hospitality industry has higher than average skill shortages,
labour turnover and hard-to-fill vacancies. With specific attention to the impact on the work-
life balance, Smith and Gardner (2007) suggested that conflict between work and family life is
linked to job dissatisfaction and staff turnover. McDonald, Brown, and Bradley (2005) identified
flexible working conditions as one of the important dimensions in terms of the factors that
influence employer attractiveness. Similarly, Huang, Lawler, and Lei (2007) found that having
a work-life balance decreased employees’ intentions to leave an organisation. Likewise, Glen
(2012) found a strong positive relationship between work life balance, employee retention and
career development aspects.
Conversely, Deery (2008) identified the long and unsocial hours, low pay and often-low status
of some tourism jobs, especially in the hospitality area hampered the work-life balance and
therefore the hospitality sector would neither easily attract new staff nor retain existing staff.
Likewise, White, Hill, McGovern, Mills, and Smearton (2003) advocated that diminished quality
of work-life leads the employees to dissatisfaction and less commitment so they leave the

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organisation. Guest (2002) studied the work-life balance by relating it to attitudes and values
of two groups of workers; and reported that those in Generation-X sought greater balance in
their work and family life while older workers did not. Similarly, Solnet, Krali, and Kandampully
(2012) concluded that the millennial employees are unlikely to remain with the same. Similarly,
Sthapit & Shrestha (2018) affirmed that rewards and compensation helped retain entry-level
employees, while recognising employer branding as a strong retention measure for those on
higher hierarchies. Likewise, the study further stressed that balanced work-life and employer
branding would help retain older employees, while evincing career growth as the strongest
retention measure, and balanced work-life as the weakest one to retain male hotel employees
in Nepal.
In this regard, Nepalese hotel managers can utilise employer branding as a shade under which
they can channel diverse employee enrolment and retention activities into an organised
human resource strategy. In like manner, hotel employers can control brand capacity to
engage their employees in emotional ways to accomplish change, remarkable outcomes or
increase attraction and retention. It is, therefore, relevant to examine the practices of employer
branding for retaining the employees in Nepalese hospitality industry.

III. RESEARCH METHODS

The design employed for this study is cross-sectional and descriptive in nature. A descriptive
survey— a systematic, non-experimental method for gathering information from a sample for
describing the attributes of the larger chosen population— best fits in ascertaining and
describing characteristics of the studied variables and allows for the use of questionnaires.
Table 1
Sample hotels
SN Name of the sample hotels Address
1 Soaltee Crowne Plaza Tahachal
2 Radisson Hotel Lazimpat
3 The Malla Hotel Lekhnath Marg
4 Shangrila Hotel & Resort Lazimpat
5 Hyatt Regency Taragaon, Boudha
6 Hotel Annapurna Durbar Marg
Note: Sampled from HAN, 2018
The target population of the study is the five-star hotels in Nepal, which have been in operation
for at least 10 years. The official data of the Hotel Association of Nepal have put the total
number of 5-star hotels in Nepal at eight (HAN, 2018) of which three are the international
chains of hotels in Kathmandu and the rest are just domestic. The study has used a stratified
random sampling method to select six five-star hotels stationed in the capital Valley of
Kathmandu; they represent 75 per cent of the defined population. Out of the six hotels
sampled, three belong to the international chain of hotels and three do not. Table 1 presents
the list of sample hotels.
Furthermore, the population of the respondents consists of the front-line employees working
at the front office, housekeeping, and service and food production, of the sampled hotels. Prior
to determination of the sample size, the information about the number of frontline employees

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of the hotels in each of the sampled hotels was obtained from the human resource
departments of the respective hotels. The study used a convenience sampling method to
determine the required sample size of 278 respondents from the population of 976 front-line
employees of the sample hotels, which followed the rule that requires sampling it at 95 per
cent confidence level with ±5 per cent margin of error (Encyclopedia of Survey Research
Methods, 2008). The study has covered employees from the three management hierarchies:
The top-level managers are the departmental heads; mid-level managers the assistant
departmental heads and sectional heads within the department, while low-level employees
are non-supervisory employees (other than top managers, assistant managers and mid-level
managers) of the sampled hotels.
The study used a structured questionnaire to collect required data using a non-disguised
approach and validated with content validity by scrutinising it through HRM experts. Finally,
after required modifications, the questionnaire was administered on 343 potential respondents
within a period of 40 days from 5th November to 15 December, 2019. The study used a self-
administered process in two hotels and with the help of assistants in rest four sample hotels
by following drop-and-pick method, as this technique is an effective means to reduce potential
non-response bias through increased response rate. There was a follow-up to collect the
questionnaires on time and offered assistance to the respondents having difficulty in
completing the questionnaires. Out of the 343 distributed questionnaires, altogether 301 filled-
up ones were collected, and 292 were found to be complete and usable; it has posted a valid
response rate of 85.13 per cent, a success rate high enough to go ahead without performing
a non-response bias test. The study has used various non-parametric tests as the variables
have been measured on an ordinal scale. The study has used descriptive statistics, Kendall’s
tau correlation and Jonckheere-Terpstra test for testing if there exists a significant difference
on various dimensions of attractiveness in employer branding across management
hierarchies.

IV. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS

The Table 2 exhibits the sample characteristics under three strata of respondents. The first
stratum is the level of respondents enshrined in top, middle and entry-level jobs of the
respondents constituting 15.8, 25.3 and 58.9 per cent, respectively. Similarly, the second
stratum is the age groups: those aged above 40 years (12.7 per cent), 30-40 (38.0 per cent)
and below 30 years (49.3 per cent). Hence, the respondents are largely young and middle-
aged: those below 40 years of age. And, on the gender-based stratum, male constituted nearly
two thirds of the respondents, as they accounted for 63.7 per cent as against 36.3 per cent,
of the fairer sex.
The Table 3 shows the frequency and percentage of rank for the given dimensions of
attractiveness in employer branding for retention in Nepalese hotels. The table is of the
evidence that, majority of the respondents accord higher priority to the economic value (37.70
per cent) followed by the development value (25.30 per cent), interest value (19.20 per cent)
and work-life balance (17.80 per cent) with the ranks of first, second, third and fourth,
respectively.
Table 2

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 Nepalese Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Vol I, No. 1: March 2020

Sample characteristics
Panel A: Management Hierarchies of the sample respondents
Level Frequency Per cent Cumulative per cent
Top level 46 15.80% 15.80
Middle level 74 25.30% 41.10
Entry level 172 58.90% 100
Total 292 100%
Panel B: Age groups of the sample respondents
Age Group Frequency Per cent Cumulative per cent
Above 45 years 37 12.70% 12.70
30-45 years 111 38.00% 50.70
Below 30 years 144 49.30% 100
Total 292 100%
Panel C: Gender of the sample
Gender Frequency Per cent Cumulative per cent
Male 186 63.70% 63.70
Female 106 36.30% 100
Total 292 100%
Note: From the authors’ survey, 2019

Table 3
Descriptive statistics for employer branding dimensions

Employer branding Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4 Median

Rank
dimensions rank
No % No % No % No %
Development value 74 25.30% 88 30.10% 64 21.90% 66 22.60% 2 2
Economic value 110 37.70% 66 22.60% 68 23.30% 48 16.40% 2 1
Work Life balance 52 17.80% 38 13.00% 68 23.30% 134 45.90% 3 4
Interest value 56 19.20% 100 34.20% 90 30.80% 46 15.80% 2 3
Note: Calculations from the authors’ survey, 2019

The Table 4 exhibits the Kendall’s tau correlation for four dimensions of attractiveness in
employer branding by management hierarchies. The management hierarchy of the
respondents has posted a negative and significant relationship with the economic value
dimension of employer branding (-0.182), and a positive and significant relationship with the
interest value dimension of employer branding (0.234). It implies that hotel employees at the
lower hierarchy have recognised the economic value as an important dimension of
attractiveness in employer branding and an important factor for their retention, whereas top-
level employees have termed it less important.
Similarly, the top-level employees perceive interest value as the most important dimension of
attractiveness in employer branding, and is, therefore, a significant factor for their retention,
while it is of less importance for lower level employees in Nepalese hotels. It evinces that the
perceived importance levels of the components of dimension of attractiveness in employer
branding vary according to management hierarchy of the employees in Nepalese hotels.

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 Nepalese Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Vol I, No. 1: March 2020

Table 4
Kendall’s tau correlation analysis

Development Economic Work Life Management

Variables Interest value
value value balance value hierarchy
Development value 1
-.227**
Economic value 1
(0.001)
Work Life balance -.380** -.271**
1
value (0.001) (0.001)
-.191** -.336** -.143**
Interest value 1
(0.001) (0.001) (0.004)
Management -0.044 -.182** 0.06 .234**
1
hierarchy (0.387) (0.001) (0.252) (0.001)
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Note: Calculations from the authors’ survey, 2019

The study also performed a Jonckheere-Terpstra test for robustness check on dimensions of
attractiveness in employer branding and retention at Nepalese hotels across the three
management hierarchies to identify if the population across these groups differ. Table 5 shows
that there is a statistically significant difference across different level of employees’ preference
for economic value and interest value as dimensions of attractiveness in employer branding
and retention with observed J-T statistic of 9542 and 15212, p = 0.001 and 0.001 respectively.
Further, the table also depicts that there is no mean rank difference on development value
and work life balance value as dimensions of attractiveness for employer branding and
retention across different hierarchies of management at Nepalese hotels. These findings are
in compliance with the results of Kendall’s tau correlation coefficients.
Table 5
Jonckheere-Terpstra test

Development Economic Work Life Interest

Statistics/Variables
value value balance value
Observed J-T Statistic 11408 9542 12812 15212
Mean J-T Statistic 12022 12022 12022 12022
Std. Deviation of J-T Statistic 709.10 702.86 689.31 703.50
Std. J-T Statistic -0.87 -3.53 1.15 4.53
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0.387 0.001 0.252 0.001
Grouping Variable: Management hierarchy
Note: Calculations from the authors’ survey, 2019

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 Nepalese Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Vol I, No. 1: March 2020

Table 6
Post hoc analysis
Test Std. Std. Test
Dimension Sample 1-Sample 2 Sig Adj. Sig
statistic Error Statistic
Economic value Entry-Middle level 4068 498.438 -4.691 0.000 0.000
Middle-Entry level 8496 489.475 4.356 0.000 0.000
Interest value
Top-Entry level 5060 364.045 3.033 0.001 0.004
Note: Calculations from the authors’ survey, 2019
The post hoc analysis for economic value in Table 6 depicts that the mean rank differences
exists across entry - middle level employees of Nepalese hotels (p value=0.000). The Figure
1 depicts the mean rank values for economic value as dimension of attractiveness in employer
branding for three different levels of hierarchies. The mean rank is higher for entry-level
employees followed by middle level and top-level employees with the mean rank values of
129.65, 150.50 and 183.18. The mean rank values indicate that entry-level employees in the
hotel industry consider economic value as the most important factor for among others. Further,
Figure 2 shows the box plot diagram of the median rank for three different hierarchies.

Figure 1. Pair-wise comparisons for economic value across management hierarchies

Figure 2. Independent samples Jonckheere Terpstra test for economic value

Similarly, the post hoc analysis for interest value as the dimensions of attractiveness in
employer branding and retention in table exhibits that the mean rank differences exists across
middle - entry level (0.000) and top - entry level (0.004) employees in Nepalese hotels. The
Figure 3 depicts the mean rank values for interest value as dimension of attractiveness in
employer branding and retention for three different levels of hierarchies. The mean rank is

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 Nepalese Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Vol I, No. 1: March 2020

higher for middle level employees followed by top and middle level employees with the mean
rank values of 117.07, 123.5 and 165.31, respectively. The mean rank values indicate that
entry-level employees in the hotel industry considers interest-value as the least important
factor, among others. Further, Figure 4 shows the box plot diagram of the median rank for
three different hierarchies.

Figure 3. Pairwise comparisons for interest value across management hierarchies

Figure 4. Independent samples Jonckheere Terpstra test for interest value

V. CONCLUSION
The study concludes that distinct components of attractiveness in employer branding i.e. at
least in economic and interest value dimension have different levels of perceived importance
across different level of management hierarchies in Nepalese hotels. The study specifically
concludes that economic value is the major and interest value is of least important dimension
of employer attraction for retention for entry-level employees. Whereas for middle and top-
level employees in Nepalese hotels, interest value is most preferred dimensions of employer
attractiveness for retention, while they identify economic value as the least influential HR
retention tactic. The result is consistent with the findings of a previous Nepalese study by
Sthapit and Shrestha (2018). Further, the statistically significant relationship existing between
economic value and interest value (-0.346**) implies that in case of management hierarchy,
the Nepalese hotel employees’ preference swings between economic value and interest value
as a factor that motivates them to stay with the current employer. The finding has matched
with that of Moncraz, Zhao and Kay (2009) that was specific about the workforce hierarchies

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and noted that interest value and economic value would reduce HR turnover and increase
commitment among managers and entry-level employees respectively.
Future scope of the study
Extension for future research could incorporate quantitative research testing the devised
conceptual framework, notwithstanding investigating deeper into the seven key subjects
distinguished within employer branding to discover which brand characteristics are valued the
most by employees. Additionally, other service organisational set-ups could likewise be
investigated along these lines to check whether results are comparative between services
organisations, and the outcomes would then be able to be summed up over the service
sectors.

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Human Resource Management Challenges in the Hospitality

Industry: Insights from Nepal

Surya Kiran Shrestha4

PhD Candidate
Tribhuvan University, Nepal

ABSTRACT
Hospitality industry in Nepal is growing along with tourism industry, which is further
supplemented by the rising entry of international chain of hotels. It has increased the demand
for the efficient management of qualified human resources. However, there are also
challenges at varying levels to manage human resources in this industry. Therefore, this paper
explores human resource management (HRM) challenges in the hospitality industry. The data
for this study was collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews of 20 HR
directors/managers from the Nepalese five-star and four-star hotels who were chosen using a
purposive sampling method to ensure that the participants have enough experience of
managing human resources in hotels. The findings reveal both internal as well as external
challenges faced by the Nepalese hospitality industry.
Keywords: hospitality industry; qualified and skilled human resources; human resource
management; brain-drain

I. INTRODUCTION AND STUDY OBJECTIVES

This paper explores human resource management (HRM) challenges in the hospitality
industry focusing on Nepalese hotels. The hospitality industry that incorporates lodging and
food service operations includes a wide range of services including food outlets, smallest
roadside inn, catering in transport services and largest five-star hotels among others
(Andrews, 2009). Since the services in the are primarily run by its people, understanding
human resources management in a larger context that explore beyond the day-to-day
operations is essential (Jerris, 1999).
Although the concept of HRM in the hospitality industry in Nepal evolved after the adoption of
liberalisation and privatisation policy in 1990 (Maharjan, 2013), it has yet to gain its maturity.
Consequently, the management of human resources in the Nepalese hospitality industry faces
a number of HRM challenges at varying levels ranging from recruitment processes to training
and development, satisfying employees, maintenance of labour relationships, unionisation,
and employee retention. In Nepal— like many other countries, tourism and hospitality industry

4 Shrestha is associated with NATHM as Deputy Head of BHM programme. He is a well-known faculty of
hospitality and tourism management in Nepal and involved in designing curricula of different academic and
training programmes related to hospitality and tourism management.

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is the mainstay of the economy that contributes significantly to its growth. According to Nepal
Tourism Board (NTB), the national tourism organisation of Nepal, the number of international
tourist arrival in the country exceeded 1.1 million in 2018 and is expected to reach 2 million by
2020 (Pun, 2019). According to Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank of Nepal, the direct
contribution of travel and tourism to GDP was NPR 99.8 billion (USD 982.5 million), 4 per cent
of total GDP in 2017 and is forecast to rise by 4.9 per cent in 2018, from 2018 – 2028, to NPR
152.4 billion (USD1.5 million), 4.2 per cent of total GDP in 2028. The data of tourist arrivals
has shown the changes between January and February of 2018 and 2019 as 25.4 per cent
and 39 per cent, respectively. The growth in tourism industry also brings about that in hotel
industry as well, and Nepal is also not an exception to it.
According to the Nepalese Ministry of Tourism, the annualised growth rate of hotels and
restaurants in Nepal was close to 10 per cent, and the contribution of hotel and restaurant
sector in the total GDP was above 2 per cent in the Fiscal Year 2017/2018 (MOCTCA, 2018).
The Hotel Association of Nepal (2018) has estimated that more than 10 five-star hotels with
around 1,200 rooms would start operations within 2019 in addition to other categories of
hotels. Among them 7 hotels of that category have already started their business by August
2019 and others are in the pipeline. Now there are 15 five-star hotels in Nepal; and another
12 five- and four-star hotels will come up in few years (Katipur Daily, 2019). They are also
targeting the vision of Visit Nepal 2020.
The Government of Nepal, Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) has
planned to organise ‘Visit Nepal Year’ in 2020 to attract more tourists to the country. The
government has set a target to bring in two million tourists each year by the targeted year. It
is apparent that, in order to cater to the demand of future tourism and hospitality industry, a
pool of qualified and skilled human resources is needed, which further reinforces the need for
effective and efficient management of those human resources.
A recent survey data of Hotel association Nepal (HAN) shows that tourism industry provides
200,000 direct employments and 1.2 million indirect employments. The total number of female
direct employees engaged in tourism is above 80,000.
However, in order to effectively managing human resources, it is important for the managers
to identify and foresee the HR challenges; it is something this paper envisages to achieve.
Furthermore, although a few previous studies have highlighted the challenges related to the
tourism and hospitality industry in Nepal, a comprehensive and holistic review of the
challenges has been neglected. This paper aims to fill this gap by exploring the HRM
challenges in the Nepalese hospitality industry from a developing country perspective. The
findings of this study are expected to benefit policy makers as well as hotel managers in
devising policies that help them to resolves challenges and effectively manage human
resources in the one of the most demanding industry in Nepal.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

Being a labour-intensive sector, the hospitality industry faces a number of issues related to
the management of human resources. Past literature has shown that one of the primary
challenges of hospitality sector HRM are basic wages which are lower in hospitality industry
than other industries like IT, retail, banking, and telecoms. Past literature also reports that HR

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practices are not standardised, and it is another challenge. In addition to them, past literature
identifies as other challenges: a general lack of professional approach and vision, a lack of
growth as well as learning and HR development opportunities, long working hours, high
employee dissatisfaction and attrition rate among hospitality professionals, a poor perceived
image of hospitality and tourism sector especially in relation to inadequate and inefficient
training and education programmes that also discourage employees to stay longer, and high
employee turnover rate among others (Bhutia, 2014; Kim, 2014; Sajnani, 2018; Srivastava,
2008; Wakelin-Theron, 2014).
As a result, the demand for human resources in hotels and restaurants far exceeds the supply
in many countries. For example, according to a study conducted by Ministry of Tourism on
Human Resources requirement in Hotel industry, tour operators and travel sector in Darjeeling
(of India), the supply of qualified and trained human resource is not even touching 40 per cent
of the total demand in hotels & restaurant sector (Bhutia, 2014). Additionally, the industry has
not been able to attract talented young generation to serve the industry.
Srivastava (2008) noted that the supply of competent and skilled human resources has been
the biggest challenge especially at the managerial level in tourism and hospitality industry.
Consequently, the hospitality industry has to employ significantly unacceptable percentage of
untrained manpower affecting negatively the quality of service offered to the tourists (Bhutia,
2014).
A similar study by Wakelin-Theron (2014) has also found that there is lack of adequate skills
among many hospitality graduates. Put another way, hospitality graduates are not adequately
prepared for the absorption in the industry. The knowledge of an academic subject is no longer
enough in today’s challenging work environment, so it is important for graduates to develop
skills that will increase their chances of finding employment (Wakelin-Theron, 2014).
Consequently, Srivastava (2008) has emphasised on prioritising the issues of the quality of
supply of talented human resources to keep the hospitality industry up and growing so that it
can contribute to the social and economic development of the country.
Nepal has a much-diversified population. A Nepalese survey has indicated that approximately
138,148 persons are engaged in the tourism sector of Nepal (Government of Nepal, 2014).
About two-third (68 per cent) of employees were of the age between 20 to 40 years, among
which half of the employees had completed intermediate level of education and 19 per cent
were highly skilled.
The existing literature agrees that one of the key HRM challenges in the Nepalese hospitality
industry is related to brain-drain. The lucrative job prospects outside of Nepal that includes
earning higher than what a relatively more qualified person in Nepal could earn and more
opportunities for talented employee’s people abroad have given birth to expectations among
the Nepalese youths who are then naturally inclined to overseas opportunities. Nepali
companies neither would be able to provide such opportunities in Nepal, nor meet the
expectation of the youth (Sthapit & Shrestha, 2018; New Business Age, 2018).
Apart from the poor infrastructures including transport services in Nepal; low salary, higher
rate of unemployment, rampant unethical practices among the service providers, and inflation
are the other dissatisfying and de-motivating factors for the Nepalese youth causing brain-

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drain from Nepal and posing significant challenges for the management of employees in the
Nepalese hospitality industry (New Business Age, 2018). In addition, hassles arising from
activities of the trade unions are other de-motivating factors that have prevented deserving
candidates from approaching for jobs in Nepali companies. Consequently, many youths seem
to be attracted towards the public service jobs as they provide job security and good salaries
(New Business Age, 2018).
On the basis of the review of literature, a need for identifying the key challenges to the
management of human resources in Nepalese hospitality sector has been realised, and it can
better be done through the direct interview with the top level managers and directors of
highest-rated hotels so that it can bridge the study-gap existing in this sector.

III. RESEARCH METHODS

The study has applied a qualitative approach to explore the HRM challenges in the Nepalese
hospitality industry, as this research approach is useful to describe a phenomenon and its
characteristics and is more concerned with what rather than how or why something has
happened. On the same line, Phillimore and Goodson (2004) argues that qualitative research
is as much a way of conceptualising and approaching social inquiry as it is a way of doing
research. Qualitative research is designed to tell the researcher how and why things happen
as they do (Cooper & Schindler (2010). It includes a selection of interpretive techniques which
seek to describe, decode, and translate the things.
The data for this study was collected through semi-structured interviews administered on 20
HR directors/managers from the Nepalese five-star and four-star hotels. Those HR directors
and managers were chosen using a purposive sampling method ensuring that the participants
have enough experiences of the management of human resources in hotels. The five-star and
four-star hotels were chosen, as far as the key interviewees are concerned for the study
because they are the representative of the tourism and hospitality industry and the majority of
HRM challenges appear in those hotels.

IV. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

The preliminary findings of this study reveal that lower productivity among employees, lower
level of effort in developing human resources, weak managerial competency, interference by
trade unions, low salary at entry level, and weak information management system are the
internal challenges to the human resource management in the Nepalese hospitality industry.
A large majority of the directors and managers interviewed share a common opinion, thus:
In general, the pay is low for the entry level employees in Nepalese hospitality industry.
There is no specification about the salary system. Whether they hold a bachelor degree
or just a specialised training in any area, all of them get almost the same salary at the
entry level.
The general shortage of skilled human resources, increased competition at the entry level for
qualified human resources and the attraction for overseas employment among the youth are
the external challenges to the human resource management in Nepalese hospitality industry.
In this context 16 out of 20 directors and managers opined:

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 Nepalese Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Vol I, No. 1: March 2020

There is a shortage of skilled blue-collar workers…, because growth opportunities are

limited…there are problems with operation and management structure. So, it is very
difficult for Nepalese hotel industrialists to retain the qualified and skilled human
resources. Many of them have opted for going to the foreign countries for jobs.
Besides them, the undue political pressure from parties and their leaders for employing their
henchmen and favourites is another challenge facing the hotel industry. The hotels will have
to lose quality candidates and hire unnecessary workforce, if they succumb to the political
pressure.
Furthermore, this study has also found that the increased HR turnover and brain-drain caused
by foreign employment fashion among the youth and fresh graduates have caused unstable
and inconsistent service quality in the hotel industry in Nepal.
The majority directors and managers gave the account of their observation about the HR
challenges thus:
“The major challenge being faced by hotel industry is the interference from trade unions
in the process of human resources recruitment. Political leaders also put undue influence
to hire their followers and relatives, so it is difficult to follow the merit-based HR
selection.”
The industry has also been facing the lack of executive level of human resources because of
the brain-drain and unhealthy competition between hotels. The industry has also failed to
develop leaders so they are insufficient to meet the demand of the growing industry. Middle
level human resources are attracted by handsome salary and high living standard of foreign
countries. Junior level employees do not respect the seniors if they are Nepalese citizen. So,
the industry prefers hiring foreign people— mostly from India— at the executive level positions.

Challenges to HRM in Hospitality Industry

Lower pay/ compensation

Fewer opportunities for development (HRD)

Mismatch between classroom learning and workplace

Shortage of skilled human resources and executive level leaders

Retention of competent, skilled human resources

Undue political and trade union pressure for hiring their henchmen/ favourites

Growing tendency to prefer foreigners in hiring top-level managers

Figure 1: Challenges to HRM in Hospitality Industry

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It was found during the study that many academic and training institutions did not have
adequate labs for practical and there were some gaps between the syllabi and the practices
in the industry. According to them hospitality management institutions should coordinate with
industry and revise their syllabi as per the requirement of industry. They said:
A key challenge of HR management in the Nepalese hotel industry is that there is
shortage of skilled human resources. There is a mismatch between what students learn
in their curriculum in colleges and universities and what the employers expect from them
at their workplaces. Most academic institutions follow the conventional teaching
pedagogy. Also, no proper practical training is provided by the institutions.

V. CONCLUSION
Hospitality industry in Nepal is growing along with tourism industry, which is further
supplemented by the rising entry of international chain of hotels. It has increased the demand
for the efficient management of qualified human resources which are the key to successful
management of tourism enterprises, especially in this labour-intensive industry. However,
there are also HR-related challenges which the present study attempted to identify.
The seven major challenges the present study has identified from an interview of hotel
managers (Fig. 1) are associated with typical HRM functions of HR acquisition, development,
and maintenance, as well as with labour relations management and public policy regime of
the government and other stakeholders.
In view of the challenges to HR management in the hospitality industry in Nepal, the key
measures to address them would be the implementation of efficient and systematic process
of human resource management, reasonable salary structure, and promoting the system to
hire qualified, skilled human resources through fair selection criteria. A combined effort of the
hotel entrepreneurs, hospitality industry leaders, the government agencies and other
stakeholders should be forthcoming to thrash out durable solutions to overcome the HR
related challenges.
Therefore, the findings of the present paper could be useful for the policy makers as well as
hotel managers to devise policies and practices that could ensure the successful management
of hospitality industry as a whole.
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Andrews, S. (2009). Human resource management: a textbook for the hospitality industry. India: Tata
McGraw-Hill.
Bhutia, S. (2014). The role of tourism for human resource development in darjeeling district of west
bengal, India. Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management, American Research Institute
for Policy Development, 2(1), 113-128.
Cooper, R. D., & Schindler, P. S. (2010). Business Research Methods, New Delhi, Tata McGraw Hill.
Government of Nepal. (2014). Tourism Employement Survey-2014. Kathmandu, Nepal: Ministry of
Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation.
HAN (2018). Hotel Association Nepal. Retrieved from http://www.hotelassociationnepal.org.np/
Jerris, L. A. (1999). Human resources management for hospitality. New Jersey, USA.: Prentice
International Inc.
Kantipur (2019 Sept 2). Finance. A national Daily News Paper.

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Kim, N. (2014). Employee turnover intention among newcomers in travel industry. International
Journal of Tourism Research, 16(1), 56-64.
Maharjan, M. P. (2013). Department of Management Science and Business Studies. Retrieved from
http://hrmstudy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Maharjan2013.pdf
MOCTCA. (2018). Nepal Tourism Statistics-2017. Kathmandu: Government of Nepal, Ministry of
Culture, Tourism & Civil Aviation.
NRB (2019). Monetary Policy-2019/20, Nepal Rastra Bank, Central Office Baluwatar, Kathmandu
2019, July.
New Business Age (2018). Experts Views on HR Management in Nepal 2. Retrieved from
http://www.newbusinessage.com/MagazineArticles/view/2052
Phillimore, J. & Goodson, L. (2004). Qualitative research in tourism, Routledge, London & New York
,Tayler & Francis Group.
Pun, S. (2019). Nepal Tourism Campaign #VisitNepal2020. Retrieved from
https://www.spotlightnepal.com/2019/03/05/nepal-tourism-campaign-visitnepal2020/
Sajnani, M. (2018). Challenges and way ahead for Indian hospitality sector. Retrieved from
https://hospitality.careers360.com/articles/challenges-and-way-ahead-for-indian-hospitality-
sector
Srivastava, P. K. (2008). HR Challenges in Tourism Industry in India. Paper presented at the
Conference on Tourism in India – Challenges Ahead, India.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268297210_The_HR_Challenges_in_Tourism_Indu
stry_in_India
Sthapit, A., & Shrestha, B. (2018). Employee retention practices in hospitality industry in Nepal:
Investigating the moderating effect of management hierarchy, age group and genderKelaniya
Journal of Human Resource Management, 13(2), 1-22. doi:10.4038/kjhrm.v13i2.53
Wakelin-Theron, N. (2014). Employability development in Higher Education institutions: a tourism
student perspective. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 3(1), 1-16.

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The perception of employees about the regulatory

environment in the tourism industry: Insights from Nepal

Sandeep Basnyat5
Asst. Professor, Macao Institute for Tourism Studies (IFTM)
MACAO, CHINA

ABSTRACT
This paper aims to explore the perceptions of tourism employees on the role of regulatory
environment including the government in promoting employees’ welfare. Despite a need for
an examination of employees’ voice in the formulation of employment policies and in their
implementation by a government, no or very little literature specifically dealing with this topic
has been found during the present study. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap. Based on an
in-depth semi-structured interview with hotel and airline employees in Kathmandu (Nepal), this
paper hammers out three key aspects of the regulatory environment that may affect
employees’ welfare, viz., efficiency of labour law, government’s attitude towards tourism
labour, and judicial process and system. The paper discusses the implications of these
findings for the tourism industry as well as for the government in developing countries.
KEYWORDS: regulatory environment, tourism employees, tourism industry

I. INTRODUCTION
This paper aims to explore the perceptions of tourism employees on the role of regulatory
environment including the government in promoting employees’ welfare. The labour market in
the tourism industry is dominated by a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises
that employ many highly seasonal, part-time, female and migrant workers among others
(Singal, 2015). Many of these workers receive relatively low wages and often work in poor
working conditions (Chambers & Rakić, 2018; Zampoukos & Ioannides, 2011). Although the
tourism industry provides a variety of opportunities and positions for a range of labour including
new entrants with minimal skill, because of the characteristic of labour work: routine and
manual tasks, irregular working hours and sometimes an exploitative management, it has also
been considered by some as an undesirable industry to work in (Cooper & Ruhanen, 2009;
ILO 2003; Wood & Pedler, 1978). A few reports on the development and challenges in the
hospitality and tourism sector have indicated that working conditions have not improved much
in many establishments, including some hotels and airlines (Bakas, Costa, Breda, & Durão,
2018; ILO, 2010; Vučetić, 2018).

5Dr. Basnyat is based in Colina de Mong-Há, Macao, China, and can be reached at Email: sandeep@ift.edu.mo
Email: sandeep@ift.edu.mo

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Improving working conditions in the tourism industry is however affected by several factors,
including the roles that industrial relations actors— such as employers, employees, the
government, and trade unions, among others--play (Edwards, 2003). For example, the
government can influence the welfare of employees directly through laws on wages (e.g.,
minimum wages), and working conditions (e.g., on hours of work) (Edwards, 2003). Since, the
tourism industry is highly labour intensive (Riley, Ladkin, & Szivas, 2002), developments in
the regulatory environment including tourism policies and practices of the government may
have significant impacts on a large number of workers, and on their psychological and socio-
economic lives (Hill, 1977; Woo & Postolache, 2008).
Therefore, considering the characteristics of the labour market conditions coupled with their
potential adverse effects on a large number of workers, development of such policies and
practices by the government should at least include the voices of tourism employees who will
actually be the one who will bear the consequences of those policies and practices. To be fair,
it isunder-researched, as there only a few studies that demonstrate the effects of government
policies on labour markets (Beatson, 1995; Destefanis & Mastromatteo, 2009; Lopes, 2003),
the implications of justice systems for the workers (Silber, 1974), or how governments have
systematically supressed union formation that advocate for employees’ welfare (Anyim,
Ikemefuna, & Ekwoaba, 2012; Hyman & Gumbrell-McCormick, 2010). This paper has sought
to fill this gap by exploring the views of tourism employees about the current status of
regulatory environment, including the labour laws and policies, the roles played by the
government and how they influence the welfare of tourism workers.
This study focusses on the labour market in the hotel and airlines sector in Nepal, undertaken
in Kathmandu, the capital city. Nepal provides a fitting platform for the study because of its
experiences with a number of labour disputes for a variety of reasons including legal matters
for the last 20 years (Upreti, Sharma, Upadhaya, Ghimire, & Iff, 2013). This study also has
sought to examine the situation within the context of a developing nation. In comparison to
developed countries where steady wage and employment are the norms, the labour market in
developing nations is usually extremely volatile, and the workers not only earn low and
uncertain earnings for their long working hours, a large majority of those who work in the
private sector are not registered with the government and therefore do not receive job-related
social protections (Fields, 2011). Hence, it is expected, that this study can assist industry
practitioners, including managers and workers, as well as policy makers in devising and
executing appropriate policies and strategies in order to develop and strengthen the labour
market and improve working conditions in developing countries. As many developing countries
seek to build the tourism industry as an engine for their economic development (Cooper &
Ruhanen, 2009), the study is expected to be useful for researchers who are focusing on
developing countries.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

This section presents a review of past literature in the studied area.
Government and employees’ welfare
The labour market comprises the total working environment at local, regional, national or
transnational level … consists of all industry sectors, their personnel requirements and skill

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needs, as well as those outside the actual workforce (Baum, 2008). Enhancing welfare by
maintaining and improving working conditions consistently is the key to enhance productivity
of workers in all forms of labour market. The result of Lindner’s (1998) study of 25 employees
at the Piketon Research and Extension Centre and Enterprise Centre found that good working
conditions ranked fifth among top ten factors that motivated employees at work. Apart from
improving working conditions, the provision of overall social security benefits such as family
benefits, unemployment benefits, medical insurance, and maternity benefits, among others,
to workers are also important and their presence contribute to raising labour productivity and
curbing social tensions, violent conflicts, and uncontrolled migration (Khanal, 2012).
Government, as a key industrial relations actor, can provide a regulatory environment through
its laws and policies that can improve working conditions and increase employees’ welfare.
However, while regulatory environment may provide benefits for workers; it can also pose
serious constraints for workers to enjoy those benefits and welfare, and impede them from
using their rights. For example, although the regulatory environment created by the
government with generous social-safety nets, a favourable tax system, strong unions, and
favourable employment legislation among others can improve the welfare of workers, the
government employees’ attitudes about the workers and their situations can negatively affect
the working conditions (Lavigna, 2014). Similarly, if companies decrease employment in
response to their increased costs due to tight labour market policies (Harrison & Scorce,
2006), it will eventually result in job loss for many workers.
One option to include the voices of employees is through the consideration of trade unions’
presence in the policy making. Such an inclusion can significantly increase the possibility of
employees’ voices to be incorporated in the government mechanism. In principle, trade unions
may engage with the government to make demands for bringing in legislation or they may
engage in more lasting forms of accommodation (such as ‘corporatism’ in the Nordic countries
or a series of ‘Accords’ in Australia) (Edwards, 2003). While trade unions find it useful to exert
pressure on the government to formulate policies that are helpful for the workers, their actions
are also sometimes affected by state policies (Anyim, Ikemefuna, & Ekwoaba, 2012; Hyman
& Gumbrell-McCormick, 2010) that are targeted to influence the overall labour market. For
example, the government influences the overall labour market by enacting laws specifically
designed to influence trade unions such as union government laws.
An earlier study conducted by Munson and Nanda (1966) in India among politically,
industrially, and hierarchically cross-sectioned union leaders from Delhi, Calcutta and
Bombay, revealed that the enactment of Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code, dispute
settlement mechanisms and other restrictive legislation directed union activities into legal
channels and created restrictions on the organisation of direct actions. In addition, occasional
arrests and detention of trade union leaders for organising strike actions affected trade union
movements (Munson & Nanda, 1966). Similarly, Hyman and Gumbrell-McCormick (2010)
have noted that although during the 2008/09 economic crisis in Europe the European
governments became the key advocate of the demands put forth by trade unions, they were
systematically repressed in the early stage of union formation, which actually became the
cause of state being the target of collective action from trade unions in most southern
European countries. The key for improving employees’ welfare is, therefore, to include voices
of those who will be directly affected by the policies and prevailing practices designed by the

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government. Although extremely important, this aspect has been ignored in the current
literature. This paper attempts to fill this gap by imploring the views of tourism employees
about the current policies and practices of the government and how they influence employees’
welfare in Nepal.
Employment policies and practices in Nepal
Nepalis a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. The total contribution (direct and
indirect) of travel and tourism in the Nepalese employment is above 6 per cent (WTTC, 2018).
The majority of the tourism employment is concentrated in hotels and homestays, travel
agencies, trekking agencies, rafting agencies, domestic and international airlines, and sports
and other recreation agencies such as paragliding, skydiving and ultra-light aircraft services
in Nepal (MOCTCA, 2014). Apart from these, employments in the tourism industry are also
provided by the companies operating tourist vehicles, restaurants and adventure industries,
including bungee jumping (MOCTCA, 2014). Like any other industry, the labour market plays
an important role in the development and growth of the tourism industry and has been well
documented in several works (Wood, 1997; Riley, Lockwood, Powell-Perry, & Baker, 1998;
Riley, Ladkin, & Szivas, 2002; Lucas, 2004).
Even though the government of Nepal had introduced the Nepal Factory and Factory Workers’
Act in 1959 to address the labour issues, the first official Labour Act was only promulgated in
1992 (Rimal, n.d.) and was amended in 1998. It aimed at protecting workers’ and employees’
rights and interests together with providing a number of facilities and safety measures at
workplaces (Adhikari & Gautam, n.d.) including in the tourism industry. The Labour Act 1992,
thus, provided a variety of clauses for regulating working conditions including types of
employment, minimum wages, grade, conduct and punishment among others in relations to
workers and employees. The Labour Act 1992 also included a few special provisions for the
workers and employees working in special types of enterprises including hotel, travel, trekking,
adventure, rafting, and jungle safari. These special provisions were related to the engagement
of female workers at work: safety of workers working in rafting and trekking businesses;
accidental insurance of workers; payment of field allowances; and, provisions of the first aid
(Government of Nepal, 1992). However, the Labour Act 1992 was heavily criticised for its
inadequacy in addressing some pressing labour issues including provisions related to social
security and hiring-and-firing practices that had caused disputes between the workers and the
management in the tourism industry (Aryal, 2012). Upreti, Sharma, Upadhayaya, Ghimire and
Iff (2013) presented a number of labour disputes between 2000 and 2011 at different tourism
organisations in Nepal and argued that these labour disputes had caused instability in the
working environment and posed challenges for the sustainability of the tourism industry. For
this reason, the government of Nepal repealed the Labour Act 1992 and enacted the Labour
Act 2017 to create a more conducive environment for workers in the country (Nepal Economic
Forum, 2018).
The new Labour Act 2017 has included several provisions that aim to reduce informalities and
uncertainties and provide safe, secure and better working environment for both employees
and employers. For example, the previous labour act was only applicable to entities where
there were 10 or more employees; whereas the new Labour Act 2017 is applicable to all
entities regardless of number of employees (Nepal Law Commission, 2017). It also provides

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provisions for entities that want to hire employees for different terms as per their need as well
as recognised the role of interns and trainees. Furthermore, the new labour act has made the
provision of outsourcing of works, reduced the probation period by six months, increased the
overtime hour to 24, and allowed employees to become eligible for receiving gratuity from the
first day of employment. More importantly, the Labour Act 2017 includes the provisions for
medical and accidental insurances for addressing health and safety issues of employees
(Nepal Law Commission, 2017).
Apart from the labour act, the resolution of employment and work-related disputes in Nepal is
also governed by the various ILO conventions that Nepal has ratified, and by the Labour Court
Rules 1995. Additionally, several other labour laws such as Trade Union Act 1992, Essential
Services Maintenance Act 1957, Bonus Act 1974, Industrial Enterprise Act 1992 (now, the
new one is Industrial Enterprise Act-2016) and Children’s Act 1995 among others have been
promulgated by the government of Nepal to protect workers’ rights and conditions in Nepal
(Rimal, n.d.).
The Labour Court is a special court in Nepal that resolves labour disputes (Khadka, 2012). In
addition to the Labour Court, the Supreme Court also resolves labour disputes in Nepal
(Khadka, 2012). However, for the past several years, the judiciary has often been mired in
controversy about its hearings and decisions (Dahal, 2014). Similarly, it is widely suspected
that corruption is endemic in the Nepalese government including its judiciary and allegedly
frequent payoffs are made to judges for favourable rulings (Freedom House, 2015).
The workers’ situation in various industries including tourism is particularly challenging as a
large number of workers, as much as 90 per cent of the total workforce, operate in informal
sectors such as farms, trading, crafts business, and transportation among others (Khanal,
2012). Although the government of Nepal has expressed its commitment to expand safety
nets and social protection coverage for these workers through the new Labour Act 2017, they
have typically been deprived of social protection benefits such as universal family benefits,
social assistance, and social insurance. Even though most of the policies and programmes
are announced with good intentions during the budget speech, the resultant scattered
schemes are riddled with difficulties related to accountability and implementation (Khanal,
2012). The Government of Nepal has revised the minimum wage repeatedly (the most recently
in July 2018) and provides for the social security of workers, they are applicable only in the
formal sector (Nepal Economic Forum, 2018). The situation is even worse in the private sector
where the employers are not willing to provide any kind of health benefits to the workers. They
also seek to avoid permanent employees as much as possible in order to escape the
perceived additional burden of social security expenditure (Khanal, 2012).
The Social Security Fund generated by levying one per cent tax on the salary of government
and the non-government employee is one of the various legal arrangements made by the
government of Nepal to provide social security to the workers (Khanal, 2012). This fund runs
various schemes that provide insurances for unemployment, employment accident, sickness,
maternity, dependent, disability, elderly or old age, medical treatment and, family. Despite the
accumulation of a huge fund, it is yet to be put into operation and so has been strongly
criticised by workers (Khanal, 2012).

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III. RESEARCH METHODS

This qualitative paper draws on semi-structured interviews conducted with 22 hotel and airline
employees from April 2015 to February 2016 in Kathmandu, Nepal. To obtain recent
information on the topic and the corresponding views of participants, 7 participants were
interviewed through Skype between August 2018 and February 2019. Stake (1995)
recommends that the decision related to the choice of methodology (qualitative or quantitative)
should be made, apart from others, by distinguishing the explanation and understanding of
the purpose of the inquiry and the knowledge that is discovered and constructed. Ritchie
(2003) has noted the power of individual interviews in examining subjective phenomena by
emphasising that they are 'particularly well suited to research that requires an understanding
of deeply rooted or delicate phenomena or responses to complex systems, processes or
experiences' (p. 36). This research aimed at focusing on the examination of the research
participants’ views on what and how they felt about the existing policies and practices of the
regulatory environment in the tourism industry in Nepal, and therefore, required a close
investigation through in-depth qualitative interviews with the participants. A total of 22
participants were the hotels employees and the remaining 7 were airlines workers. The
number of participants taken from the airline is smaller because of proportionally lesser
number of airline companies in Nepal. The workers interviewed during the study were engaged
in hotels and airlines for a period from 4 to 25 years. Amongst the sample, 13 workers had
experienced disputes with the management and five of them had resorted to a judicial
settlement of their disputes.
The workers were selected using convenience and snowball sampling methods. The
convenience sampling method was used to recruit the first participants to begin data collection.
Once the process began, the researcher extensively used snowball sampling as a dominant
method for participant recruitment and data collection. Researchers (Lee, 1993; Saunders,
2012) have suggested using snowball sampling as the primary method of recruitment when a
member of a homogenous group of population can help to identify another participant.
Appendix 1 presents a brief sketch of the participants’ profile. Interviews lasted between 30
minutes and 1.5 hours. The interviews were conducted in Nepali which was later translated
and transcribed verbatim into English. Later, the interviews were coded using a three-stage
coding process following a grounded theory approach— initial, focused, and theoretical. While
a constant comparative method was used to analyse the data, the researcher’s self-reflective
memos (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) aided in integrating contexts with subsequent analyses.

IV. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

Efficiency of labour law
There has been a significant change in the employee attitude towards the efficiency of the
labour law in Nepal. A significant majority of participants, who were interviewed in 2015 and
2016, expressed a strong dissatisfaction for the Labour Act 1992 and stated that it was
inefficient as it provided security only to those workers that were employed in an enterprise
having 10 or more employees. After the enactment of the Labour Act 2017, there has been a
surge of hope and expectation as the new law is applicable to all entities regardless of the
number of employees. Such hope and expectations were expressed by employees

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interviewed in 2018 and 2019. However, despite hope and expectations, most employees
were critical about the effective implementation of the new labour act, particularly in the
tourism and hospitality industry where a significant majority of workers work in the informal
sector and that may fall beyond the coverage of the new labour law.
Sketching a rough estimation, one male hotel employee said:
I assume there are 9.6 million people working in informal sectors all over Nepal. That
also includes those in tourism industry. Within the tourism industry, so many of them
are working in informal sectors such as tea stalls, small restaurants, and souvenir shops
for tourists, and as domestic helpers for those tourists who live in apartments and so on.
How will they be covered by the existing labour act?
One of the biggest problems in the prevailing Labour Act 2017 — as many participants pointed
out— is its failure to address the inadequate provisions related to the basic salary and
allowances. it has posed difficulty particularly to the workers in the airlines industry where the
proportion of basic salary to their total salary was smaller, and a large part of their income
came from allowances such as food, accommodation and clothing. The participants said that
because the additional benefits in income such as overtime payments were usually calculated
from the employees’ basic salary, their (employees’) additional income was lower compared
to the efforts they put on the extra work. As a result, the employees were less motivated to
work additional hours for the betterment of the company. One female participant employed in
an airline recounted:
The main problem with private sector airlines is that the basic salary is very low and the
allowances are high. And, it has adversely affected the income level of the workers here.
For example, my salary is 18,000 rupees per month. If you consider a month means 30
days and working per day means 8 hours of working, then, on average, I earn 75 rupees
per hour. Now out of my 18000 rupees, 10400 is the basic salary and remaining 7600
rupees comes from the allowances such as accommodation and clothing. When the
airline asks me to work overtime, they pay me 1.5 times of my wage rate which is
according to the Labour Act 1992. The problem is they pay me 1.5 times the basic salary
and not the total salary. If calculated from the basic salary, my hourly wage rate is then
44 rupees. The labour law does not spell out whether the payment should be made from
the basic salary or from the total salary. So, for every extra hour I work, I earn only 44
plus 22 rupees. That means I earn Rs. 66 per hour from my extra work which is less than
my ordinary wage rate. Why would I work overtime then? There is no motivation for
me (P8).
Many participants noted that the then Labour Act 1992 had a provision which required that
workers should be made permanent after working continuously for 240 days in a year. The
participants argued that despite such a clear provision of the number of days, many employers
interpreted 240 days of continuous working in a single year as working for a year, so the
employees were made permanent only after one year even though they should have been
made permanent in eight months. After the enactment of the Labour Act 2017, as the
participants believed, such a confusion would no longer exist as the new labour act clearly
defines that an employee should be made permanent after successful completion of a six-
months’ probation period.

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However, some participants also expressed concerns about inadequate provisions in the
Labour Act 2017 related to hiring trainees. They noted that the prevailing act allows employers
to provide employment to trainees for a year, and after the completion of a year, the employers
are not bound to continue the trainee’s employment. Since tourism and hospitality industry
hires numerous employees as trainees, some participants suspected that the provision in the
new labour act may only promote a temporary employment system in the industry.
Despite some difficulties and suspicions, the participant interviewees were hopeful that the
new labour act would be able to promote welfare of the employees and develop mutually
beneficial industrial relations in the tourism and hospitality industry in Nepal.
Government’s attitude towards tourism labour
Several participants stressed that workers’ issues in the tourism industry has been in shadows
because the government is less concerned about them. They opined that the government was
not doing anything to encourage employers to accept their employees, especially those at
junior positions, as an integral part of the company. They argued that because many
employers in hotels and airlines considered junior workers as outsiders and believed that they
did not care for the company, there were disputes between the management and the
employees. Some participants also stressed that there was a lack of respect for tourism
workers on the part of the government. One female hotel employee put it this way:
No one cares about us if we die while working on our work site. But if a political party's
cadre dies, he is honoured— his body is covered with the national flag. The government
does not have any respect for workers (P3).
Many participants expressed their dissatisfaction with the government’s incompetence in
using the social security fund for employees that was established a few years back by the
government and was co-funded by the contribution from employees’ one- per cent tax
deductions. Despite huge savings, the government was not utilising the fund to make
investments and provide benefits to employees, they said. A few participants also added that
if the government had operated the social security fund, they would at least not have worried
about money if they faced an accident or if they fell sick.
Some participants employed in airlines commented that the government lacked in efforts to
understand airlines employees’ situation and extend cooperation to them. They argued that
the government treated airlines jobs as luxury ones and assumed that employees were
working in comfortable conditions. As a result, the voices of the airlines’ workers were hardly
taken into consideration during meetings with government representatives. They also
commented that the government was indifferent to workers’ issues in the airlines sector
because of the fear that the company would pull back its operation in certain sectors and such
a withdrawal might affect the government’s revenue. The concern was more pronounced in
international airlines. One participant employed in an international airline company narrated
this way:
We once had a negotiation with the management in the presence of officials from the
Labour Ministry. Instead of listening to us, the Labour Ministry secretary warned us not
to give pressure to the senior management. He was fearful that the [name of the
international airlines] may pull back its Nepal flights and operations (P10).

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The impact of the indifferent nature of the government towards the tourism employees was
evident in the way participants perceived government employees. Some participants believed
that government employees were less accountable for their work in relation to regulating and
monitoring the operations of hotel and airlines and suspected them of being corrupt. As the
following male hotel employee said:
I have realised that the many government employees are not accountable for their work.
For example, I have seen that a tax officer sometimes visits our hotel. But, as soon as he
enters the hotel, he is taken care of, provided with good food and drinks. Maybe he
receives some economic benefits too. He does not even check anything. He simply sits in
the restaurant and chats with our F & B manager. Then he goes away and does not
return for a year or two (P11).
For several participants, seeking legal ways to resolve their issues was not a possibility
because they suspected rampant corruption in the judicial system as well. However, some
participants had indeed sought justice through the labour court. Their experiences are
discussed in the next section.
Judicial process and system
Most participants believed that the judicial system in the country took too much time to provide
justice to employees. Such a time-consuming process disincentivised employees from
seeking legal help. One hotel female employee remarked:
It took almost one and a half year for the Labour court to give its verdict to reinstate a
worker who was fired by the management for damaging properties in our hotel. Now
this person was a union member, and he was economically supported by his family. He
also knew some people in the political party. So, he could get justice. But it's really
difficult for many people to take on a case with such a strong willpower and
determination. People have their family to support. So, they give up halfway through the
process and probably never go back to court again (P18).
Some participants believed that sometimes even if the Labour Court served justice, it was
ineffective because it took so much time in giving its verdict. Reflecting on personal
experiences, one male participant, who was previously employed in a casino that closed down
after a labour dispute, put it this way:
After the casino was closed, we approached the court [Labour Court]. We had not been
paid our salaries for more than eight months. So, we filed a case against the owner. The
court [Labour Court] gave its verdict in our favour but it took almost a year to give its
verdict. By then, the owner of the casino had already fled the country. Until now, we
have not been paid our remaining salaries. So, what is the use of such a justice system
when it cannot be effective? (P16).
The participants suggested that the labour court needed to be more efficient in handling
employees’ disputes. They believed that by efficiently handling labour disputes, the labour
court would not only gain the confidence of workers, but its verdicts would also be effective.

V. CONCLUSION
The aim of this paper was to explore employees’ perception of the regulatory environment in
the tourism industry. Semi-structured interviews administered on 29 participants working in

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hotels and airlines in Kathmandu revealed three key aspects in the regulatory environment
that may affect employees’ welfare in Nepal— efficiency of labour law, government’s attitude
towards tourism labour, and judicial process and system.
Although most employees expressed happiness with the provisions in the new Labour Act
2017 of Nepal (against the previous Labour Act 1992), because a vast majority of workers are
working in informal enterprises in the tourism and hospitality industry and a significant number
of them will be deprived of legal protections in case a dispute arises with the management,
there was an air of scepticism about the effective implementation of those provisions in the
new labour act. Furthermore, there is a lack of clarity on the provisions relating to the basic
salary and allowances in the prevailing labour laws. It often contributes to the lack of motivation
for the employees to work additional hours for the betterment of the company. Working extra
hours could be a huge income boost and, therefore, welfare boost for workers. However, such
opportunities may erode due to lack of motivations for working extra hours. The problem can
be more pronounced in private sector airlines where workers’ basic salary is low and the
allowances are higher.
To some extent, an inexplicit wording in the previous Labour Act 1992 regarding the
computation of the period of work has been resolved with the new provision of six-month
probation period in the new Labour Act 2017. However, some participants were critical about
the possible promotion of temporary employment system through the increased use of
trainees. The airline employees face a distinct challenge as they believe that the prevailing
labour act has been designed keeping the context of manufacturing industry workers in mind
and is not adequately suitable for the airline sector.
Another factor adversely influencing tourism employees’ welfare in Nepal is the indifferent
attitude of the government towards the workers pushing workers’ issues to the shadows. The
junior level tourism employees particularly worry about the government’s inability to encourage
employers and make the employers accept workers as a part of their companies. Employees’
dissatisfaction has resulted from the lacklustre attitude of the government in implementing the
social security fund established a few years back by the government “for the workers.” The
airline employees worried because of the government’s indifference in addressing their labour
problem. They believe that their job is considered luxurious by the government officials who
are unwilling to consider their views during meetings. As a result, they feel that the government
is particularly biased against tourism industry employees. Furthermore, what adds woes to
tourism employees is the time-consuming judicial process and system in the country that has
disincentivised workers to seek judicial help when needed.
The present study demonstrates the vulnerability of working conditions in the labour market of
the tourism industry that has arisen due to unclear laws and indifferent attitudes of the
government as is often noted by several studies (Cooper & Ruhanen, 2009; ILO 2003; Wood
& Pedler, 1978). Congruent with the Edwards (2003), this study shows that the government
can influence employment relationships directly through laws on wages and working
conditions. Importantly, this study has sought to show how deficiencies in the prevailing laws
pose challenges to workers, particularly sub-sectors of the tourism industry such as airline
where the nature of work is different from the other industries like manufacturing., This study
also exhibits how the lacklustre attitude of the government in implementing its own decisions—

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so common in many developing countries— can exacerbate the vulnerability of the workers’
situation and increases their fear. The study raises an important issue that the regulatory
bodies in the developing countries may regularly need to revaluate the regulatory environment
created by their own laws and system to ensure that such provisions and laws truly reflect the
welfare of workers, improve their working conditions, and protect their rights. At the same time,
the findings of this study also raise the issue of social securities from the workers perspective.
Therefore, future research on how social security schemes can contribute to better workers’
conditions can provide useful insights for the policy makers, managers, workers and the
researchers alike.
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Appendix 1
Profile of participants
Participants (P) Gender Age range (Years) Employment Position Years of experience
1 Male 35-40 Airline Officer 12
2 Male 40-45 Hotel Sr. Officer 8
3 Female 30-35 Hotel Asst. Manager 9
4 Male 45-50 Airline Asst. Manager 10
5 Male 50-55 Hotel Manger 25
6 Male 40-45 Hotel Asst. Manager 10
7 Male 30-35 Airline Officer 7
8 Female 25-30 Airline Assistant 10
9 Male 30-35 Hotel Asst. Manager 2
10 Male 50-55 Airline Asst. Director 12
11 Male 45-50 Hotel Manager 26
12 Male 45-50 Airline Manager 20
13 Female 30-35 Hotel Manager 12
14 Male 45-50 Hotel Asst. Manager 19
15 Female 25-30 Hotel Assistant 6
Head of
16 Male 45-50 Hotel 14
Department
17 Female 25-30 Hotel Assistant 12
18 Female 30-35 Hotel Sr. Assistant 6
19 Male 50-55 Airline Deputy Director 13
20 Male 40-45 Hotel Manager 10
21 Male 50-55 Hotel Deputy Director 21
22 Male 40-45 Hotel Manager 15
23 Female 30-35 Hotel Asst. Manager 8
24 Female 25-30 Hotel Assistant 7
25 Male 45-50 Hotel Manager 30
26 Male 30-35 Hotel Asst. Manager 12
27 Male 40-45 Hotel Deputy Director 18
28 Male 40-45 Hotel Manager 21
29 Female 25-30 Hotel Asst. Manager 15
Note: From author’s surveys

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What Motivates Tourists to Visit Religious Sites? A Case Study

of Pashupatinath Area

Sunita Dabadi6
Coordinator, MHM Programme
Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM)
Sitaram Sharma7
Freelance Researcher

ABSTRACT
The study examines the motivation to visit religious site of Pashupatinath Area. Based on a
structured questionnaire survey, the study sought if the three types of travel motivation,
namely, construct motivation, religious motivation, and secular motivation push tourists to visit
Pashupatinath. Using a purposive sampling technique 152 respondents who had stayed
overnight in the hotels in Kathmandu Valley for Pashupati visit were successfully surveyed.
The result revealed that secular motivation plays a significant role to visit the Pashupatinath
followed by religious motivation. ANOVA found no significant relation between marital status
and age group as to what motivate one to visit religious sites.
Key words: Construct motivation, religious motivation, secular motivation

I. INTRODUCTION AND STUDY OBJECTIVES

Religious tourism is considered as the oldest form of people’s travel and it is believed, since
the dawn of time, human beings have defined some elements of the natural and built
environment as spiritual sites regarding them as sacred (Blackwell, 2007). In many cases,
people are made to believe that a visit to religious site provide them with super natural
qualities. It is a type of tourism whose participants are motivated either in part or exclusively
for religious reason (Rinschede,1992). The study further claimed that religious tourism would
orient itself by the motive of the tourist journey to sacred places; it provides opportunity for the
householder to detach themselves for some time from the cares and worries of daily life and
to devote that time to prayer and listening to the spiritual discourses of the holy people. There
are many sacred sites and the huge number of people travel to those sites not only for religious
or spiritual purposes or to have a practice with the sacred in the traditional sense, but also

6Ms Dabadi, a PhD candidate at Faculty of Humanities, Tribhuvan University, is coordinator of MHM programme
at NATHM. She can be contacted dabadisunita@hotmail.com
7 Mr Sharma is an MHM graduate from NATHM. He can be contacted fattiks@hotmail.com

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because they are distinct and marketed as heritage or cultural attractions to be consumed
(Timothy & Boyd, 2003)
The research and debate among scholars examining religious travel major focus has been on
the tourist and the pilgrim, the main players in the relationship between religion and tourism
(Cohen, 1992). Many literature-works view tourists, and pilgrims from two discrete
perspectives, the first and most popular view is that tourists and pilgrims are similar, for even
when the role of tourist and pilgrim are combined, they are necessarily different but form a
range of inseparable elements (Graburn, 1997).
Although many literature works consider tourist and pilgrims to be similar, but there is
contradiction and many radical thinkers deny that the pilgrims should be tourist (Oslen &
Timothy, 2006). Several authors described a possible contrast between pilgrimage and
tourism is that while a devout pilgrim needs to take part in some kind of admiration at a
religious shrine, the tourist does not; however, other authors consider that a visit to a shrine
may have reasons other than worshiping God (Ambrosio, 2007) such as identification with
shrines and sacred places of historical and cultural meaning, whose sensual images
are important to both sacred and secular travellers to remember and relive the experience
(Smith, 1992).
Past research has discovered that people visiting religious sites are not driven exclusively by
external factors, such as religious institutions and their scripts, which merely fall into Dann
(1977) category of pull factors, but also by push factors that may also entail non-religious
motives. Similarly, Allport (1966) identified two main types of persons, the extrinsically
motivated person who uses religion, religion playing only an instrumental role and serving
assorted forms of self-interest, such as satisfying one’s social life (Durkheim, 1964). Secondly,
a intrinsically motivated person who has blind faith in religion, and fully devote their life in
religion, neglecting the subjectivity of the religious experience according to which both the
sacred and the secular elements may be of equal importance (Terzidou, Scarles, & Saunders,
2017).
Satyal (2002) claimed that Nepal could be called the home of sacred place of pilgrimage full
of sacrament and lively age-old culture and arts. The study further claimed it was the other
way of life inner mostly rooted in cultural practice and social customs. For the people of Nepal
religion is more than belief; it is knowledge, practice and skill. Pashupatinath is the ancient
temple and one of the most important and popular pilgrimage sites to the Hindus around the
world, as they believe that their sins are absolved after the visit. Hundreds of thousands of
people visit the site every year and it has a great impact on tourism. temple is listed in the
UNESCO world heritage site list as well, that’s why Pashupatinath area was selected for the
present study. The present research focuses not only on religious motivations but the non-
religious motivation as well and it has specifically emphasised on the implications of tourist
motivation for visiting religious sites.
The study aimed at identifying the factor that motivates tourists to visit religious sites. Based
on the gap identified following objectives are formulated.

x To explore the tourists’ motivation in visiting Pashupatinath as a religious site; and

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x To analyse the existence of differences by religious, construct and secular motivation in

visiting Pashupatinath across marital status, age group and gender of the respondents

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

This section discusses the past literature works concerning the religious site visit motivation.
Conceptual Review
Ghimire (2009) explained that tourism is related to traveling and is naturally a human
character. People need change, and travel provides the change; travel has existed since the
primitive period but not the concept of tourism. During those time motive for travel was not to
seek holiday from the routine work but was trade and commerce or pilgrimage or to explore.
Similarly, Mathieson (2006) has acknowledged that religion has been a powerful force and
has long made people to travel to religious centres in many parts of the world. The study also
claimed that there was a concern that holy places were being developed for tourism and it
was distracting one from the religious significance which has made them famous. The change
in traditional forms of pilgrimage destinations, with diffusion in spiritual motivation, has seen
many temple and religious places are increasingly becoming tourist attractions as well as
places of worship.
Religious tourism is a combination of two words tourism and religion, after this it is defined
as a system of beliefs in a higher being that are held with great faith and commitment (Richards
& Fernandes, 2007). Similarly, (Oliviera, 2006) advocate there is a confusion between the
visitor motivated by religious secret and only interested in the culture of these events or
locations. This happen due to the complex reality of the religious travel. According to Santos
(2003), the idea of difference between religious pilgrimages arose in Europe in the post-war
years, as a result of the decline in religious practice, the growing popularity of trips by car or
bus, and the secularisation of societies and in some countries, the reduction in flows of
traditional pilgrimages. Religion has not declined but is rather taking a different form, modern
societies continuous to remain religious, but religion has become increasingly de-
institutionalised (Sharpley & Jepson, 2011). That's the reason why people who might be
travelling for the reason related to religion or spirituality, may not observed as being directly
religious (Richards & Fernandes, 2007).
There was a rare existence of tourism studies in academic field till 1970 (Nash 1996).
However today religion and tourism are inseparable. It is still among the most common
motivations for travel, and religiously motivated pilgrimage, which remains one of the world’s
oldest and most basic forms of population mobility, is emerging as a major tourism
phenomenon in the twenty-first century (Collins-Kreiner, 2010).
With the development of studies about tourism in academic filed, the difference between
tourism and pilgrimage began to emerge in the 1970 and the base for this development
(MacCannell, 1973) proclamation that the tourist as a pilgrim are in search of something
different and authenticity. After this claim (Graburn, 1977) characterised tourism as a kind of
ritual, suggesting the existing of parallel processes in both formal pilgrimage and tourism that
could be interpreted as sacred journeys. Although modern tourism is regarded as a relatively
new phenomenon, it is clear that its origins are rooted in the age-old phenomenon of

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pilgrimage. It is surprising, as the development of tourism is difficult to understand without a

thorough understanding of religion and the practice of pilgrimage in ancient times (Timothy &
Oslen, 2006).
Introduction of Study Area
The Pashupatinath temple is a one of the four most popular religious site for the Hindus around
the world built in 5th century B.C. This sacred temple is located in the bank of Bagmati River,
which is approximately 5 kilometres north-east of Kathmandu in the eastern part of Kathmandu
Valley, the capital of Nepal. The temple is listed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site since
1979. People active participation is observed at all times of day in Pashupatinath as it is
considered as the centre of energy. It attracts thousands of pilgrims each year and has
become well known for its collection of ashrams, images, and inscriptions raised over the
centuries. More than one million devotees visit it in Maha Shivaratri, one of the major festivals
related to Pashupati. Non-Hindus are prohibited to the main temple of Pashupati, but they can
have a good view of the temple from the opposite bank of the river.
Development of Conceptual Framework
The research in a religion and spirituality is done by different scholars taking different element
into consideration. The present study has identified different variables from the different
literature and incorporated in this work.
People get influenced by the impression of miracles produced by a myths and narratives by
religious institutions, due to which they decide to travel to sacred places (Terzidou et al., 2017).
Similarly, practices of discipline and power filled on people by institutions either religious or
political shape the wider public and spread religious discourses and performances (Xie, 2011).
Therefore, so as to motivate visitation patterns, religious authorities create ‘induced imagery
(Fakeye & Crompton, 1991). Imagining, constructing and developing the insight of religious
place with the help of narratives and visual media is the way they mostly follow the place,
particularly directing towards certain spaces that are operated by ideological interpretations
which is acquired through religious texts and language (Selwyn, 1996; Terzidou et al., 2017).
In Hinduism sacred sites are visited mainly by the high castes (Bhardwaj, 1973; Rinschede,
1992). Whereas, Baudrillard (1981) said many religions create "strategies of desire”, through
which consumers-tourists are mobilised by promises, such as miraculous healing, as a unique
source of handling and suffering, religion acts as a psychological support in reducing people’s
uncertainty and fear associated with death and health related issues.
The power of sharing of religious tourism experiences and of community narratives can help
to generate, maintain and intensify the authenticity of the visited site (Belhassen et al., 2008),
plus this highlights the power of word-of-mouth along with the trust in the experiences of others
and the power of word of mouth (Lester & Scarles, 2013).
The innovation in tourism industry made religious tourism closely connected to holiday and
cultural tourism, as spiritual journeys and visits are not the main and dominant motives for
travel (Rinschede, 1992). In the same way, Keeling (2000) argued in his study that the basic
activities in the most religious sites is worship and prayer, along with this, the scholar further
claimed that when visitors go to cathedrals in England, spiritual motives are not the only
reasons why people visit them. This indicates that religious and secular motives are often

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intertwined. Similar motives for visitation was identified by Nolan and Nolan (1992), Shackley
(2001), Smith (1992), and (Vukonic, 1996) that many people tend to visit religious heritage
sites for recreational, educational or cultural interests rather than spiritual reasons. This
indicate that the visitor travel to the religious site not only for the religious purpose but also for
different other purpose as well, which are yet to be discovered.
Pilgrims undertake a journey of pilgrimage with strong expectations that they will experience
something extraordinary and life changing (Digance, 2003, Turner & Turner, 2011). The
relationship between the human and the divine has increased in the context of a vow (Badone,
1990), similarly Olsen’s (2006) accept the view that pilgrims believe they can obtain divine
assistance by undertaking a journey for the sake of sacredness. Religious visions and
apparitions are strong motivators of action, as they create affective bonds with the sacred,
constituting signs and symbols that provide order and meaning to the faithful (Gesler, 1996).

Construct
Motivation

Religious site
travel
motivation

Religious Secular
Motivation Motivation

Fig 1: Conceptual framework for religious travel motivation

Design and Methodological Paradigm

The study applied a quantitative research method of research applying a survey approach
data collection which comprised of descriptive and causal research design. Quantitative
research focuses on the fundamental connection between empirical observation and
mathematical expression of quantitative relationship.
Descriptive design, based on detailed conceptual framework of the study and different
variables considered in it, the present study developed a set of survey questionnaires
structured in rating scale to study and analyse the travel motivation to the religious site. It is
basically correlational research in nature, as it emphasises on relationships between
dependent variable and the independent variables.
Further based on various statistic computed and hypotheses taken into consideration needful
statistical test comprising, T-test, ANOVA was run as per the nature of statistics and unit of
analyses.

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 Nepalese Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Vol I, No. 1: March 2020

Population and Data Sampling

Tourist visiting the Pashupatinath area of Kathmandu district were selected as the population
of study purpose. For accuracy in result, only those respondents were selected who stayed
overnight in the hotels in Kathmandu valley. Sampling were collected during the month of
February, March, and April. Purposive sampling method was used, 250 questionnaires were
distributed out of which 98 questionnaires were found incomplete. Hence, 152 valid
questionnaires were used for the data analysis. The profile of sample respondents is depicted
in Appendix 1.
Table 1
Motivation to travel Pashupatinath

Motivation to travel Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

Religious place 30 19.7 19.7
Leisure time spent purpose 40 26.3 46.1
A part of the package 13 8.6 54.6
To see the place 65 42.8 97.4
others purposes 4 2.6 100
Total 152 100
Note: Calculated from the authors’ survey, 2019

The table indicates that 42.8 per cent of visitors confirm that they visit the site to see the place
followed by the purpose of spending leisure time which is 40 per cent. Similarly, 30 per cent
of the visitor visited the site because it’s a religious place.
Table 2
Descriptive statistics
Panel A: Religious motivation
Components Mean Std. Deviation
Pilgrimage 2.395 1.180
Getting something Closer to sacred 2.362 1.046
Ethnic diversity is unique 2.000 1.157
Searching for forgiveness 3.026 1.223
Religious activities are worth following 2.296 0.927
Expressing love and respect for god 2.053 1.078
Total 2.434 1.102
Panel B: Construct motivation
Components Mean Std. Deviation
Planned travel after watching television 2.724 1.158
Tales of miracles 2.895 1.213
National pride 2.086 1.179
Word of mouth 2.645 1.289
Dreamed about this place 3.526 1.423
Total 2.769 1.064

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Panel C: Secular motivation

Components Mean Std. Deviation
Historic value 1.658 0.892
Pashupatinath area is visually appealing 1.934 0.874
Cultural value and architecture 1.743 0.888
Destination respects natural environment 2.079 0.973
Exploring the legends and interesting stories about the temple 2.112 1.020
Following the modern trends in travelling 2.375 1.254
Total 1.984 0.984
Note: Calculated from the authors’ survey, 2019

Six statement were used in all the variables to measure descriptive analysis. In religious
motivation Statement four (Searching for forgiveness) has the highest mean score of 3.026.
Whereas statement three (Ethnic diversity is unique) has the lowest mean score of 2.0.
Eventually, statement four (Searching for forgiveness) has highest standard deviation of
1.223. Likewise, statement five Religious activities are worth following has lowest standard
deviation of 0.926. The table shows that the overall item has a mean value 2.434 which
indicates that the response is positive.
Similarly, in secular motivation, the highest mean is observed in statement six (Following the
modern trends in travelling) by 2.375, whereas lowest is observed in statement one (Historic
value) by 1.658. Eventually, statement 6 (Following the modern trends in travelling) has
highest standard deviation by 1.25446 comparing lowest statement 2 (Pashupatinath area is
visually appealing) by 0.874. The table shows that the overall item has a mean value 1.984
which indicate that the response is positive.
Finally construct motivation, Statement Six (Dreamed about this place) has the highest mean
score of 3.526, whereas statement four (National pride) observed lowest mean score of 2.086
Eventually, statement (Dreamed about this place) has highest standard deviation of 1.423
comparing lowest statement two (Planned travel after watching television) by 1.158. The table
shows that the overall item has a mean value 2.769 which indicate that the response is
positive.

Table 3
Analysis of variance on motivation of visiting religious sites across marital status
Variables Sum of Squares Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups 0.78 0.39
Religious motivation Within Groups 77.109 0.389 1.001 0.369
Total 77.889
Between Groups 1.363 0.682
Construct motivation Within Groups 92.263 0.466 1.463 0.234
Total 93.626
Between Groups 0.087 0.043
Secular motivation Within Groups 45.402 0.229 0.189 0.828
Total 45.488
Note: Calculated from the authors’ survey, 2019

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The table 3 indicates there does not exist the differences in religious motivation, construct
motivation and secular motivation for visiting Pashupatinath temple across three levels of
marital status of the respondents (P>0.05).
Table 4
Analysis of variance on motivation of visiting religious sites across age group
Variables Sum of Squares Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups 2.37 0.79
Religious motivation Within Groups 75.519 0.383 2.061 0.107
Total 77.889
Between Groups 1.22 0.407
Construct motivation Within Groups 92.406 0.469 0.867 0.459
Total 93.626
Between Groups 0.595 0.198
Secular motivation Within Groups 44.893 0.228 0.871 0.457
Total 45.488
Note: Calculated from the authors’ survey, 2019

In the table 4, the analyses of variance (ANOVA) on motivation of religious site across gender
was performed, the p value for all the variable was observed greater than 0.05, which specified
that there is no significant relationship between travel motivation to the religious site and the
age group of the respondents.
Table 5
Analysis of mean difference on motivation of travelling religious sites across gender

Sig. (2- Mean

F Sig. t Df
tailed) Difference
Religious Equal variances assumed 1.560 .214 .306 150 .760 .194
Motivation Equal variances not .288 81.77 .774 .194
assumed
Construct Equal variances assumed 1.977 .162 -1.128 150 .261 -.783
Motivation Equal variances not -1.069 82.97 .288 -.783
assumed
Secular Motivation Equal variances assumed .025 .874 .791 150 .430 .396
Equal variances not .803 98.29 .424 .396
assumed
Note: Calculated from the authors’ survey, 2019

Independent sample t-test was run so as to clarify the gender perception towards the religious
site travel motivation, the test confirms the equal variances assumed which proves that gender
perception towards religious motivation and construct motivation is highly significant whereas
as secular motivation is moderately significant.

IV. CONCLUSION
The present study has covered the under-researched aspects of religious tourism to study
what motivates travellers to visit the religious site of Pashupatinath. It performed descriptive

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analysis of the variables, as well as ANOVA-Test and t-test; it revealed that the secular
motivation as the strongest factor (mean value of 1.981) motivating one to visit the religious
site followed by religious and construct motivation. The study results have raised a question
against the general belief that the people travel religious sites only for the religious purpose.
Of them, 42.8 per cent of respondent mentioned that the reason to travel the religious site was
“to see the place,” 26.3 per cent for the purpose of spending leisure time, and 19.7 per cent
for a religious purpose.
An ANOVA test was run so as to analyse the perception of to travel the religious site in terms
of marital status and age group but the test confirmed that there is no significant relation
between marital status and age group as to what motivate one to visit religious sites.
The present study results share similarity with Terzidou, Scarles and Saunders (2018) in which
the researcher has examined the various motivation factor for visiting religious site within the
Greek Orthodox context, and found that the motivations are institutionally constructed. Though
motivations may initially be institutionally constructed, the present research has revealed that
all three factors contributed significantly to contribute to the motivation to religious site travel.
Similarly, a study of Bozic, Spasojevic, Vujicic, and Stamenkovic (2016), based on Vujan
Monastery (Serbia) concludes that Religious tourists can be motivated, not only by pure
religious motives, but also to visit sacred places due to educational purposes (learning about
historic and cultural value, interesting stories). Secular tourists have cultural and education
motives when visiting sacred sites, they travel to learn something, to follow the trends, while
comparing the present study with these studies it concludes that although the Pashupatinath
temple is a historic temple popular among the Hindus but it is significantly important for its
architecture as well as cultural and educational value.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) for funding the research, and
Asst. Prof. Bikash Shrestha (Public Youth Campus, Tribhuvan University) for the guidance
and support in data presentation of this paper.

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Timothy, D., & Oslen, D. (2006). Tourism, religion and spiritual journeys. London: New York,
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Appendix
General information of Respondent
Variable Category Frequency Percentage
USA 14 9.2
Bangladeshi 9 5.9
Bhutanese 7 4.6
British 10 6.6
Chinese 20 13.2
Respondent by Nationality
French 10 6.6
German 8 5.3
Indian 20 13.2
Japanese 10 6.6
Others 44 28.8
15-25 81 53.3
26-35 42 27.6
Respondent by Age
36-45 20 13.2
Above 45 9 5.9
Male 103 67.8
Respondents by Gender
Female 49 32.2
School 7 4.6
Intermediate 8 5.3
Respondent by Education Level Bachelor 86 56.6
Masters 40 26.3
Phd 11 7.2
Student 79 52.0
employee/ job holder 33 21.7
Respondent by Occupation self-employed 31 20.4
Unemployed 4 2.6
Others 5 3.3
Married 39 25.7
Respondent by Marital Status Unmarried 101 66.4
Divorced 12 7.9
Yes 103 67.8
Visit background study
No 49 32.2
Magazine 6 3.9
Newspaper 9 5.9
Internet 72 47.4
How did you hear about this place?
Friends/family 51 33.6
T. V. 11 7.2
Others 3 2.0

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Self-organized
Organized by the travel agent 70 46.1
Organized by the tour 40 26.3
Plan made by respondent operator 23 15.1
Organized by a club or 14 9.2
association 5 3.3
Organized by others
Religious purpose 30 19.7
Leisure time spent purpose 40 26.3
Reason of the respondent to travel
A part of the package 13 8.6
To see the place 65 42.8
Others purpose 4 2.6
One day 30 19.7
How longer you Plan to stay in
Two days 72 47.4
Pashupatinath territory?
More than two days 50 32.9

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 Nepalese Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Vol I, No. 1: March 2020

GUIDELINES FOR PAPER SUBMISSION

Nepalese Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management (a peer-reviewed research journal) is the
institutional publication of the Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM), a leading
academy for hospitality education promoted by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation
(Government of Nepal) with the affiliation with Tribhuvan University. The papers submitted for
publication in the journal should follow the style and instructions as given below:

x Papers must be empirical, or at least analytical. Also, analytical case studies and review papers
can be included on the basis of their merit. The papers should be related to core and functional
areas of hospitality and tourism management.
x The paper should be structured as under:
Title of the paper
Abstract (limited to 150-180 words) and keywords (3-5 keywords)
Introduction and Study Objectives (along with problem statement and brief rationale of
the study)
Literature Review (Conceptual and Past empirical studies): It may also be covered under
the ‘Introduction’ section.
Research Methods (Research approach, sample, instruments, analytical tools, etc.)
Data Analysis and Discussions (Data results should be critically discussed)
Conclusion (along with comparison with previous studies, if any) and future study-needs,
if any
References (only those used in the paper text)
x Every paper submission should have the first page as the title page which should contain paper
title, authors’ name, institutional affiliation(s), full postal address, telephone and mobile number,
and email address and very brief profile (maximum 50 words) of each author; and, if there are
two or more authors, it must indicate which author will handle the correspondences.
x Submission of a paper to the Journal will be taken to imply that it represents not any previously
published, but an original work, and it is not being considered elsewhere for publication, and
that if accepted for publication it will not be published anywhere without the consent of the Chief
Editor or Editorial Team. Furthermore, the papers so received are subject to approval by Editorial
Team; however, the ideas and opinions expressed in the papers published in the journal are
solely those of author(s).
x The contents of papers in no way represent views and policies of the NATHM or that of the
editors.
x Submitted papers should be written in British English, typed in double spacing with wide margins
(1.5 cm) on each side of standard A-4 size paper. It should have a single-side printing on the
paper. The text font should be in Arial with the 11-point size. The font in the tables should be
Arial Narrow (11-point).
x The preferred maximum length of a submission is 5,000 words.
x The paper should have conclusions at the end. The main body of paper should be provided with
mathematical proofs and calculations that justify the issue of the paper. Lengthy mathematical
works and more extensive, detailed tables, if any, should be placed in appendices.
x Tables and figures must be numbered with caption and brief descriptions.
x Footnotes, if any, should be numbered consecutively with superscript arithmetic numerals at the
foot of each page.
x Citations and references in the text should strictly follow the APA format. References should be
listed alphabetically.

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 Nepalese Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Vol I, No. 1: March 2020

For books (Single and multiple authors):

‚ Singh, T.M., & Sthapit, A. (2008). Human resource management: Text and cases, 1st ed.,
Kathmandu: Taleju Prakashan.
‚ Sthapit, A. (2018). Human resource management: Issues and perspectives, 1st ed.,
Kathmandu: Taleju Prakashan.
For Journal Articles (Single and multiple authors):

‚ Lao-hakosol, W., Sharma, A., & Sthapit, A. (2018 June). Macroeconomic factors and their
influences on initial public offering (IPO) in Nepal, International Journal of Research, 5(16),
1617-1637. Journal e-ISSN: 2348-6848; ISSN-print: 2348-795X. Retrieved from:
https://pen2print.org// index. php/IJR/article/view/15652

‚ Sthapit, A. (2012). Strategic factors in evaluation of induction training effectiveness: An

exploratory study of development bank managers. EXCEL International Journal of
Multidisciplinary Management Studies, 2(8), 16-32.
‚ Swanson, R. (2009). Training program effectiveness in US private hospitals: An empirical
study of Hispanic nurses, European Journal of Industrial Training, 21(3), 31-52. Retrieved
from www.….
For Thesis (Master’s thesis works)

‚ Shrestha, G. (2013). Purposes of tourist visits to Nepal and NTB’s promotion efforts.
(Unpublished Masters’ Thesis) Faculty of Management, Tribhuvan University.
For Official Reports

‚ Upadhyay, N.P., & Khanal, K. (2013). Management development scenario-2012.

Management Association of Nepal. Web-page: http://www.man.org.np/. Accessed on 10-
12-2012.
For Conference Paper

‚ Sthapit, A., & Shrestha, B. (2018). Employee retention practices in hospitality industry in
Nepal: Investigating the moderating effect of management hierarchy, age group and
gender, 10th PIMG International Conference on Digital Strategies for Organizational
Success; Prestige Institute of Management, Gwalior, India: 5th to 7th January, 2018.
Paper in Edited Research Volume/ Book chapter

‚ Sthapit, A. (2018). The Strategy of HRD Management in Nepal, Cambridge’s Psychology

for a Better World 1(1), 97-128. ISSN/print: (10): 978-1-5275-2186-5. Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, United Kingdom.
x Author(s) submitting to the Journal should provide their paper(s) both in hard copy and on an e-
copy. The e-copy should be in the Microsoft Word format to the following email address:
njthm@nathm.edu.np, or arhan@nathm.edu.np
x The publisher and editorial board will neither be responsible to provide the reason whatsoever for
rejected papers, nor manage logistics to return the paper to the author(s).
Papers should be submitted To:

Chief Editor
NEPALESE JOURNAL OF HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM MANAGEMENT
Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM)
Rabi Bhawan, Kalimati, Kathmandu, Nepal
email: njthm@nathm.edu.np
Website: www.nathm.edu.np

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 Nepalese Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Vol I, No. 1: March 2020

Introduction to
Nepal Academy of Tourism & Hotel Management (NATHM)

Nepal Academy of sTourism & Hotel Management (NATHM) has a history of four decades of
service in Nepalese Tourism & Hotel Management Education. Established by the Government
of Nepal 1972 with the technical assistance of UNDP/ILO with the aim to produce skilled
workforce required by hospitality and tourism industry, NATHM was formerly known as
HMTTC. Since its inception the Academy has been playing a crucial role in developing the
human resources for this industry with the aim of enhancing the level of quality in tourism and
hospitality services. It has been providing craft and supervisory level of skill-oriented training
to cater to the market demands. This pioneer institution is renowned for generating qualified
workforce for the ever-increasing demands of the hospitality & tourism sector.
The Academy is guided by the Board of Directors chaired by Secretary of Ministry of Culture,
Tourism and Civil Aviation including the representatives of Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN),
Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA), Ministry
of Finance, Trekking Agents Association of Nepal (TAAN) and National Planning Commission
(NPC), Department of Labour and Employment Promotion. It also has a strong support from
government and donor agencies.
As the industry has grown rapidly over the past decades, the need for professionally trained
higher-level manpower is needed day by day. The Academy in consultation with the industry
has launched the Bachelor in Hotel Management (BHM) Course from 1999, Bachelor in Travel
and Tourism Management (BTTM) Course from September 2003 and Master of Hospitality
Management (MHM) from January 2011 in affiliation with Tribhuvan University to fulfil the
needs of supervisory level manpower in hospitality and tourism industry.
NATHM is proud to announce that it has produced more than 51,000 (basic, supervisory and
managerial level) workforces for the tourism and hospitality industry. Different studies show
that among the people trained here; approximately 90 per cent are employed in their
respective areas. In addition, Nepalese hospitality professional are highly demanded in global
market. Products of NATHM are placed in the foreign hospitality industries mainly in Europe,
USA, Australia and UAE (Dubai).
OBJECTIVES OF NATHM
The basic objectives of NATHM are:
‚ To produce trained and skilled workforce required for the hotel and tourism industry;
‚ To conduct long term higher level academic programmes to produce managerial
level personnel; and
To provide consultancy and carry out survey and research for the development of
tourism

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Nepalese Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management
Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management
Rabi Bhawan, Kalima , Kathmandu, Nepal. P.O.Box 4715
Tel: 977-1-4270073, 5970605
Fax: 977-1-4271780 E-mail: nathm@mos.com.np
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