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NYT’s 31st place to go in 2010
New York Times published a list of 31 places to go in 2010. The list starts with Sri Lanka and ends with Nepal. As a Nepali, am I happy about it? No, I am not.
I was happy when Lonely Planet listed Nepal in its top 10 destination List. But this 31 destination list is different. The paper portrays Nepal as a Gay paradise. The article looks more like advertisement for Sunil Babu Pant, who is promoting gay tourism with his Pink Mountain Travels and Tours, than travel advisory. … Mr. Pant is offering to hold nuptials at the Mount Everest base camp, jungle safari honeymoons and bridal processions on elephant back.
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I don’t have anything against Nepal being a gay destination. But, is that all we are? Sky wouldn’t have fallen if the author of the article, Aric Chen, mentioned about Pokhara, Mt. Everest, or Bhaktapur apart from the new third gender movement in Nepal.
Yes, we don’t need Chen or whoever to tell that Nepal is the best place to visit in the world. But, it still feels bad.
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1 responses to “NYT’s 31st place to go in 2010”
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this whole promoting it as a gay destination is very clever, since gay travelers spend more than normal tourists (stats prove it). however just because sunil babu pant has been accepted as a gay politician etc in Nepal does not ensure all gay travelers going to Nepal will be accepted in this way. I think this is very risky for the tourists since many gay/transgender people are still not accepted in society in Nepal. We must not give any potential gay tourists a false idea about how Nepal is ‘very’ welcoming to the gay population since many people are still homophobic.
lexlimbu January 11th, 2010 at 14:42