Shoorabeer Paudyal has written a most informative work on the role of tourism in Nepal over the last 40 years. The book contains detailed numerical studies of the various components of tourism, from the numbers of tourists to Nepal from various countries over the years to the impact of tourists on the government’s tax receipts. The numerical approach is important to the study, but there is enough non-numerical discussion to satisfy a reader who may not appreciate detailed numerical analysis of the type employed in the study.
My relationship with Shoorabeer goes all the way back to 1991, when he, along with two other students from Nepal, entered the Graduate Economics program at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. On his arrival in Halifax he immediately acted as a tourist, jumping on buses and exploring the area where he would live for the next two years. This may have been a sign of his future interest in tourism. Shoorabeer was a very intense student and received a Master of Arts degree in Economics in 1993 from Dalhousie University. Later on I came to know that he earned his Ph.D degree from another university.
While he was at Dalhousie, Shoorabeer visited my wife and me on a number of occasions, and when I went to Nepal on a number of assignments, he and his wife welcomed me in their home. On one occasion I played the role of a tourist and Shoorabeer accompanied me on a tourist trip around the country, indicating again his earlier and, as it turned out, his future interest in tourism. It is clear he now has made a useful contribution to the role and importance of tourism in Nepal in this work.