Barahi Hospitality and Leisure Group plans to open three hotels in the next five years, the latest sign the industry is betting on strong travel demand long-term following the pandemic.

In 1984, a family-led business in Pokhara debuted with a 10-room Paradise Guest House.

The group has prospered and expanded over the years.

On January 12, Barahi group announced investing more than Rs10 billion in three projects—catching up with luxury hotels expanding in Nepal, with popular global brands like Marriott and Holiday Inn expanding their footprints in Nepal’s hospitality industry.

According to the group, the 150-room Barahi Sedi in Pame, Pokhara, built at an investment of Rs5.5 billion is under construction. Barahi Sedi plans to open by 2026.

Similarly, work on another five-star property Bodhi Barahi in Lumbini has started with an investment of Rs4.5 billion. The group has planned to construct a luxury resort in Kagbeni in Mustang.

“We want to establish our legacy in the hospitality industry,” said Hari Prasad Paudel, chairman of the group. “We see the tourism industry as a promising future, particularly Pokhara. We are now on a rapid expansion spree.”

After returning from Brunei, Paudel opened the 10-room Paradise Guest House, close to Phewa Lake.

“During the 1980s, we sold rooms at Rs5 per night,” said Paudel.

The first historic ascent of 8091-metre Mt Annapurna I in June 1950 by French national Maurice Herzog made Pokhara popular in the global arena and it became the gateway to the Annapurna region, the trekkers' destination.

“In the 1970s and late 1980s, Pokhara remained a favourite destination for Western hippies. Though they spent less, they made Pokhara vibrant,” said Paudel.

“We too decided to scale up.”

The Paradise Guest House then decided to take a loan to expand. “We borrowed Rs2.5 million from the Agriculture Development Bank in 1994. It was not easy to get loans though.”

Then the guest house turned into Hotel Barahi Pokhara, after adding 12 rooms.

The per night rate was Rs75 at that time.

The tourism climate in Nepal started to deteriorate when the Maoist insurgency that began in 1996 reached its heights in 2000. The hospitality sector in Pokhara almost collapsed.

The period from 1996 to 2006, the duration of the insurgency, was the worst for the tourism industry.

But for Barahi, the insurgency did no little harm.

Hotel Barahi Pokhara expanded to 45 rooms in 2000 and then 53 in 2007.

In Pokhara, hotel occupancy rates collapsed from 80-90 percent to almost 20 percent during the Maoist insurgency.

During the insurgency and immediately after, Nepal lost out on high-end visitors but a different kind of tourists began to arrive—backpackers and budget travellers.

Because of low occupancy rates, hotels had started to cut their tariffs, which attracted low-spending tourists.

When the insurgency ended in 2006, the country embarked on a political transition that would drag on for another decade. Even when tourist numbers began to pick up, high-end clients remained few and limited to Kathmandu.

For the first time in 2007, foreign tourist arrivals in Nepal crossed the half-a-million mark. Then, the government’s announcement to celebrate 2011 as Nepal Tourism Year and draw at least a million tourists gave a much-needed boost to the country’s tourism industry.