Butwal, Bhairahawa and Lumbini were on the way to becoming Nepal's second largest cities after Kathmandu with the way the hospitality industry was flourishing in this tri-city area in the central Tarai.

More than 10,000 jobs have opened in the hotel sector since construction work began on a new international airport in Bhairahawa, which will be the second one in the country after the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu.

Then Covid-19 pandemic swept in and everything fell apart.

Sujit Gaha of Syangja, an experienced chef currently working at Faze Restaurant & Cafe in Bhairahawa, will not be getting a raise for months—or even years—until the industry returns to normal.

He, currently, earns Rs40,000 monthly, and is not satisfied with the salaries the hotels and restaurants are paying their skilled workers.

“It is difficult to get skilled people,” said Gaha. “The low pay has been causing a massive brain drain.”

Gaha had completed a chef training course at the Kantipur Hotel Training Centre in Pokhara, Kaski in 2010, and set out as an intern without a salary to get hands-on experience. Now he has become a skilled chef.

The coronavirus pandemic spoiled everything.

The tourism industry bore the brunt of the virus when arrivals sank to all-time lows, and travel traders have been desperately looking for signs of a revival. But the anticipated resurgence has been excruciatingly slow with tourist arrivals still 80 percent below 2019 levels.

After the second Covid-19 wave hit Nepal in April, the country slid into a devastating crisis with the authorities enforcing strict lockdown measures. About two months later, the restrictions were relaxed gradually, and since September 1, almost everything has been allowed to reopen.

Subsequently, Nepal saw the highest post-Covid monthly arrivals in October, pushing the total number since the start of the year past the 100,000 mark.

According to data released by the Nepal Tourism Board, Nepal welcomed 23,284 foreign tourists by air in October.

The number, however, did not improve as expected despite the full-fledged reopening.

In November, the country’s peak tourism season, there were 26,487 arrivals. According to the board, in the 11 months of 2021, Nepal received just over 126,000 tourists.

And now the Omicron scare has kept the world on tenterhooks. The new iteration of the coronavirus, which the World Health Organisation says has spread to 57 countries, has emerged as a cause for concern for Nepal’s tourism sector as well.

The sluggish revival coupled with the Omicron threat has eroded the prospects of hospitality industry workers getting their jobs back.

In Bhairahawa, too, despite many properties being developed, hiring has not picked up after a long lull. There is a shortage of skilled manpower, but the industry is not much worried.

Tara Chaudhary of Kailali has been working at Siddhartha Cottage in Butwal for five years. He had completed two years of hotel management training and was hired at Siddhartha Cottage in Tikapur, Kailali.

"Initially, I had to wipe and clean the hotel floor,” he said.

After a long struggle, he is now a captain in-charge (restaurant manager) at the hotel.

He urges aspiring workers to get training before joining the profession.

As the hotel industry is expanding in the once sleepy city of Bhairahawa following the construction of the second international airport, which has been named Gautam Buddha International Airport as it has been styled as the gateway to Lumbini, a wave of a new generation of entrepreneurs is coming.

There is a huge demand for skilled workers along with the growth in infrastructure.

New cafés and restaurants are popping up in every nook and cranny. Nearly a dozen luxury hotels are being launched in Bhairahawa.

Tourism was largely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Some hotels and restaurants were forced to lay off skilled workers.

Skilled workers are migrating abroad, according to hotel entrepreneurs.

Ram Prasad Gautam, president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association in Rupandehi, said that the sector was experiencing a shortage of skilled manpower due to the pandemic. "Normally, large hotels employ more than 50 workers each, but it has been difficult to retain them," he said. "Salaries range from Rs15,000 to Rs100,000 monthly, depending on experience."

Gautam said that they had made arrangements to provide training to workers by involving the Restaurant and Bar Association, Rupandehi which has more than 25 restaurants as members.

Sagar Poudyal, vice-president of the association, said these restaurants currently employ 15 workers each.

The 46 hotels affiliated to the Siddhartha Hotel Association in Bhairahawa together employ nearly 3,500 people.

There are 110 hotels affiliated with the Lumbini Hotel Association which provided jobs to 3,500 people before the pandemic. Now, there are only 1,500 workers at the hotels.

Govinda Gyawali, president of the association, said a large number of hotels had still not reopened, and this had indirectly affected thousands of jobs.

Investors are making big investments in Bhairahawa.

The hotels and restaurants that were gradually recovering from the Covid disaster have started to panic following reports of the emergence of new variants.

In a bid to lessen the risk of an outbreak of Omicron the Ministry of Health and Population has recommended a mandatory seven-day quarantine for all people returning from abroad.

Industry insiders say amid the uncertainty, they don’t see the revival of the sector anytime soon.

“Young people want to learn and enjoy working in restaurants,” said Poudyal, the vice president of the Restaurant and Bar Association, Rupandehi. “But the number of workers joining the industry and quitting is about equal, and this has been a continuous process.”