PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact Bishnu Neopanae: 98510 06187

VDCS PADLOCK THE LAST RESORT’S BUNGY BRIDGE AHEAD OF NEPAL TOURISM YEAR 2011, THREATEN TO CLOSE RESORT. At 6PM on 6th Poush 2067 (21st December 2011) The Last Resort, a major tourism attraction in Nepal, was forcibly closed by representatives of Marming and Lishti VDCs. The bridge, which is the private property of The Last Resort, is used for bungy jumping. It was left chained and padlocked by VDC representatives. The forced closure of the bungy bridge comes after 14 months of negotiations following the end of a 10-year agreement between The Last Resort and Marming and Lishti VDCs. During these 10 years The Last Resort fulfilled all its commitments from the agreement and initiated additional local projects to assist the development of the area, contributing over 32 Lakhs over the last decade. The Last Resort directly employs 45-50 local staff, and offers casual labour to many more. It is viewed as a good member of the community. The Last Resort was ready to sign a new agreement with the VDC and was surprised that the local VDCs were not looking for new development commitments, but were demanding to take ownership of the bridge based on an illegal alteration of the original agreement. The Last Resort is still looking to resolve the matter amicably and generously, but cannot and will not handover private property that is crucial to its operation. Responsible entrepreneurship The Last Resort has from the beginning contributed substantially to the development of its local area through initiatives like constructing pathways, schools, supporting health posts, building toilets, initiating income generating projects, and contributing financially to many other initiatives. The company owners continue to reinvest for the business’s long-term sustainability and have not yet even regained their initial investment. The contributions given to the local VDCs are a substantial part of the company profit. The company’s profitability is anyway greatly dependent on the political stability of Nepal and consequently it only started making moderate profit in the last four years. Local politics From the beginning The Last Resort owners have remained neutral in local politics. They do not comprehend it, nor have any interest in playing any part in it. Therefore, they chose from the beginning to work with the local VDCs, forestry committees and other social organisations that have representation across the different political parties. We are now surprised and bewildered that the VDCs have threatened us, padlocked our bungy bridge and are threatening complete closure of our business and the livelihoods of our dedicated staff. The Last Resort wants to be good member of its local community. We respect the rights of others, and we expect other to please respect ours. We request from the local community and government bodies all the cooperation and assistance necessary to help resolve this issue amicably.

= ENDS = figures • Around 15,000 tourists have bungy jumped at the resort, many more have visited the resort for food and lodging, and to carry out other activities such as canyoning, hikes, canyon swing and high-ropes course. • The Last Resort employs around 70, with 45-50 jobs locally excluding casual labour. Every canyoning and high-ropes activity also involves a donation to the communities in the areas visited, paid through the VDC. • Two fulltime teachers are employed locally and paid for by the resort. In addition to building pathways, health-posts, school construction etc. Over the last decade contributions have totalled 32 lakh. • The Last Resort has always tried to be apolitical, and thus decided from its beginning to work with local VDCs and comunity organisations as they would have multi-party representation and thus have no political bias. The VDCs are now threatening to close resort permanently. • The agreement is generous. If the VDCs signed the agreement, TLR would agree to pay 8 lakh donation per annum increasing 5% per year in perpetuity. Additionally, this would be backdated 2 years. The existing community support mentioned above would continue in addition to this agreement. This would have meant an immediate back-payment to the VDC of around 16 lakh. • The issue comes down to control over the bridge, which could then be used to extract further payments from the resort. • TLR is the legal owner of the bridge and the land around it. A government body is trying to seize ownership of a private company’s assets. • There have been 14 months of negotiations since the expiry of the last contract. Including six mass meetings and numerous small meetings which incidentally have eaten valuable time of management staff as well as distracting VDC representatives from serving their communities. • A large part of TLR's profit goes into the local community. Contributions are fixed regardless of the business balance sheet. Over the last decade tourism suffered badly due to the conflict, and the situation has really only been improving over the last four years. • Non-of the investors have recovered their original investment, partially due to the high level of financial support and donations given to the local community. • The bridge now stands padlocked by the local VDCs. • The Last Resort and the bungy jump is a central feature of NTB and MoTCA’s NTY 2011 promotional video which has already been widely shown around the world. For more information please call Bishnu Neopanae: 98510 06187 or Sam Voolstra: 98510 02920. Email: [email protected] and visit: www.thelastresort.com.np