Kathmandu: To boost its ailing tourism
industry, Nepal is set to launch Tourism Year 2011 campaign on
February 26 to attract one million tourists, including more
than 250,000 Indians, almost double from the last year.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal will lead a rally of
over 50,000 people including political leaders, diplomats,
tourism entrepreneurs, journalists and government officials to
kick off the Nepal Tourism Year NYT) 2011 campaign.
Nepal currently receives 140,000 Indian tourists by
air and the country aims to attract 265,000 Indians next year.
"India and China are the major tourist markets for
Nepal and we expect to receive 265,000 tourists from India and
100,000 from China next year," said Tourism Ministry Secretary
Nagendra Prasad Ghimire.
Last year Nepal registered 1.1 per cent growth in its
tourism inflow as compared to previous year.
"In January the arrival was encouraging as some 19 per
cent growth was registered," Subhash Niraula, director of
Nepal Tourism board, said.
Besides increasing air seat capacity, developing new
products and upgrading infrastructure, Nepal is also
encouraging home stay in urban and rural areas to fulfill the
growing demands of accommodation targeting the NYT, he said.
Nepal's tourism entrepreneurs have asked all political
parties not to strike to make the NTY a success, said Yogendra
Shakya, a leading tourism entrepreneur, who is also the
coordinator of the Nepal Tourism Year steering committee.
Unified CPN Maoist chief Prachanda and top leaders of
other major political parties like Nepali Congress and CPN-UML
have assured that they would sign a commitment paper not to
call strike and agitation during the entire year for the sake
of tourism promotion, he said.
The frequent strikes have badly effected the
development of tourism in the country.
The recently signed Air Service Agreement between
Nepal and India during President Ram Baran Yadav's visit to
New Delhi will also help to boost Nepal's tourism which is
regarded as the backbone of the national economy, experts
pointed out at the programme.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 18:31