Nepal is often considered one of the best places for travel. It has an amazing Himalayan beauty, exotic multicultural aspects and natural beauty to match. Visitors from all parts of the world come to Nepal by the thousands every year, especially for trekking. As such, the tourism sector of Nepal has a lot of potential for growth and expansion.
Acting on this agenda, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) has planned to organize ‘Visit Nepal Year’ in 2020 to attract more tourists to the country. The government has set a target to bring in two million tourists each year by the targeted year. According to Tourism Minister Jitendra Narayan Dev, a secretariat for the Visit Nepal Year will be established shortly to make necessary preparations.
Although the MoCTCA had planned to celebrate Visit Nepal Year in 2018, it was put off due to the delay in construction of airports, heritage sites and roads. The 60-day action plan of the Nepal Visit Year unveils that due priority will be given to the early completion of the construction and expansion of the international and domestic airports, heritage sites and other tourism infrastructure in the country. The government has planned to complete the expansion of Tribhuwan International Airport and construction of Gautama Buddha Airport in Bhairahawa before 2020, along with the reconstruction of major heritage sites. The ministry will initiate the process to bring strategic partner for Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) — the national flag carrier. It also plans to take forward NAC’s proposal to purchase two more narrow-body aircraft.
Nepal saw a slight dip in the number of tourists visiting here after the devastating earthquake of 2015. After that, the number of tourists here has not seared as high as in the past. So the year 2020 has been announced as Visit Nepal year in order to get the tourism industry of Nepal up and running in full.
Nepal’s tourism sector is growing. As a result, more and more travel destinations are opening up. Many new trekking trails are being opened. The older ones are also being renovated and restructured so that traveling gets easier.
Likewise, the country wise tourism promotion strategy is set to tap the outbound travelers of the neighboring nations to Nepal in the context of rising number of outbound travelers in India and China. Identifying the reasons behind low growth in tourist arrivals, Nepal will then take necessary measures to attract more tourists in the country, according to Minister Dev. He also further said that the air service agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and New Zealand will soon be finalized. The action plan also states that MoCTCA will review the air service agreements with Thailand, Japan, Egypt and China among others.
The action plan also includes plans to amend the Tourism Act, with the vision of making it more contextual. It also aims to amend the Casino Regulation, the Travel and Trekking Regulation and the Mountaineering Expedition Regulation.
Similarly, Tourism Minister Dev has envisioned upgrading Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management to a Tourism University with the aim of to narrowing the gap between human resources in the tourism. To establish the Tourism University, the MoCTCA will carry out necessary groundwork like framing the draft law and land acquisition for the university among others. In like manner, a survey will also be carried out by MoCTCA to expand the line agencies of the ministry and the departments to the provincial and local levels. It will also frame a master plan for the preservation of tourist sites. The Tourism Act is set to bring an approximation of about 2 million tourists to Nepal.
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This article is prepared by Gokyor Ri Trek, the leading travel and tour agency in Nepal. Remember us for all the tours and trekkings in Nepal.
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