The Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has begun to promote Nepal Tourism Year 2011 aggressively in the international arena in the face of uncertainties in budget allocation and time constraints. According to Monday’s The Kathmandu Post daily, the NTB will be holding promotion at the JATA World Travel Fair, Japan in September, in the United States in October and in Britain and China in November. “We will move to other destinations gradually,” said NTB chief executive officer Prachanda Man Shrestha.
The government announced the NTY 2011 campaign on Oct. 25, 2008 in a bid to broaden the tourism base as a national priority and mainstream tourism into the national development process. Apart from budget uncertainties, NTY 2011 has been bedeviled by issues like purchase of aircraft by Nepal Airlines Corporation, eroding competitiveness of travel packages, deteriorating garbage management and improvement of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) . Bhola Bikram Thapa, member of the NTY 2011 implementation committee who is coordinating the aviation sector, said that there had been a slight improvement in services at TIA. However, the international airport needs to do more to provide full functional services, he added.
