The much-hyped and long-awaited Nepal Tourism Year 2011 (NTY 2011) will be officially inaugurated with much fanfare and gala events on January 14, 2011 at the Dasharath Stadium.
The government is inviting tourism ministers from the neighbouring countries for the opening of the national tourism campaign. As per the slogan, ‘Together for Tourism’, the delegates will express their commitment that they are together for the promotion of tourism in the region. A host of cultural shows will also be part of the event.
Talking to The Rising Nepal, Prachanda Man Shrestha, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), said that as the campaign has already been launched, it would be formally inaugurated on January 14 with the theme ‘Together for Tourism’.
“As of now, tourism ministers from South Asia have consented to attend the function,” he said adding that they had expected more than a dozen ministers to attend the gathering.
He said that preparations were underway at war footing to officially open the campaign.
“We have been working to give the glimpse of the campaign and its objective at the inaugural session as per the slogan, ‘Together for Tourism’, ‘Tourism for Prosperity’ and
‘Prosperity for Stability’ with the events and involvement of people from every walk of life,” he said.
Shedding light on preparations for NTY, he said that they had identified five different points of interventions for the preparation of the NTY and they were almost completed.
“First of all, we had to bring in a special programme to revive the country’s image as a premier holiday destination as we had come out of a decade-long insurgency. For this, we had to get commitment from all the stakeholders, beneficiaries and concerned authorities,” he said.
He further said that they were almost successful as they had already got the commitment from the government, major political parties representing the Constituent Assembly, the private sector, tourism sector and other professionals.
The second was to coordinate and bring harmony in the government initiatives, he said.
“In this endeavour, we have tried, in every way, to make each of programmes and plans in line with the tourism development. We cannot build separate infrastructures for tourism. This means, the programmes and plans will be carried out from tourism point of view while improving and extending tourism related infrastructures in existing and new tourism sites.”
The third was to diversify the limited tourism to certain sector and enhance the capacity of service providers, build community capacity in new areas to cater to the need of tourists.
Similarly, the fourth was to promote domestic tourism for sustainability of the industry and commercialise every product besides launching programmes and activities in tourist generating countries, he said.
Talking about the concept envisioned prior to the declaration of NTY, he said that the national tourism campaign was declared with a view to improving the living standard of the people, making tourism a mainstream industry, by providing the people with alternatives to income generation, creating a wave of tourism within the country and at the same time, building up confidence among the people in source countries that Nepal is a safe and sound destination.
The government’s role is insignificant in making NTY2011 a success.
The involvement of the government, especially the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) and the NTB is quite small. More than this, the crucial role is under the responsibility of tourism related institutions of the private sector and with people from every walk of life, he said.
He said that the government’s role was just moderating and facilitating national and international institutions to promote the campaign.
Source: www.tourismnewsnepal.com
