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 2020 which is why Visit Nepal Year is going to be held in 2020. Unveiling the action plan of the ministry for the next two months, Tourism Minister Jitendra Narayan Dev said that the ministry will establish a secretariat for the Visit Nepal Year shortly to make necessary preparations.
The MoCTCA had first planned to celebrate Visit Nepal Year in 2018. However, the plan was then put off due to the delay in construction of airports, heritage sites, and roads. The 60-day action plan unveiled today has given due priority to the early completion of the construction and expansion of the international and domestic airports, heritage sites and other tourism infrastructure. The government has planned to complete the expansion of Tribhuvan International Airport and construction of Gautam Buddha Airport in bhairahawa before the Visit Nepal Year. Similarly, the reconstruction of major heritage sites is expected to be completed before 2020.
The MoCTCA has said that it will frame country-wise tourism promotion strategy and bring it into implementation in its 60-day plan. Country-wise tourism strategy would help the tourism promotion organizations to carry out promotional activities to tap potential outbound travelers of concerned countries. Currently, India, China, United States of America, United Kingdom and Sri Lanka are on the list of major source countries of tourists.
Regarding the rising number of outbound travelers in India and China, the country wise tourism promotion strategy would help Nepal to tap the outbound travelers of the neighboring nations.
According to Minister Dev, the country would identify the reasons behind the low-growth in tourist arrivals and take necessary measures to attract more tourists in the country. He further said that the air service agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and New Zealand will be finalized soon. The action plan also stated that MoCTCA would review the air service agreements with Thailand, Japan, Egypt, and China.
The 60-day action plan also incorporates plans to amend the Tourism Act to make it more contextual and also plans to amend Casino Regulation, Travel and Trekking Regulation, and Mountaineering Expedition Regulation.
Tourism Minister, Dev has envisioned to upgrade Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management to a Tourism University to bridge the gap in human resources in the tourism sector which is expected to boom in the future along with the government and private sector’s initiative to achieve robust growth in this sector. In order to establish the Tourism University, the MoCTCA will carry out the necessary ground work like framing the draft law and land acquisition for the university in the following two months.
The MoCTCA will also be carrying out a survey 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, as per the action plan unveiled today.
Source: The Himalayan Times