Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) 2011 Kicked Off
Nepal on Friday (26 Feb 2010) kicked off Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) 2011 campaign officially with the slogan ‘Together for tourism’ by lighting a peace flame brought from Lumbini during a huge gala at Army Pavilion, Tudhikhel, Kathmandu with the hope of attracting at least a million foreign tourists next year i.e. in 2011. To attract tourists from all over the world, Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation has come up with this ambitious plan, ‘Visit Nepal Tourism Year 2011’. Ministry is optimistic that this kind of events will increase tourist arrival and ultimately will create jobs and reduce poverty.Nepal Tourism Year 2011 was previously annuonced by Maoist Government.Previous such event was held back in 1998 as ‘Visit Nepal 1998’.Nepal had marked 1998 as Visit Year which had played significant role to spread positive message of the country to the world. Consequently, the number of tourist reached 491,504, the highest number to that time.Tourist arrivals created a historic record in Nepal in 2007. Some 550,000 tourists visited Nepal that year.
To attract one million tourists in the year 2011 may sound a little ambitious but it is not impossible if everyone related with tourism sector esp. Ministry of Tourism and Nepal Tourism Board acted properly in the promotion of this event.Ministry of Tourism and Nepal Tourism Board, as the two main responsible government agencies, must spearhead the preparation, awareness building and promotional campaign for NTY 2011.Nepal has to carry out good campaigns abroad for such mega event.The ministry also reviewing the Air Service Agreement (ASAs) with India and Qatar, Bahrain and Sri Lanka as well as Thailand. The government has formed 14 different sub committees along with regional committees, that to develop the tourism industry. Nepal Tourism Board, Nepal Airlines Corporation and Hotel Association of Nepal are jointly working on special package.
Most of the tourists come to Nepal from India, Britain, Japan, Germany, the United States, France, Spain, China, South Korea, Italy and Australia. Since India and China are the two bordering countries of Nepal, the government has strategically segmented India and China as prime markets and has set a target to double arrivals from these countries during NTY 2011. As a result, considering the inadequate air seat capacity to bring in the projected one million tourists during NTY 2011, the ministry plans to up the number of internal airlines serving Nepal to 25.
Tourism sector has been heavily disturbed by political instability, mainly the chronic and unpredictable bandas (general strikes).So, to make NTY a grand success, top leaders from 18 major parties – including the Maoists, Nepali Congress and CPN-UML – have already committed in writing that their parties will not call bandas (strikes) in 2011.
Objectives of the campaign
-Establish Nepal as a choice of premier holiday destination with a definite brand image,
-Improve and extend tourism related infrastructures in existing and new tourism sites,
-Enhance the capacity of service renders,
-Build community capacity in the new areas to cater the need of the tourists, and
-Promote domestic tourism for sustainability of the industry.
Quantified Targets
-One million annual international arrivals.
-Dispersal of at least 40% of the international tourists into emerging and new tourist areas.
-Encourage additional investment on tourism infrastructures.
-Develop mechanism to record domestic tourism activities.
