New Minister Khadga Bahadur Bishwokarma welcomed at NTB

Nepal Tourism Board welcomed the newly appointed Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Mr. Khadga Bahadur Bishwokarma on March 11, 2011 amidst a function. During the interaction with Board Members and Officials of Nepal Tourism Board and Members of Nepal Tourism Year 2011 (NTY) Implementation Committee, Mr. Prachanda Man Shrestha, CEO, Nepal Tourism Board briefed the Minister about the importance of tourism and role played by Nepal Tourism Board in promoting tourism internationally. He also briefed about the Nepal Tourism Year 2011, its challenges and prospects. He said that the aim of NTY is to bring economic revolution in the country through tourism. Secretary of Tourism and Civil Aviation Mr. Kishor Thapa while praising the workforce of Nepal Tourism Board gave emphasis on keeping Nepal Tourism Board out of political interference. Board Members Mr. Ganesh Simkhada and Mr. Durba Narayan Shrestha requested Minister to take necessary action to purchase new place for Nepal Airlines.

Addressing the function Minister Bishwokarma emphasized on formation of national tourism policy and strategy to motivate youngsters to work for tourism and to formulate management policy to take the benefit of tourism industry in the lowest level of the society in consultation with tourism experts. He also asked the Ministry of Tourism and Nepal Tourism Board to find out the way through tourism to mitigate the national problem like poverty. Tourism must be developed as industry to provide employment to large numbers of people and to uplift the national economy.

NTY 2011 captivates the Magyars in Budapest

In addition to focused promotions in the generating markets, The Nepal Tourism Board has intensified its promotional efforts in new and potential markets globally. Making a maiden foray into this potential market, the Nepal Tourism Board organized a special NTY2011 presentation to a rapt audience of media, outbound tour and travel operators in the historical city of Budapest in Hungary on 5th of march. Ms Nandini Lahe-Thapa, Senior Director NTB made the NTY2011 presentation to the gathering while emphasizing that Nepal and its travel trade would like to forge a strong bond of cooperation with the partners from the Hungarian Travel Trade industry and media to help achieve the goals of the NTY2011 campaign.. The concept o Homestays generated a lot of interest from the crowd. Similarly last week, the NTY Secretariat had made a presentation to a group of 65 Tour Operators/ Travel Agents on a Nepal Fam trip coordinated by Malla Travels.

FWEAN awards outstanding women entrepreneurs

REPUBLICA
Federation of Woman Entrepreneurs´ Associations of Nepal (FWEAN) awarded outstanding women entrepreneurs amidst a special ceremony organized to mark International Women´s Day.

Dicky Karki Chhetri of Three Sisters Adventure and Ava Shah and Sangita Rana from a travel agency were conferred with outstanding women entrepreneur award for their contribution in the tourism sector.

Three Sisters Adventure is the first agency to introduce women trekking guide. Shah and Rana run a travel agency that holds GSA of Jet Airways in Nepal.

Natasha Shrestha of Avia Club and Renu Staphit of WEAN´s Lalitpur Chapter were also conferred with outstanding women entrepreneurs award. Avia Club operates air sports like paragliding and paramotor in Nepal.

FWEAN President Chhaya Sharma handed over the awards to the women entrepreneurs. She also handed over certificate of appreciation to WEAN chapters.

FWEAN at present has eight chapters across the country. It is planning to expand its reach to all 75 districts.

Sharing her views on the occasion, Sharma said tourism could be the most convenient sector for women to start business. Highlighting the importance of ´home stay tourism´, she said the product could promote tourism by adding local touch.

Citing global data, keynote speaker Chadani Joshi said women were working more hours than men and contributing equally in national economy of respective countries. "Unfortunately, property ownership of women is limited to just 10 percent," she added.

She also said 70 percent of world´s poor people were women and majority of them were in the Asia region.

"Economic empowerment can change women´s status, but we should introduce ´life-circle´ approach for empowerment," she said, stressing on the necessity of collective marketing and branding of products made by women.

“Food processing can be a good sector for women to start business. It has a big market with increasing busy schedule of people and our women can do really well at it," Joshi added.

Women entrepreneurs, women right activists and diplomats were present on the occasion.

'Leave tourism' starting next week

The Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) is implementing ´leave tourism´ scheme from next week. The ministry worked out the concept with the objective of promoting domestic tourism and developing traveling culture among civil servants.

It is basically a campaign to raise awareness on the benefits of traveling, a MoTCA official said. To begin with, 100 employees of MoTCA and 10 other ministries will leave for different destinations across the country.

The ministry is hopeful that the concept will be implemented by other government and private offices as well, making significant contribution on tourism development in rural sector of the country. The focus of leave tourism is on home-stay.

The MoTCA has developed a five-nights-six-days package for the scheme. As per the scheme, an employee can take a member of his family on the trip. Employees are free to choose destinations, but each team should have at least 10 civil servants. The ministry will arrange vehicle for the team and provide them incentives as per their ranks.

“Employees must travel. They can´t take incentives and stay at home in the name of leave tourism,” said Ranjan Krishna Aryal, joint secretary at MoTCA.

Aryal told Republica that the ministry has included 12 destinations in the package, starting from Dharan-Dhankuta in the east to Khaptad-Doti in the far-west. Each destination includes two or three sites that can be visited within five days. For example, the Pokhara package includes Bandipur and Ghandruk, Aryal added.

“The packages have been developed in such a way that the employees will need to spend at least one night in home-stay,” said Aryal.

The ministry has allocated Rs 3 million for this project. MoTCA had developed the ´leave tourism´ concept last year, keeping in mind the Nepal Tourism Year 2011 campaign.

Dorendra Niraula of the Tourism Promotion Section at MoTCA said the first group was leaving Kathmandu next week. “The package has been designed in such a way that it includes adventure options like trekking, camping and rafting wherever possible,” Niraula added.
(Courtesy: Republica)

In this Issue :

New Minister Khadga Bahadur Bishwokarma welcomed at NTB

NTY 2011 captivates the Magyars in Budapest

FWEAN awards outstanding women entrepreneurs

'Leave tourism' starting next week

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