Nepal bagged the BEST EXHIBIT award in Adventure Travel Expo, Melbourne

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) bagged the first prize in the category of Best Exhibit in Adventure Travel Expo held in Melbourne, Australia from February 23-24, 2013. NTB was awarded the prize for artistically designing Nepal stand and effectively exhibiting Nepal as a preferred holiday adventure destination among the prospective Australian visitors and exhibitors during the Expo. 

NTB organized Nepals participation at the Expo where three private sector tourism companies from Nepal also exhibited. The three companies were: Langtang Ri Trekking, Nepal Mandala Travel & Tours and Nepal Social Treks and Expedition.

Mr. Sushil Ghimire, Chairman of NTB and Secretary at Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation led the Nepal delegation to the Expo. On the occasion, Mr. Ghimire met and had the extensive discussions with the key NRN personnel in Melbourne on the role of NRNs in promoting Nepal and expressed the full support and cooperation from the Government of Nepal and NTB in jointly promoting Nepalese culture and tourism in Australia.

Mr. Chandra Yonzon, Hon. Consul General of Nepal in Victoria, Mr. Drona Panta, NRN Coordinator in Melbourne and few other NRNs extended full time volunteer support and cooperation to NTB to make Nepals participation at the Expo successful.

This year, NTB successfully highlighted the  Great Himalayan Trail (GHT) at the Expo.  The organizer had  designed the two day Expo with full day seminars and presentations on various aspects of adventure tourism besides the regular Exhibition of tourism products by the countries from around the world. The two day seminars and presentations extensively educated the Australian travelers about various adventure activities being offered by the exhibiting countries.

Mr. Rohini Prasad Khanal, Sr. Officer of NTB made power point presentation on the GHT during the Seminar highlighting its special features. The GHT is the exclusive new tourism brand of Nepal offering the longest high altitude trekking trail in the World. Stretching the distance of 1,700 km, GHT can be traversed from the East (Taplejung) to the West (Darchula) in around 150 days.

This years high level participation from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism & Civil Aviation similarly aimed at exploring the various avenues of Nepalese tourism promotions in Australia. This visit mainly studied on establishing the Air-Service-Agreement (ASA) between Nepal and Australia to start direct fight between Australia and Nepal. At the moment, Thai Airways, Silk Air, China Southern and Dragon Air provide connectivity between Nepal and Australia via Bangkok, Singapore, China and Hong Kong respectively.

Earlier on February 23, 2013, Secretary Ghimire also attended the Street Festival held in Geelong, a small city near Melbourne. The Festival was organized by the Nepalese Communities living in this region in order to promote Nepal as a land of Mt. Everest and birthplace of Lord Buddha. A street procession in the city centre was made on the occasion showcasing the multicultural features of Nepal.

Australia holds a great potential as a strong tourism market for Nepal.  Nepal is popular as the mountaineering and trekking destination among the majority of the Australian visitors in Nepal. A total of 18,756 Australian tourist arrivals in Nepal were recorded in the year 2012 by air only with the increase of 15.1% increase over the year 2011. 

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Interaction on Tourism Crisis organised

Nepal Tourism Board and Himalayan Rescue Association Nepal jointly organized an interaction on Tourism Crisis and Building Partnership on February 27in Kathmandu.

Attended by high officials from embassies of   Australia, US, Switzerland , France, China, Israel,  Russia, Denmark, Finland, Canada , Consulate of New Zealand and other high government  officials from Ministry of  Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and Home, Police and Armed Police, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal , the  objectives of the program were to have border dialogue on tourism crisis government agencies, diplomatic agencies and private sector and to find the solution to mitigate it. Addressing the program, Officiating Chief Executive Officer of Nepal Tourism Board Mr. Subash Nirola said that this was the right time to have such interaction with stakeholders as ultimate goal of all was to ensure the safety and security of the tourists coming to Nepal. Chairman of Himalayan Rescue Association Nepal Mr. Shanta Subba outlined the effort made by Himalayan Rescue Association in rescue operation.

In the program Mr. Aditya Baral, Director, Nepal Tourism Board made a presentation detailing the history of Nepal’s tourism together with tourism crisis management. He said that active role of private sector is needed to address the tourism crisis issue as they are the ultimate beneficiary of tourism. Mr. Damien Dunn, First Secretary of Australian Embassy, Mr. Patrick T. McNeil, Consul of US Embassy and Mr. Zhang Bing, First Secretary of Chinese Embassy raised questions about safety of the tourists in case of earthquake or other disaster. They also said that the postmortem of the deceased foreign nationals in Nepal  is quite lengthy and expensive. Most of the embassies’ officials requested Nepal Tourism Board to felicitate the rescue operation in Lukla during the bad weather. They also appealed the Nepal Tourism Board to organize periodic interaction on tourism crisis in future.

The officials from government agencies including Police and Armed Police responded the queries positively updating the latest progress being made at their ministry and department.  Mr. Aditya Baral, Director, Nepal Tourism Board wrapped the program with a commitment to give continuity to this kind of interaction and solicited the supports from all present to make tourism crisis cell more effective.

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Eastern Regional Festival kicks off

Eastern Regional Festival has kicked off at Duhabi of Sunsari from February 26.. The 15-day event is being organized by Itahari Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) to promote goods produced by local industries and local agricultural products.

Umesh Goshwami, president of ICCI, said the festival has been organized to promoting Sunsari districts and local products.

The festival has 60 stalls showcasing industrial products, agricultural outputs, readymade garments, herbs and herbal products, and automobiles among others.

"We are also holding a competition among stalls showcasing agro-products like potatoes, smooth gourd, and green vegetables among others,” Narsingh Agrawal, co-ordinator of the festival organizing committee, said.

Similarly, a livestock market will be organized at the sidelines of the festival.

Various entertainment activities like badminton competition, fun-filled activities for children, little talent hunt, and musical competition, among others, will also be organized during the festival.

The organizers are expecting around 10,000 visitors a day. The fair is expected to record total transactions of Rs 20 million. 

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Tiger census starts in Chitwan

The counting of the rare Royal Bengal Tiger has started in Chitwan National Park to formulate a long-term plan for its protection and boost its population, state-owned news agency RSS reported.

The entire park area has been divided into different sectors for this purpose, Chief Conservation Officer Phanindra Kharel told RSS. He said the census has been started from the Triveni area in the western part of the park.

One hundred and sixty ultra-modern cameras have been installed and more than 24 technicians mobilized for the census.

A dozen elephants have also been employed for the census being done by adopting the camera-trapping and paw mark method, according to the park office.

The counting would be done by keeping the cameras in a single block for 15 days. It is said that it will take nearly three months for completing the field work.

The Chitwan National Park is home to the largest number of tigers in the country. Works on protection of the tiger are under way here in line with the policy of doubling the tiger population around the world by 2022.

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Nepal to be promoted in African continent in March

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) together with different travel trade associations is going to organise Nepal’s first ever tourism promotion programme in the African continent in March.

The programme is being organised in celebration of the incredible journey of the ‘7 Summits Women Team’ from the summit of the Mt. Everest to Mt Kilimanjaro – the tallest peak on African continent, said Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal (TAAN) in its report. Led by Shailee Basnet, the team includes Asha Kumari Singh, Chunu Shrestha, Nimdoma Sherpa, Pema Diki Sherpa, Pujan Acharya and Maya Gurung. The promotional programme will be held at Dar es Salaam and Johannesburg.

Mr. Subash Nirola, Officiating CEO of Nepal Tourism Board  spoke about the emerging market of Africa which could be a potential market for Nepal’s tourism in future.

The event is aimed at bringing more tourists from Africa to Nepal, said TAAN President Mahendra Singh Thapa. “We have found African tourists, especially from South Africa, interested to visit Nepal. But they are forced to book trips through European countries because they don’t have links with Nepali tourism service providers,” Thapa said adding, “We hope this programme will help establish links between African tour operators and Nepali tourism service providers.”

Team leader Shailee Basnet said the ‘Seven Summit’ campaign is an initiative to promote Nepal internationally. TAAN has provided monetary assistance of US$ 5,000 to the programme, said the association.

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Training on sustainability of tour operators concludes

The training on ‘Sustainability of Tour Operators’ organised by SNV Nepal in coordination with Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN) and Trafelife concluded successfully in Kathmandu on February 26.

More than 60 tourism service providers, mostly trekking agencies, participated in the two-day training, TAAN said.

The training that covered issues like sustainable tourism, tourism impacts, supply chain management, sustainable destinations, customer communications, and communicating and marketing sustainable tourism.

The training was conducted by two resource persons from Travelife -- a Dutch firm.

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