Renowned Mountaineer Reinhold Messner Graced Nepal’s Function at CMT 2016, GermanyMonday, January 25th, 2016

STUTTGART, Germany, Jan. 25, 2016 - This year’s Caravan, Motors and Tourism (CMT) 2016, international travel fair held from Jan. 16, 2016, in Messe Stuttgart, Germany, concluded successfully on Jan. 24, 2016. Nepal made its active presence in Nepal Stand: Hall No. 4 B 11 in this fair. Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), in coordination with Nepal German Chamber of Commerce & Industry (NGCCI) and Nepal’s private travel trade sector companies participated in this fair. Mr. Ngaindra Prasad Upadhyaya, Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, was also present in the Nepal Stand in the inauguration day of the fair. Mr. Ghanshyam Upadhyaya, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) attended the fair as an observer.

CMT, with more than 2,000 exhibitors from almost 100 countries, is Germany’s largest caravanning motors and tourism fair. It is one of the Europe’s largest leisure and tourism consumer fairs with a combination of motor and caravanning show held in Stuttgart, Germany, every year. The official data of the visitors visiting this year’s CMT is yet to come but it is expected that around 300 thousand visitors visited this year’s CMT. India, Switzerland and Denmark were the partner countries for CMT 2016.

Nepal stand located at very prime location at the entrance of the main hall in front of this year’s CMT partner country, India and was nicely decorated with Nepali wood crafted doors, pillars and stone lions that attracted many visitors. Nepal stall was crowded with keen visitors throughout the fair with lots of queries and travel plans to Nepal. Most of the visitors queried about the post-earthquake situation of Nepal.

On Jan 19, a press meet was organized to clarify Nepal’s situation after the earthquake. More than 50 representatives of Travel Trade and Media were present in the program. Mr. Reinhold Messner, renowned mountaineer graced the event and spoke positively about Nepal’s tourism and it was covered by German media the following day. Mr. Ghanshyam Upadhyaya gave a brief presentation about the current situation of Nepal and urged German people to visit Nepal. Honorary Consul of Nepal in Stuttgart Ms. Ann-Katrin Bauknecht moderated the program.

Nepal’s participation in CMT 2016 has been successful to give positive vibes among potential European travelers. Most of the queries during the fair were related to earthquake, trekking, air connectivity and sightseeing. There were also some queries about the political situation of Nepal. The most interesting fact about the visitors visiting Nepal stall was that most of them were repeated visitors, with some having visited Nepal several times. Many repeated visitors also showed their keen interest to visit Nepal in the near future. NTB provided the visitors with necessary information about Nepal distributing various brochures, posters and souvenirs.

There were seven Nepali travel trade companies at CMT 2016, namely: Rural Heritage Pvt. Ltd., Royal Mountain Trekking Nepal Pvt. Ltd., Royal Mountain Holidays Nepal Pvt. Ltd., Precious Travel & Tours Pvt. Ltd., Makalu Adventure Travel & Tours, Destination Nepal Trek & Expedition Pvt. Ltd., Nepal Trailblazer Trekking Pvt. Ltd.