Amid dwindling numbers of western tourists visiting the country as a result of the financial crisis, the government is now to concentrate on Asian visitors, according to a senior minister.
The number of tourists visiting Nepal has dropped by a whopping 16 percent in first two months of 2009 as compared with the same month last year.
“It would be unwise to highly depend on western countries, Europe and America, as they are battling a deepening financial crisis. So we have to focus on potential tourists from Asian countries, especially South Asian and Chinese,” said Hisila Yami, minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation said at a press conference on Sunday in the capital.
Yami informed the press that the government had been in coordination with local hoteliers and tour operators to prepare special package offers for Indian tourists under the North India Sales Mission 2009 in four Indian cities —Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Amritsar and New Delhi.
Nepal has witnessed a decline in the arrival of tourists from SAARC countries and India by 8 percent and 11 percent respectively during the first two months of this year as compared with the number during the same period last year. Yami said pilgrimage tourism focusing on Indian and Chinese tourists would be a high priority in coming days. “Our next target for tourism promotion will be China after India, keeping in view the high potentiality of Chinese pilgrims,” Yami said.
New tourism policy approved
New tourism policy approved
With the objectives of promoting the tourism sector, the government has formulated a new tourism policy.
Highlighting the tourism policy approved in a cabinet meeting held on Wednesday, Yami said the policy has incorporated the government’s priority on promoting the home-stay accommodation system in rural areas, adventure tourism, health tourism and education tourism in the country.
In a bid to address the wide concern about the safety of lives of workers in the tourism sector, the policy has enshrined the provision of insurance of the workers.
Keeping in mind the frequent bandas and strikes in tourism industries, the government has decided to put under the concept of Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
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