The Nepal Tourism Board established in December 31, 1998 under the private public-partnership concept after the…
The Nepal Tourism Board established in December 31, 1998 under the private public-partnership concept after the enactment of Nepal Tourism Board Act– 2053 replacing the then Department of Tourism, is completing its seventh year of operation on December 31.
Over the last seven years, Nepal Tourism Board witnessed roller-coaster ride of Nepal`s tourism industry. Undeterred by present situation, Nepal Tourism Board has taken umpteen opportunities to promote Nepal in the international arena as an attractive travel destination by maintaining, improving and diversifying the quality of tourism products and services in the country and promoting them effectively in the international marketplace.
Even though Nepal`s tourism industry has been going through a very difficult phase, the quality and quantity of work that NTB has done in last seven years justifies its stance and the nomenclature attached to it as a private-public partnership nodal agency. Despite paucity of the resources against negative impacts, the Board is dedicated to cope up with the situations to mitigate and show for positive results.
NTB`s present challenges are two:
- To address the problems faced by tourism industry at home
- RepositionING of Nepal`s image as a premier tourism destination in the international marketplace
As tourism is multi-disciplinary and dimensional in nature and touches upon every strata of society, it demands the synergy in effort and co-operation of all.
It also needs positive comments & suggestions from concerned quarters to drive the Nepalese tourism ahead in the 21st century in much professional and competitive fashion. Since NTB runs its programs through the Tourism Service Fee collected from the outgoing tourists at the Tribhuvan International Airport, its marketing, promotional and development activities depend on the arrival of tourists in Nepal. So it is equally important for Nepal Tourism Board to take the confidence-building measures to woo tourists to/in Nepal for the welfare of broader segment dependent on this industry.
The bottleneck apparent in air connectivity is still there. In absence of regular direct flight from/to Europe and America, Nepal is losing a chuck of European and American tourists despite marathon promotion campaigns launched in value and volume markets in European market. It could not yield expected result due to limited air access to Nepal from European and American countries.
Because of costly air ticket and limited air access, Nepal`s package becomes more expensive for Chinese tourists, and it is one of the reasons for Nepal not being able to capitalize the booming market. Over the last years, many countries have toned down their negative travel advisories on Nepal, which has made remarkable impact on tourist arrivals from these countries.
Domestic crisis like insurgency, emergency, closures (strikes, demonstrations, bandhs, chakkajam, nakabandhi) have taken heavy toll of tourism industry in Nepal. As a result of these incidences, there were excessive cancellations of tour and trekking programs during peak tourist season in March, April and May this year.
In order to reach to the earlier level of tourism activities aiming at numbers, various innovative programs and packages have been framed to lure more number of tourists in coordination with the travel industry. In 2005, the Board focused its marketing & promotion activities in most professional way in the major tourist generating countries like India, China, UK, France, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Germany.
Major activities included participation in travel-trade fairs, organizing of Country Sales Missions/Road Shows, hosting Familiarization (Fam) Trips for foreign media, travel writers, TV crew and tour operators, production and distribution of various promotional collaterals, launching advertising campaigns in major print and electronic media, etc.
Over the last year, Nepal Tourism Board has invited more than 150 media persons from India, China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, UK, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Turkey, Russia, South Korea, Germany, France, USA & Greece. Nepal Tourism Board would perpetuate all these activities aligning with other contemporary ways and means, which contributes to achieve our target.
This recent approach of hitting the market with contemporary tourism Branding-Nepal exercise is also on the pipeline. Once the strong brand rolls out, NTB`s synergies will be focused towards reaping the benefits with as practiced and benefited by its competitors from the potential source markets. Likewise, NTB is engaged to prepare a vision document-Tourism Master plan to direct all our efforts for the sustainable development of tourism, so that no overlapping of the jobs takes place and the document guides the efforts and synergy for achieving its objective.
Arrival of tourists from India has been favourable over the last few months. This has been possible due to consolidated effort put together by Nepal Tourism Board and private sector in promoting Nepal in India by bringing Familiarization tour of Indian journalists, running advertisements and promgrammes in various Indian TV channels and FM stations.
NTB had given equal focus towards developing, enhancing and diversifying tourism products and services in the country. NTB has identified a few more places for tourism development. The newly focused sites of NTB for tourism development throughout the country include Aantu Danda, Basantpur, Dhanusha Dham, Tansen & Khaptad with their surrounding areas. In 2005, NTB promoted more than a hundred tourism festivals, fairs and events organized in the different parts of Nepal.
As a NTO, Nepal Tourism Board supported and promoted myriads of tourism mega events partnering with the government and other tourism related organizations. Mt. Kanchenjunga Golden Jubilee Celebration, Mt. Makalu Golden Jubilee Celebration, 30th Jubilation of ascent on Mt. Everest by Junko Tabei, NATTA Travel Mart that NTB promoted internationally with the support of various agencies.
As a part of promoting inbound pilgrimage tourism to Nepal from the regional markets, especially from South East Asia, Nepal Tourism Board launched special campaign focusing pilgrimage and adventure tourism in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia collaborating with PATA Nepal Chapter. To establish Nepal as a sports tourism destination, NTB also promoted international level Golf tournament, marathons, biking and rafting races, which were organized in the different parts of Nepal.
Lastly, NTB believes in “Together we can create a difference“ theory and this theory will surely lead Nepalese tourism towards a new height of success.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
