21 October 2020, Kathmandu
Over 200 adventure lovers are seen gliding in the sky of Pokhara on a daily basis after the paragliding companies introduced low-fare flight services to revive tourism hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
The scheme has been launched to inject life into the already hit tourism sector and provide entertainment to the people amid the pandemic in the country, said the companies.
The companies started conducting commercial flights since October 1. At a time when there are no foreign tourists, this program been brought to promote the domestic tourism, said Krishna Bhandari, the chairman of Nepal Airsports Association (NAA).
“We have introduced this scheme to convey a message that tourism activites are taking place amid the pandemic in Nepal. Around 200 domestic tourists are gliding in the sky on a daily basis,” said Bhandari.
The paragliding fare per head is Rs 3,000 under this new scheme while it was Rs 7,500 before.
Currently, there are 338 para pilots including 12 women who have received licenses from NAA. There are as many as 60 paragliding companies in Pokhara.