29 July 2019, kathmandu
Nepal is such a beautiful country blessed with naturally rich resources and often regarded as one of the best places to travel. It has an amazing beauty filled with snowcapped Himalayas, hilly mountains and flat lands in the Terai rich in flora and fauna with exotic multi-cultural aspects. Every year, thousands of visitors from different parts of the world come to visit Nepal in order to acquaint with multiple facets of natural beauty, culture, religious standings and adventure sports. As such, the tourism sector of Nepal has a lot of potential for growth and expansion.
Trekking has become a major form of attraction for foreigners visiting Nepal. Treks to the Everest region, the Annapurna, Langtang, Manaslu, Dolpa etc. have been most popular. Similarly, jungle safari in the Chitwan,Bardiya and other national parks in the Terai have also been highly preferred. Beside this, cycling, bunjee jumping, paragliding, canyoning and other adventure sports have spurted out primarily due to the geographical diversity that offers a natural sites for these activities.
After the success of Visit Nepal Year 1998 and Nepal Tourism Year 2011, the Nepal Tourism Board has introduced ‘Visit Nepal Campaign 2020’ as ‘Visit Nepal Year-2020’ planned and organized by Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation to attract more tourists to the country. The Government of Nepal has set a target to bring two millions tourists each year by the targeted year.
However, due to the massive earthquake of Nepal 2015, also known as Gorkha earthquake left huge impact on the natural heritage sites of Nepal. As a result, the Campaign though it was announced in 2015 to be held in 2018 but was later postponed to 2020. The earthquake significantly affected the inflow of tourists being halved compared to the previous year. Gradually, the inflow of visitors bounces back to the pre-earthquake numbers came with the purpose for recreational activities and in order to support the earthquake affected areas in Nepal. Thus, government has planned to accomplish the expansion of Tribhuwan International Airport and the construction of Gautam Buddha Airport in Bhairahawa before 2020, along with the reconstruction of major heritage sites to succeed Visit Nepal Year 2020.
In addition to this, many challenges are still behind that may create unfavorable environment for the successful completion of Visit Nepal 2020. Thus, an effective framework relating to tourism promotion strategy should be implemented. More and more tourist destinations should be explored from each corner of the country giving priority to even local visitors. The reasons behind the low growth in tourist arrivals should be identified and necessary measures should be applied taking into account the strategic vision to attract more tourists in the country.
