Kathmandu, February 5

Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Kumar Bhattarai said the government has been coordinating with all the stakeholders to avoid any shortcoming to make the Visit Nepal 2020 campaign successful.

Speaking at the Parliamentary International Relations Committee meeting today, he said home work was done to spread message at international level to promote Nepal’s tourism. “Unexpected outbreak of coronavirus has had some impact. We have shortage of resource for Visit Year 2020. Nevertheless, sanitation work, construction of physical infrastructure and work at the Immigration Office of Tribhuvan International Airport have been carried out vigorously,” he said.

The minister said 2020 has been taken as a year for learning and acquiring experience while the decade from 2020 to 2030 will be observed as tourism decade. Former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal described tourism as the backbone for the country’s economic development and suggested the government to prepare programmes for the promotion of tourism in coordination with all three levels of the government.

He also stressed the need to improve facilities for tourists. He said road infrastructure should be upgraded and tourists should be treated in civilised manner. “We should provide clean and green environment for the tourists besides so that they are enticed to extend their stay in Nepal” he added. Former deputy prime minister Prakash Man Singh said deplorable condition of the roads in Thamel had raised question over the preparations for the Visit Year 2020.

Former tourism minister Bhim Bahadur Rawal underscored the need to create favourable environment and good governance for the growth of tourism industry, which would help to boost national economy as well as the country’s relation with other countries.

He said there should not be disparity on air fare between the foreign tourists and domestic tourists. Committee members Pushpa Bhusal, Sudan Kirati, Uma Regmi, Sarala Yadav, Renuka Gurung, Narad Muni Rana, Deepak Prakash Bhatta and Prem Prasad Tulachan reiterated that all three levels of the government should keep the tourism promotion programmes on their priority list.