Gopal Tiwari

Kathmandu, February 25:

At a time when Nepal’s ‘economy and politics’ are not considered ‘favourable’, tourism experts from Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) in charge of promoting regional tourism in the Asia Pacific, spent some moments in Kathmandu today as part of their South Asian tour, for the first time in PATA’s history. Senior experts Ram Kohli, chairman of board of directors of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) based in Thailand and president-cum CEO of PATA, Peter de Jong talked with The Himalayan Times exclusively about what Nepal needs to focus on to boost its tourism trade.

Ram Kohli, chairman of PATA, disclosed that PATA might go out of the way to help promote tourism in Nepal as the country is facing ‘inconvenient’ times. He said that the visit is an attempt to observe and gather what was going on in Nepal, in various meetings with tourism and senior government officials. SAARC countries face similar problems in relation to tourist industry, Kohli commented. “Nepal’s main objective should be to focus on ‘regional markets’ as 75 per cent of the total tourist arrivals in South Asia are from within the region and it holds tremendous potential for further exploitation,” Kohli said.

Kohli owns Creative Resorts and Motels Pvt Ltd and Creative Overseas Pvt Ltd and operates from New Delhi. “The crisis related to tourism promotion should be resolved through joint efforts,” he said. For this, PATA, an association of 1,500 members of Asia, Pacific, Europe and Latin America is ready to support in whatever way it can, he assured. Understanding has also been reached between Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), PATA Nepal Chapter and Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) for tourism promotion and crisis management, he disclosed. President and CEO of Pacific Asia Travel Association, Peter de Jong was equally worried over tourism promotion and suggested joint action between various associations. Jong said, “We have jointly agreed with Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) and PATA Nepal Chapter for exchanging tour operators. We are ready to encourage tour operators and regional tourists with the help of the media,” Jong said.

“Tourists always seek personal safety, better accommodation, sound health and weather conditions,” commented Jong. He said that Asian tourism has been recently hit hard by tsunami, SARS and other problems.

Prabin Pandey, president of PATA Nepal Chapter said joint tourism promotion through the coordination of tourism related organisations is a must for which PATA headquarters Bangkok is taking special care. Pandey said PATA’s senior experts are here to discuss how a downfall in tourism can be stemmed by working out effective ‘strategies and mechanisms’. Tek Bahadur Dangi, CEO of Nepal Tourism Board, disclosed that we have planned to carry out media campaigns in cooperation with PATA. Crisis management is the need of the hour for speedy recovery of the tourism sector, said Dangi. Tourism growth in Asia Pacific in 2004 stood at 29 per cent, which is stronger, compared to other regions such as Middle East (21 per cent), Americas (10 per cent), Africa (seven per cent) and Europe (four per cent).