• VNY 2020 to be base year with plans to attract 3.5m tourists per year

Kathmandu, December 6

Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai has said that the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) is preparing to observe ‘Tourism Decade’ campaign soon after the Visit Nepal Year 2020 campaign.

Addressing a meeting with political parties on Thursday, the tourism minister said that the tourism decade will be observed to attract at least 3.5 million tourists annually in the country. According to him, VNY 2020 will be the base year for the tourism decade. During these 10 years the government will build required tourism infrastructure that will help to achieve the government’s target, Bhattarai said.

“During the tourism decade the government will construct and upgrade airports, expand road

connectivity, upgrade the hospitality sector and producing skilled manpower,” he said, adding that MoCTCA will also coordinate with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology

to establish Academy for Tourism and Mountaineering Studies.

Minister Bhattarai further said that the tourism decade is also significant to achieve MoCTCA’s target to increase tourism sector’s contribution to 10 per cent on the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), as well as to achieve the target of generating 150,000 to 200,000 jobs annually.

During the meeting Tourism Minister Bhattarai urged representatives of all the political parties to commit to make the tourism decade successful for the development of tourism that will certainly uplift the country’s economy.

“Currently the country is busy preparing for the VNY 2020 campaign, so, this will be the base for the tourism decade,” he said, adding, “By 2030 we’ll be completely ready for another paradigm shift of tourism development.”

Meanwhile, the government has announced to bring 3.5 million tourists annually in the next five years. The 15th Five-Year plan of the government has mentioned about building infrastructure and services to attract 3.5 million tourists in the next five years.