Kathmandu, August 2

The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Nepal Chapter and Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) have announced that Himalayan Travel Mart would be organised every year in the country to boost domestic tourism.

Addressing a debriefing of the Himalayan Travel Mart that Nepal hosted between June 1 and 4, NTB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Deepak Raj Joshi said that Nepal had not been able to host big tourism events in the country for many years even though tourism events are crucial to promote Nepal as a tourist destination in the global market.

“The Himalayan Travel Mart this year was a grand success with hundreds of international tourism experts, bloggers and media representatives attending the event and promoting Nepal’s tourism globally. The PATA Nepal Chapter and NTB will jointly organise such marts every year from now onward in between the last week of May and first week of June,” Joshi informed.

Joshi also said that the Himalayan Tourism Mart this year has already started showing its impact on domestic tourism, with relatively more number of tourists visiting the country in the first half of the year.

As per the Department of Immigration, Nepal received a total of 460,237 tourists in the first half of this year via air route, against 313,512 in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Suman Pandey, president of Nepal PATA Chapter, informed the Himalayan Travel Mart was able to promote Nepal’s tourism among more than 250 foreign tourism stakeholders and it was a great achievement for the domestic tourism industry. “The government and the private sector should collaborate to organise more of such events in the country to promote Nepal’s tourism potential and attract more foreign visitors.”