Kathmandu, March 18

Amid the global outbreak of coronavirus, several major public events have been cancelled in the country.

All the national and international events scheduled in 2020 have been put off following the government’s direction to avoid gatherings to prevent the virus from spreading. Starting with the cancellation of international promotion of the Visit Nepal 2020 campaign, all the tourism associations have cancelled their international sales mission, including some domestic events as well.

According to Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal (TAAN) and Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA), along with international promotional events, they have also cancelled their yearly gathering scheduled a month back, as well as other domestic promotional events.

TAAN and NATTA have cancelled all their events in line with the government’s decision and in consideration of the safety of their members and other stakeholders.

Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Nepal Chapter as postponed the ‘Nepal-India-China Expo NICE)’. The executive committee meeting of PATA Neal Chapter held on January 7 decided to postpone the ICE event scheduled from February 22 to 25 as a matter of precaution to the health and safety of all the delegates and invitees, ATA stated. However, the ATA Nepal Chapter has not decided on the next date for the event.

Meanwhile, Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) is yet to announce cancellation of ts regular events. The board as not yet declared whether its scheduled events, especially those for the VN 2020 campaign, have been cancelled or not.

Amid this, Federation of Nepal Cottage and Small Industries (FNCSI) has cancelled its all trade fairs and its national convention event due to the coronavirus.

Nepali Army has also cancelled several events hat it planned to organise o promote VN 2020 campaign, including Unification Trail Trek. The trek was scheduled to cover Dhulikel-Kavrekot-Sharadaot-Goraknath-Panauti — he routes that late king Prithvi Narayan Shah had taken during the unification of the country.