Kathmandu, October 26:

Various Nepali adventure tourism products and services were showcased at the Adventure Travel Trade Association’s (ATTA) Adventure Travel World Summit held in Seattle, USA last week.

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), along with five private sector participants from Nepal and over 400 delegates from 20 countries, mainly specialising in adventure outbound took part in the event. It provided the global adventure travel community with the single most powerful, creative and productive gathering of influential executives and strategic staff members, according to NTB.

The summit brought together diverse facets of the industry from tourism boards to government agencies, travel/tour agents, media and tourism service providers to network, collaborate and more effectively tap into the burgeoning potential of adventure travel.

ATTA, the host of the event, invited leaders and experts from within and outside the adventure travel and outdoor industries to present to industry executives and decision makers their expertise and experiences from their respective fields.

Tek B Dangi, chief executive officer of NTB, made a presentation on ‘Crisis Recovery and Transition: Dealing with and Recovering from Human, Political and Natural Crisis’ at the event. He highlighted Nepal’s experience and technique adopted while dealing with various issues involving destination promotion at a time of crisis.

Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of Nepal Mountaineering Association, also spoke on the occasion giving perspective from the private sector service providers of Nepal.

Dangi addressed the summit delegates on another issue ‘Identifying, Fighting and Overcoming Misguided Perceptions: Destinations and Operators Speak Out’.

He along with Urs Eberhard, vice-director Switzerland Tourism, shared the lessons learnt and actions taken by respective destinations in the light of unjustified negative coverage.

Dangi also took the opportunity to highlight various steps taken by Nepal to effectively promote Nepal in times of crisis by organising and celebrating campaigns like Destination Nepal Campaign, Mt Everest Golden Jubilee Celebrations, Regional Tourism Promotion and establishment of media centre, operation of tourism crisis co-ordination unit.

He spoke on the necessity to brand a destination and elaborated on the new Nepal brand recently developed by NTB ‘Naturally Nepal: Once is not Enough’.

He also highlighted on the recent political development in the country after the successful people’s movement whereby the seven political party alliance and the Maoists have committed themselves to bring political stability and permanent peace in the country.

NTB has proposed the organisers of the World Adventure Travel Summit to hold future Adventure World Summits in Nepal.