Kathmandu, February 7:

A concept of religious tourism promotion has been discussed with the travel operators, Indian tourists and other participants at a Travel and Trade Fair, in Bangalore and Chennai during the last week of January.

The fair has been effective in boosting and marketing Nepal’s religious tourism in Indian states, said Nepal Tourism Board (NTB). The fair was jointly organised in coordination with Royal Nepal Airlines Corporations (RNAC), Cosmic Air and other travel agents, according to the NTB. RNAC, Cosmic Air and NTB took part at the 46th TTM-OTM (Travel and Trade Fair) in Bangalore and Chennai recently.

Termed as India’s number one consumer fair, TTF-2006 in Bangalore was officially inaugurated by Shri D T Jayakumar, minister for tourism of Karnataka and by Dr Varaprasada Rao I A S, secretary at the department of tourism of Tamil Nadu in Ch-ennai. They were highly impr-essed with the Nepal pavilion.

 Nepal was given ‘Feature Country’ status in the fair. Egy-pt, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Indian states of Orissa, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and West Bengal were also present at the fair. TTF provided the people of Bangalore and Chennai with an ‘under-one-roof’ opportunity to make their travel plan, both national and international, states a press release issued here today by the NTB. The Indian journalists showed concern over direct air accessibility and Nepali tourism products strength, especially religious or pilgrimage sites, in Nepal, NTB says.

On the sidelines of the fair, participants from Nepal also urged South Indian tourists to consider Nepal as a destination for meetings, incentives and conferences saying, “Nepal offers a complete (Meeting, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions) MICE package at very attractive rates”.