Kathmandu, December 31

As a rehearsal of ‘Visit Nepal Year 2018’, Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) today launched a programme to promote Nepal in Europe in 2017 at an event organised to mark its 18th anniversary. The ‘Visit Nepal-Europe campaign 2017’  aims to increase the number of tourists from European countries by 30 to 40 per cent as compared to 2016.

NTB has said that the campaign will also develop necessary groundwork for promoting the country’s tourism all over the world in the year 2018 as part of ‘Visit Nepal Year 2018’ that the government had announced recently.

“To make the ‘Visit Nepal-Europe 2017’ campaign a success, NTB will collaborate with Nepali missions in Europe, Nepali diaspora and travel and tour operators in Europe,” said Deepak Raj Joshi, CEO of NTB.

“We chose Europe because tourists from the 28-nation bloc have significantly contributed to Nepal’s tourism industry and we hope the inflow will further gather momentum through this campaign.”

In the programme, Deepesh Man Shakya, the coordinator of the campaign who is also NTB’s honorary public relations representative for Ireland, said that a tourism promotion programme has already been planned for Ireland, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Russia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Denmark.

NTB has been planning to officially launch the campaign in London in March next year.

As per the tourism board, it has designed some programmes under the campaign like photo exhibition, talk on mountaineering, ‘Send a friend to Nepal’ campaign, tourism promotion through Nepali restaurants in Europe, Buddha Jayanti and Everest Day celebration in Europe, FAM trips for travel tour operators and media, and training for Nepali diaspora to promote Nepal’s tourism, among others.