Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, July 4:

As part of tourism promotion, Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) organised a familiarisation (FAM) trip for a group of Pakistani and Chinese media persons recently. NTB has been organising such FAM trips for media persons from major markets holding inbound tourism prospects, to provide an opportunity to understand the ground realities of Nepal as against what is being erroneously heard or read about Nepal. NTB had invited 10 journalists from Pakistan from June 27 to July 03, to make them aware about destination potentials and existing situation update. During the course of their stay in Nepal and visit to various major tourism destinations, they have garnered their own first hand information about the tourism potential and existing safety and security situations in Nepal, states a press release issued by NTB.

The Pakistani journalists visited Bhaktapur, Pokhara, Nagarkot, Kathmandu and Manakamana, and enjoyed the mountain flight. They met Ramesh Nath Pandey, minister for foreign affairs and held discussions on various bilateral issues. They also met Tanka Dhakal, minister for information and communication.

At an interaction organised on Sunday, Tek Bahadur Dangi, chief executive officer at NTB, outlined the prospect of tourism in Nepal for Pakistani travellers, saying Nepal can be the best place for Pakistanis in terms of culture and nature. Zameer Nafees, editor of Asas, said that his perceptions on safety and security have changed completely after his visit to different parts of the country. He said Nepal could be a good destination for Pakistanis and asked both sides to explore different means of transportation from Pakistan. Uxi Mufti, director general, National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage requested NTB to jointly promote the rich heritage of Nepal and Pakistan. Liaquat Ali Toor of Associated Press of Pakistan said that since Rastriya Samachar Samiti and Associated Press of Pakistan recently signed an agreement, news and features about Nepal’s tourism can be published easily in Pakistani magazines and newspapers and asked NTB to explore new avenues to promote Nepali tourism in Pakistan. Meanwhile, Chinese journalists who came to Nepal on June 26 for a FAM trip also joined the interaction. Chinese journalists are Cameron Bai, Zhou Ling, Su Lei Qiu and Yuan Wensheng. They all are from Lifestyle Magazine of China. The Chinese group is accompanied by Maria Boyd, NTB Representative in China and is scheduled to leave on July 5.