Kathmandu, May 14:

The Himalayan International Travel Mart may have proved to be a no-show, courtesy traffic disruptions, clashing of the Durbar Marg Festival and inadequate preparations, but some participants claimed to have derived their mileage nevertheless.

“We managed to reach out to our target customers about the two new products that we launched at the travel mart,” said Subodh Rana, managing director of MarcoPolo Travels. “Besides Malaysia, we are now offering China and Egypt as well,” he informed.

The travel and tour operator has been offering outbound tours in the Nepali market in collaboration with Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, China Southern Airlines, and other inbound tour operators for the last three years.

Nepal and China share a common linkage as architectural monuments built by Nepali architect Arnico who was invited to the court of Kublai Khan in the 13th century are still standing tall at Beijing. In its latest venture to hardsell China in Nepal, MarcoPolo claims to have collaborated with one of the biggest travel agents of China, China International Travel

Service (CITS) besides China Southern Airlines and China National Tourist Office which has recently set up its base in the capital. “At the moment the market for China no doubt is very small, but we can sense a good market potential here,” Simon Qiu Song, director sales division (Asia & Africa) CITS told The Himalayan Times.

Meanwhile, officials of China Southern Airlines claimed the carrier, launched in February 2007 in Nepal, was doing brisk business clocking a total load factor of about 90 per cent.

“Taking into account the higher market potential here as most of our twice-a-week flights are full, we plan to increase the frequency very soon,” informed Vincent Zhen, general manager, Kathmandu, CSA. More than point-to-point travellers, the airlines was targeting at transit passengers for Osaka, Sydney and Kuala Lumpur, said Zhen.