Kathmandu, December 17:

Tourism has a spiral effect as it generates more indirect employment than direct employment, experts opined today.

“Tourism does not need huge investment. Yet, it is a medium for encouraging more economic activities,” said Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) Hisila Yami at a programme of the Eastern Nepal Tourism Development Interaction ad-hoc committee on ‘Possibility of development in Eastern Nepal and contribution to socio-economic development’.

“Nepal’s wealth of natural resources is the driving factor for tourism and now it is also getting popular as a destination for adventure sports. The fad for adventure sports is increasing among tourists coming here,” Yami said adding that overall development also was a must for the Eastern Development Region. Rajeshwor Thapa, president of Heritage Consult Society (HCS) at Kathmandu, said, “The eastern development region has great potential for tourism. The government should show prime concern in this regard. We need an integrated master plan, accordingly.”

Talking about the possibilities of developing tourism in the eastern region, Yami said while the region was well developed in agriculture and industrialization, it lacked infrastructure development which could have lent more essence to it.

“Work is on for the development of hydropower and tourism sectors but the pace is slow. For Nepal, both hydropower and tourism sectors are equally important and these should be

developed through Public Private Partnership (PPP),” said Prof Rewat Bahadur Thapa of

the South Asian School of Tourism and Hotel Management (SASTHM), Biratnagar.