The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has been celebrating World Tourism Day since September 27, 1980, and this year, it is being marked with the theme "Rethinking Tourism".

World Tourism Day is celebrated to establish tourism as a crucial pillar of development for every nation.

The Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, spearheaded by UN- WTO, aims to inspire the debate around rethinking tourism for development, including through education and jobs, and tourism's impact on the planet and opportunities to grow more sustainably. Given the special focus on the role of the UNWTO in motivating political forces and government to take tourism as an inspirational and transformational force, it should be a central part of policymaking.

Nepal is one of the most affected countries due to global warming and climate change, creating challenges for our survival.

Frequent and intense droughts, storms, heat waves, rising sea levels, melting glaciers and warming oceans can directly harm animals, destroy their habitat and wreak havoc on people's livelihoods and communities.

Mountaineering - the major contributor to our tourism economy - cannot remain untouched from the effects of global warming. Hence, rethinking tourism emphasises the sustainable development of tourism by creating awareness to discourage activities responsible for global warming.

Among the various types of tourism activities, mountaineering is the only sector where our level of professionalism appears to be satisfactory. Other tourism streams like culture, agriculture, conventions, sports and health tourism do not seem to have developed as needed - sectors that could also bring changes on the economic indicators of our nation.

Even the cultural practices and historical places in the mountaineering region go unnoticed by the mountaineers and trekkers, who return home after completing their expedition. Time has come for us to create a conducive environment to motivate tourists to experience them as a side tourism activity to lengthen their stay.

La Tomatina is a tomato festival celebrated in Valencia of Spain on the last Wednesday of August. The festival started in 1945, but bears no historical and cultural importance. Other famous festivals like Oktoberfest Munich or San Fermines Festival (bull run) of Spain attract millions of tourists to experience these festivals. Their side programmes - music, cultural shows, food festivals and stand-up comedy - give extra entertainment to the visitors.

We also have such festivals that can draw world attention, but they are sidelined or do not come in the notice of the policymakers.

Indra Jatra seems to be somehow managed professionally or promoted internationally to some extent, but much effort is needed to disseminate the cultural and historical importance of this festival. Nepal's longest and oldest festival, the pulling of the chariot of Rato Machhindranath holds great potential for attracting tourists. The bull fight of Nuwakot or the cultural mask dance of the mountain regions, organised on different occasions, have not been promoted internationally till now.

The present condition of Nepal reflects a saying, which states, "There are no underdeveloped countries, there are only under-managed countries". We are blessed with everything that can help our nation develop within a short span of time, but mismanagement and short-sightedness of the politicians, bureaucrats and policymakers keep us behind.

Chandra Shumsher built the Singha Durbar in neoclassical European style, which reflects the Palace of Versailles, France built by King Louis XIV. Vintage photographs of New Road depict European design, which was badly missed by our previous policymakers and politicians while drafting the master plan for the development of that area.

Otherwise, they would not have built a road through Tundikhel, which was once considered the biggest parade ground of Asia.

The four historic and magnificent statues of the Rana prime ministers left in isolation around the corners of Tundikhel were built with excellent craftsmanship.

An integrated master plan backed by strong political will can still help preserve the ancient road from Singha Durbar to New Road, Basantapur Palace, Hanuman Dhoka and Indrachowk. It can be a fusion of an ancient Newari city and a small Europe in Asia and could be a major attraction for the tourists.

Rethinking tourism could help us use our unused tourism resources, which were never thought of.

The urgent need of the time is to reevaluate and rethink our policy and programmes for the development of tourism. It is indeed sad that after decades our tourism is nowhere near Asian countries like Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia or the Maldives. Nepal is located between two economic giants, India and China, from where millions of people travel around the world annually. Being the nearest destination, it is tragic that Nepal cannot even welcome a million tourists from these countries whereas just a trickle from these countries could change our whole tourism scenario.

The theme of this year's World Tourism Day seems to have been formulated for us since our conventional approach to tourism needs modification to increase the number of tourists.

Famous actor Charlie Chaplin once said, "Nothing is permanent in this world - not even your troubles".

Global warming and climate change pose a great challenge to mountain tourism, creating a high possibility of change in the state of mountain tourism in the future, which might pressure us into identifying new tourism activities to drive our tourism. This year's theme - Rethinking Tourism - urges us to make continuous effort in exploring different aspects of tourism, capitalising and developing them sustainably for the betterment of our future generation as well.

A version of this article appears in the print on September 27, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.