Buddha Jayanti being observed today

Buddha Jayanti being observed today
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli his spouse Radhika Shakya among other officials pose for photograph during a programme organised by the government of Province 5 on the occasion of 2,563rd Buddha Jayanti and the beginning of Visit Lumbini Year 2076 BS, in Lumbini.

Buddha Jayanti, the day of the birth of Lord Buddha, is being celebrated across the country today.

Also known as Buddha Purnima, the day falls on Baishakh Shukla Purnima as per the lunar calendar, which is a full moon day.

Those celebrating visit Buddhist monastries and shrines to worship Lord Buddha, who is believed to be the messenger of peace, based on whose teachings Buddhism was founded.

Visit Lumbini Year 2076 BS

Gautam Buddha, also known as Siddhartha Gautam, was born a prince to King Suddhodana of the Shakya dynasty of Tilaurakot — which is located in Kapilvastu, Nepal — and Queen Maya Devi.

The queen is known to have given birth to Buddha in Lumbini, while on the way to her maternal home in Devdaha, which falls in Rupandehi district of Nepal.

Government of Province 5, where Lumbini is situated, is organising an array of programmes today to mark the 2,563rd Buddha Jayanti, also the beginning of Visit Lumbini Year 2076 BS.

Prime MInister KP Sharma Oli his spouse Radhika Shakya among other officials holds flame take part in a rally organised by the government of Province 5 on the occasion of 2,563rd Buddha Jayanti and the beginning of Visit Lumbini Year 2076 BS, in Lumbini.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli reached Lumbini yesterday evening to participate in the events planned for the day, while President Bidya Devi Bhandari is scheduled to reach there today to attend various programmes.

The Prime Minister also visited the Tilaurakot palace premises and lit lamps in Lumbini.

Moreover, President Bhandari as the chief guest is scheduled to officially inaugurate the Visit Lumbini Year 2076 BS to be announced by Province 5 government, according to Lumbini Development Trust.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli at the peace rally being organised on the occasion of 2,563rd Buddha Jayanti and the beginning of Visit Lumbini Year 2076 BS, organised by the government of Province 5, in Lumbini.

Likewise, PM Oli will perform a special worship-ritual at Mayadevi Temple, start the peace rally, plant saplings, unfurl the flag of Nepal, and serve food to the monks, State-5 Minister for Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment Lila Giri was quoted in Rastriya Samachar Samiti.

Buddha is believed to have received enlightenment in Bodha Gaya in the Indian state of Bihar, following which he started sharing his knowledge with his disciples.

Birth of Buddha is also celebrated across Asia including India, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar among other nations.

Source: The Himalayan Times

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NEPAL EYES 1.5 MILLION TOURISTS IN 2020

NEPAL EYES 1.5 MILLION TOURISTS IN 2020 Annapurna Base Camp Trek Nepal aims to welcome 1.5 million tourists in 2020 with one third of them coming from China and India, Nepal’s Tourism Ministry has said. The country is set to organize the year 2020 as Visit Nepal Year. It will be the third national level initiative to promote Nepal’s tourism sector since the country first celebrated Visit Nepal Year in 1998 followed by the Nepal Tourism Year in 2011.In 2017, Nepal welcomed 940,218 foreign tourists. It expects a growth of foreign tourists by 30 percent every year since 2018 to meet the target of 1.5 million tourists by 2020. “China and India are two largest source markets for Nepal. But, there is still huge scope of more tourist arrivals from these two neighbours. So, our main focus of promotional activities will be China and India for Visit Nepal Year,” Krishna Prasad Devkota, secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation said on Tuesday. “We have not set any target of tourist arrivals from China and India for the Visit Nepal Year 2020 so far. But, our tentative estimate is that there will be arrivals of 250,000 each from the two neighboring giants. In 2017, Nepal welcomed 104,664 Chinese and 160,832 Indian tourists.” Chinese Tourists Other traditional source markets of Nepal’s tourism are North America and the Europe. However, the country is also planning to explore new source markets including South East Asia and Eastern Europe.“We see great scope of attracting large number of tourists from these new source markets,” said Deepak Raj Joshi, chief executive officer of Nepal Tourism Board, the main tourism promotion body. As the tourism sector is recovering from the twin disasters – deadly earthquake in 2015 and subsequent Indian economic blockade for nearly five months in 2015 and 2016, Nepali government has expected the Visit Nepal Year would be helpful to heavily boost the country’s tourism sector. As a part of preparation for the Visit Nepal Year, the Nepali government has planned to organize road shows, promoting Nepal in three major cities of China and India in collaboration with tour operators of the two countries. On the other hand, Nepali government has planned to keep Nepal’s only international airport, Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, open for more than 20 hours a day from current 17 hours a day in the next three months. The target is expected to be aided by the possible completion of another international airport, known as Gautam Buddha International Airport which is expected to be completed by 2019, in Bhairahawa, a southwestern town. Source: Nepal Travel News Landmark Forest Landmark Pokhara Creative Adventure Nepal Landmark Kathmandu Contact Us: E-mail: sales@samratnepal.com Phone: +977 – 9851030564 Location: Gairidhara, Kathmandu, Nepal. Website: www.samratnepal.com

Rara Karnali tourism year from Baisakh 1st

Rara Karnali tourism year from Baisakh 1st
Rara Lake

Rara Lake

Rara Karnali Tourism Year is being observed from coming Baisakh 1st of the year 2075 in the lunar calendar. The tourism year is being observed in order to highlight the history, culture, civilization and natural beauty of Karnali with a target to bring in 500,000 tourists in the 12 months of the year, said publicity coordinator Dal Rawal at a press meet organised by the Karnali provincial government here today. The tourists arrival so far is 50,000 annually. Despite being the best tourism destination of Nepal, it has not yet become a major tourist attraction for lack of essential infrastructure and amenities, Rawal said while noting that efforts would be made to address those shortcomings. Karnali boasts of the Rara lake, Rara national park, Phoksundu lake, Bala Tripurasundari, Kakrebihar, Mansarovar and is the origin of Nepal’s 23 castes.
Rara Lake

Rara Lake

Also speaking at the programme, Chief Executive Officer of Nepal Tourism Board Dipak Raj Joshi assured for necessary support provided the locals help in tourism promotion of their locality. Majority of the participants on the occasion stressed on increasing access to transportation service first in order to bring in the targeted number of tourists into the province. Source:  Himalayan News Landmark Forest Landmark Pokhara Creative Adventure Nepal Landmark Kathmandu Contact Us: E-mail: sales@samratnepal.com Phone: +977 – 9851030564 Location: Gairidhara, Kathmandu, Nepal. Website: www.samratnepal.com

Visit Nepal Year planned for 2020

Visit Nepal Year planned for 2020
Visit Nepal Year 2020

Visit Nepal Year 2020

As the government has set a target to bring in two million tourists each year by 2020, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) has planned to organise ‘Visit Nepal Year’ in 2020 to attract more tourists to the country. Unveiling the action plan of the ministry for the next two months, Tourism Minister Jitendra Narayan Dev said that the ministry will establish a secretariat for the Visit Nepal Year shortly to make necessary preparations.

Earlier, the MoCTCA had planned to celebrate Visit Nepal Year in 2018, which was put off due to the delay in construction of airports, heritage sites and roads. The 60-day action plan unveiled today has given due priority to the early completion of the construction and expansion of the international and domestic airports, heritage sites and other tourism infrastructure. The government has planned to complete the expansion of Tribhuvan International Airport and construction of Gautam Buddha Airport in Bhairahawa before the Visit Nepal Year. Likewise, the reconstruction of major heritage sites is expected to be completed before 2020.

Kathmandu Durbar Square

In its 60-day plan, MoCTCA has said that it will frame country-wise tourism promotion strategy and bring it into implementation. Country-wise tourism strategy will help the tourism promotion organisations to carry out promotionalactivities to tap potential outbound travellers of concerned countries. Currently, India, China, United States of America, United Kingdom and Sri Lanka are the major source countries of tourists.

In the context of rising number of outbound travellers in India and China, the country wise tourism promotion strategy will help Nepal to tap the outbound travellers of the neighbouring nations. The country will identify the reasons behind low growth in tourist arrivals and take necessary measures to attract more tourists in the country, according to Minister Dev.

He further said that the air service agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and New Zealand will be finalised soon. The action plan also states that MoCTCA will review the air service agreements with Thailand, Japan, Egypt and China, among others.

The ministry will initiate the process to bring strategic partner for Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) — the national flag carrier — and also take forward NAC’s proposal to purchase two more narrow-body aircraft. The business plan submitted by NAC for the commercial operation of two wide-body aircraft that the corporation is in the process of purchasing and its plans regarding human resources will be finalised in the next two months.

The action plan also incorporates plans to amend the Tourism Act to make it more contextual and also plans to amend Casino Regulation, Travel and Trekking Regulation and Mountaineering Expedition Regulation.

chitwan-national-park

chitwan-national-park

Likewise, to bridge the gap in human resources in the tourism sector, which is expected to boom in the future along with the government and private sector’s initiative to achieve robust growth in this sector, Tourism Minister Dev has envisioned to upgrade Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management to a Tourism University. To establish the Tourism University, the MoCTCA will carry out the necessary groundwork like framing draft law and land acquisition for the university, among others in the next two months.

MoCTCA will also carry out a survey to expand the line agencies of the ministry and the departments to the provincial and local levels. Similarly, it will also frame a master plan for the preservation of tourist sites, as per the action plan unveiled today.

source: The Himalayan Times

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Tourist inflow via air sees exponential growth

Tourist inflow via air sees exponential growth

Visitors to Nepal

Visitors to Nepal

Tourist inflow to Nepal jumped by 46.8 per cent in the first six months of 2017, indicating signs of recovery in the tourism industry that was shattered by the devastating earthquake of April 25, 2015 and the subsequent trade disruptions.

According to the Department of Immigration, the country received a total of 460,237 tourists in the first half of this year via air route, against 313,512 in the corresponding period of the previous year. Tourist arrivals in the first half of this year surpassed the figure of 2014, before the earthquake struck when country had received 412,461 tourists in the first six months.

Travel and tour entrepreneurs are upbeat about the revival of the tourism industry along with the increase in tourist arrivals.

“The earthquake and fuel crisis had adversely affected the flow of tourists in 2015 and 2016, but though the figure has increased this year, it is still a far cry from our target to bring in two million tourists by 2020,” said Madhusudan Acharya,president of Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA).

Nepal a safe tourist destination

Nepal a safe tourist destination

Tourism entrepreneurs have cited weak infrastructure and high airfare as the major obstacles in tourist arrival growth.

“Nepal has been included among the top 10 travel destinations in 2017 by the Lonely Planet, a leading travel guide. Despite the positive message disseminated across the world, tourist flow is still tepid,” according to Binayak Shah, general secretary of Hotel Association Nepal.

Tourist arrival was at a record high in 2012, when the country had received 803,000 visitors by air. Entrepreneurs have said that the country is likely to receive even more number of tourists this year as the inflow of tourists is normally higher in the second half. The period between September and November is considered as the best tourist season in Nepal.

Kathmandu Durbar Square

Kathmandu Durbar Square

HAN General Secretary Shah informed that along with the large number of international organisations working in Nepal for post-quake reconstruction activities, the flow of visitors also increased as the reconstruction works gathered momentum since the beginning of this year. He stressed on the need to expand the country’s only international airport — Tribhuvan International Airport — and improve road connectivity.

“Air traffic congestion, high airfare and bleak road conditions are the major bottlenecks to raise the number of tourists,” Shah asserted. He alleged that the government is not serious towards developing critical infrastructure even though the private sector has substantially increased investment in the sector.

Visitor in Nepal

Visitor in Nepal

Shah also pointed out the prospect of bringing in more tourists from neighbouring India and China as the number of outbound travellers has been growing in these countries. Though the number of outbound travellers has been rising in India and China, the country has failed to tap the potential due to high airfare, he stated. “The airfare to Kathmandu is relatively higher at $350 for a 30-minute flight.”

In the January to June period this year, the country received a high number of tourists from India with a total of 89,196 visitors from the southern neighbour followed by China with 52,084 travellers via air. The country had received 54,224 tourists from India and 33,991 tourists from China in the same period of the previous year.

Source: Thehimalayantimes

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Signs that proves Nepali Tourism Industry is reviving

Signs that proves Nepali Tourism Industry is reviving

I AM IN NEPAL NOW

I AM IN NEPAL NOW

The earthquake of 2015 and the trade embargo by India over the promulgation of the charter alienating the ethnic Madhesis group hit hard the Nepali tourism sector. But after a couple of years the tourism of industry is standing back. Here are the signs that proves Nepali tourism industry is reviving.

Increasing numbers of Hotels:

According to the data of the Tourism Department a total of 5 hundred and 85 tourist hotels are registered amongst which 10 are the five star rated. The Everest Hotel in Kathmandu is out of track after the earthquake in 2015.

Likewise, there are 3 four star, 31 three star, 43 two star, 33 one star and 4 hundred 65 tourist hotels. Along with this 2 hundred 27 homestays also has registered itself in the tourism department.

The flow of Tourists

According to the data from the Immigration Department of Nepal on 2016 a year after the major setback for the Nepali tourism industry about 7 Lakhs 29 Thousand 5 Hundred and 50 tourists came to Nepal. The Hotel Association of Nepal has set the target of increasing capacity of the hotels to hold 1. 8 Million Tourists by 2020. Within the 3 years the hotels in the Nepal are set to add about 4 thousand rooms to meet the target, half of these rooms are set to be added in the hotels of capital Kathmandu. This significantly will employ more people as one tourist can give employment opportunity to 12 people. In addition to it the Government of Nepal is set to announce the upcoming year as Tourism year.

The investment in the Tourism Sector of Nepal

The tourism sector of Nepal till now has investment of about 2 Hundred and 50 Billion rupees and 33 Billion rupees are in pipeline, set to be added. Amongst the tourism sectors the hotel or the hospitality sector of the Nepal is the major aspect to invite the tourists. Undermining the importance of the tourism an injection of 83 Billion Rupees is sure for the tourism sector of Nepal in coming 3 years. Amongst this the Government will be investing 8 Billion rupees and the private sector will share the remaining portion.

Employment by Tourism

Hotel Association Nepal’s President Amar man Shakya claims that the tourism sector of Nepal has created job opportunity to over 5 Lakhs people which is significant hike after the major setbacks in 2015.

Source: Tourismmail

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