Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) recently organised a program to felicitate the leadership of political parties representing in the Constituent Assembly. NTB also sought political leaders’ pledge to support tourism industry.

Speaking at the programme, Lila Mani Paudel, secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA), said Nepal had great possibilities for tourism promotion but the industry needed to overcome various challenges to take benefits from those possibilities. “Lack of infrastructure and lack of effective promotion in international market are the major challenges,” Paudel added. He also emphasised the need of concerted efforts from all stakeholders to combat those challenges.

Addressing the programme, Prachanda Man Shrestha, chief executive officer of NTB, said tourism was not only a necessity for economic growth but also a compulsion and necessity because of its geographical variation.

'With the initiation of peace process in the country, Nepalese tourism is gradually picking up. But weak infrastructures, fuel crises and the daily strikes have been lagging us behind. We have to be determined and committed to secure the billions of rupees of investment in the tourism sector to form a New Nepal,' Shrestha says.