Nepal’s travel trade leaders, organizers of adventure and sporting events, and tourism experts Friday emphasized the need to hold various adventure activities to make the upcoming Nepal Tourism Year 2011 a success. They also called for diversifying the tourism industry.

President of the Adventure Sport Tourism Society (ASTS) and leading adventure tour operator Bikrum Pandey said that organizers of the different adventure events needed to work together in order to make Nepal an eventful destination.

"As the Nepalese tourism industry had started with the adventure segment, we need to explore additional avenues of adventure and sports tourism to promote the country as one the world’s most important adventure tourist destinations," Pandey said.

He expressed the view while addressing an interaction on ‘Role of ASTS in NTY-2011’ organized in the capital.

"Promoting the country’s tourism by organizing adventure and sporting activities is a new dimension of tourism. Let us work together for this," he said.

Recalling the Golden Jubilee celebration of the first human ascent of the world’s highest mountain—Mt. Everest, he said that Nepal had come to limelight internationally due to the event.

"During that time, Nepal had negative international image due to the internal conflict. The event was helpful in sending a positive message about the country," he said.

He said that the Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon has been an important adventure tourism event. The ASTS will install a life-size statute of world-famous climber late Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in Namche, he informed.

Marathons, treks, expeditions, paragliding, rafting, mountain biking and sky diving are some of the major adventure tourism activities in Nepal.

Lauding the ASTS for its efforts to promote adventure tourism activities, Basant Raj Mishra, former President of Nepal Association of Tour Operators (NATO), suggested that adventure tourism mart should be organized as an annual event in Nepal.

Mishra said that all the event organizers needed to work together to organize such activities in a successful manner. President of Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal (TAAN) Sitaram Sapkota asked the government to address the issue related to deployment of liaison officers.

"Skiing could be a new area of adventure tourism. We need to explore it," Sapkota said.

General secretary of ASTS and tourism expert Rabi Jung Pandey suggested that adventure tourism activities should be organized different parts of the country, including the far-east to the far-west. "Such activities should not be limited only to the NTY-2011. They need to be organized every year." Pandey also emphasized the need to lay much focus on promoting water tourism.

He said that the government needed to show its strong commitment to organizing such activities.

President of Nepal Canyoning Association (NCA), President of Nepal Association of Tour & Travel Agents (NATTA), President of Society of Adventure Tourism Association (SATO) J. P. Singh, President of Nepal Air Sports Association Stephen Shrestha, Rajesh Bomjan, Rabi Thapa, among others, also shared their views.

Vice-President of ASTS Sarad Pradhan informed that the association will honour three journalists (Ajay Hamal, Ayush Khadka and Chakra Karki) for their news reports on the Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon 2008.