By Rick M 
Nepal is indeed eyeing to be world’s best tourism spot with the introduction the new tourism year. It is an ambitious program for the upcoming ten years, which is designed to familiarize the international community with the cultural, scenic, and tourism attractiveness of the country.
NEBT, Nepali government through USAID, officially inaugurates the 2024 International Tourism Campaign. This collaboration extends the momentum of the prior year’s campaign, which, with reaching over 16 million travelers, received $15.8 million in earned media value.
The foundation of this new campaign is a collaboration with Steller, a storytelling platform inspired by travel. Four gateway destination of Nepal, Kathmandu, Pokhara, Bardiya and Ilam will be featured where the global producer and directors will travel to explore the potential shooting locations. These creators will put together amazing and beautiful video and photographs to convey Nepal’s natural beauty, culture, and adventure tourism.
The campaign is supposed to cover more than twenty million viewers, which will definitely enhance Nepal’s position in the global tourism panorama. That is why, using digital platforms and cooperating with the international travel media, Nepal wants to promote itself as a year-round destination for any type of tourists.
US Ambassador to Nepal, Dean Thompson said that he is pleased to promote the campaign and found Nepal as a destination with immense opportunities to become one of the world’s best tourist destinations. potential endowment resources he advised foreign tourists to visit Uganda due to its diverse landscapes, stock and diverse culture. Similarly, during his remarks, Ambassador Thompson also appreciated that part of sustainable and inclusive economic growth, tourism is one of the most important sectors in Nepalese economy.
Nearly 1.5 million international travellers visited Nepal in 2023, according to relevant data published by Nandini Lahe Thapa, the officiating CEO of Nepal Tourism Board. This is somewhat a rebound for the countries tourism sector which was heavily affected by the COVID19 virus. With optimism, Thapa opined that the new campaign constitutional would augment the same positive trend through unveiling of year round tourism products of Nepal.
This comes at a time when for Nepal tourism has been a bit uprising but still needs time to reach the pre covid 19 levels. According to analysed data of the Nepal Tourism Board, the arrival of international tourists has increased 8.3 % in August 2024 from that of the corresponding month of the prior year. Despite this growth, tourism officials agree that the recovery has been somewhat slower than desired.
To this end, there are major objectives of the campaign, which will aim at implementing a number of major strategies aimed at attracting a wide group of international visitors. These include; Digital marketing that is specific to travel, engaging social media travel influencers, and social partners like most frequent traveler website. It will also give emphasis on presenting adventure tourism products of Nepal including hiking at the Annapurna Circuit, reaching at the base of Mount Everest and Himalayan Voyages and watching wildlife at Chitwan.
Like any other sector worldwide, Infrastructure development is also a significant focus area of Nepalese tourism policy. This will include funding for the improvement of the transport infrastructure, improving the available accommodation and strengthening infrastructure to support remote areas. Such enhancements are intended on enhancing the image of Nepal to attract broader categories of travelers including deluxe travelers.
It would also be paramount to note that an aspect of sustainability us considered in the campaign program through its emphasis on environmental conservation inclusive of environmental conservation practices as well as, conservation of resources in tourism. This is in accordance with the global strategy in sustainable tourism and is believed to incorporate environmentally friendly travelers throughout the world.
The campaign also tries to spread out or extend the geographical targeted customers across different international regions. India has always been Nepal’s major source of tourists but the authorities are targeting to attract travelers from other Asian nations, Europe, Americas and Australia. This diversification strategy is extremely important to develop a robust tourism structure, which would not be affected by regional economy and global crises.
In respect of these efforts, Nepal has been concentrating on development of visa regimes as well as flight access. By easing visa processes, affording online visas, and using visa on arrivals should ease tourism access to the country. Also, development of a direct flight connectivity with major international gateway cities will open up easier access to people to travel to Nepal rather than in other places.
Also, the Ministry of Tourism is a large part of the Nepalese economy as tourism is one of the largest sources of the country’s has revenue and employment. The effect of this campaign could potentially be hugely effective which could greatly improve the tourism industry as well as the complementary businesses like housing, transport and arts and crafts businesses.
While going for such ambitious tourism publicity, ahead lies several opportunities and prospects for Nepal. Featuring stunning natural sceneries, diverse culturally significant attractions and tourism adventure features, the country is well placed to magnetize the world’s travelers. However, need to meet the infrastructures necessities, safety of the visitors, and environmental conservation will be harder and vital for the success of the company.
Both the Nepal Tourism Board and the campaign’s other stakeholders have faith in the ability of the campaign to drastically make an impact within the country’s tourism industry. They, through promoting the various attractions in the country and enhancing the quality of visitors’ experience, they aim at not only increasing the number of visitors to the country but also extend their visit and come back again and again.
Over the course of the next several months and years the global community will be waiting to see how the Nepalese tourism sector develops. Situated between two giants India in south and China in north, Nepal possess all the raw materials that can made this country one of the best tourist center of the world with its beautiful Himalayas, temples and warm people. By the success of this campaign, could be possible making a new dawn to promote the tourism industry of Nepal and providing economic benefits along with the memories of the lifetime travel packages to the tourists around the world.