Negligible Preparations for “Visit Nepal 2020”

• Samundra Ghimire 

Kathmandu: Nepal government’s claim to bring 2 million tourists in the country under the “Visit Nepal 2020” campaign is being looked at with skeptical note.

“Visit Nepal 2020” is knocking at the door and only six months are left for it to begin, whereas preparations are negligible.

The secretariate of the Visit Nepal office should have 24 officials, but only 4 officials were found deputed to this office with hardly any work.

Neither the government has allocated any budget for it, nor a website is created to disseminate information about Visit Nepal 2020. Even a telephone has not been connected to this new office.

According to Visit Nepal 2020 campaign secretariate administration chief Nilam Kumar Neupane, a sub-domain of the website under the main domain of the Tourism Board will be initiated to give information to the foreign tourists.

The main issue is that who will take the responsibility of the website after the Visit Year is over. That’s why the government seems to be in a state of dilemma.

Although, the campaign secretariate office has been shifted to Keshar Mahal for being congested at Tourism Board, yet not much work has been pushed forward.

However, Neupane said, “We are engaged in internal preparations. We have already initiated the Visit Nepal 2020 campaign from Delhi.”

Tourism entrepreneurs are also skeptical about the goals and mission of the national campaign, as final list of 20 tourist destination has not been finalized so far.

The grime situation of belated preparation was marred by the sudden demise of Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Rabindra Adhikari in a helicopter accident recently, who is considered as the main coordinator for this campaign. No has been appointed in his place in the Ministry.

Senior vice president of the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) Binayak Shah said that if the preparations remain so negligible then our expectations about the mission of this campaign will not be fulfilled.

Shah further opined that even though Chinese and Indian tourist numbers might increase, yet we need to enhance infrastructure to bring 2 million tourists in the country.

Similarly, Chairperson Nabraj Dahal of Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN) said that since the government has not yet addressed the issues such as facilities of visa, trail permit, and E-Visa, there is dwindling hope of meeting mission and expected goals.