Gandaki provincial week-long tourism promotion concludes

Kathmandu: The week-long ‘Tourism Promotion Campaign – Sales Mission’ launched by the Gandaki state government to promote domestic tourism has been concluded on Wednesday in the federal capital Kathmandu.

On Wednesday, Forest, Tourism and Industry Minister of Gandaki Province, Bikash Lamsal invited President Vidya Devi Bhandari to visit the Gandaki province. President Bhandari promised to visit Gandaki during the inauguration of the Shaligram Museum.

The campaign was concluded at the Nepal Tourism Board. Tourism minister of the Federal Government, Yogesh Bhattarai, was present at the closing ceremony. A photo exhibition of various tourist areas of Gandaki province was also done at the board office.

Gandaki’s tourism promotion campaign, which started from province no.5, was concluded in province no.3 through province no. 1 & 2.  Juddha Bahadur Gurung, coordinator of Gandaki province Tourism Year, said the main purpose of the campaign was successful.

“In fact, we had three objectives, to expand the relations between the federal and the state government, relations between businessmen, and to propagate among the common consumer,” he said, “and we succeeded in all three.”

Chief Minister and Tourism Minister of all the states except Chief Minister Shankar Pokhrel of the province no.5 had participated in the campaign. Gandaki Tourism Minister Lamsal has invited all the Chief Ministers to visit Gandaki.

Similarly, ‘Road Show’ and photo exhibition was also organized in the major cities of those states during the campaign. It was also attended by nationally established artists born in Gandaki province.

According to Gurung, the program of Province 2 was special. Chief Minister of province 2, Tourism Minister, Vice-President of the Planning Commission and others participated in the program. In addition, the Chief Minister of the province 2 has also committed to take his staff for a Gandaki visit. Also, both sides have agreed to start direct flights between Janakpur and Pokhara.

During the campaign, there was the presentation of audio-visual material related to the promotion of tourism from various tourist areas of Gandaki and photo exhibition of attractive 110 tourist destinations of the state.

According to Kirtan Raj Poudel, chief of the Tourism Division, there was an interaction among the businessmen, government officials, and private sectors of Bhairahawa, Butwal, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Birgunj, Hetauda and Kathmandu.

A team of 70 people including government officials, tourist entrepreneurs, artists, and media workers from Gandaki were involved in the campaign. Gandaki province, which considers tourism as the mainstay of prosperity, is celebrating 2019 as an internal tourism year.

Federal Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai expressed his happiness over the Gandaki government’s promotion of its state and said that Gandaki Promotion will also help Nepal visit the year 2020.