Dispelling Coronavirus fear from the tourism sector is our priority: Dr. Regmi

Nepal government has recently appointed Dr. Dhananjay Regmi as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nepal Tourism Board for a term of four years. Dr. Regmi has vowed to keep away from anything that may taint the tourisms sector during his office tenure.

While talking to highlights tourism Dr. Regmi said that he will make all possible efforts to achieve the prosperity and progress of the tourism sector by coordinating with private tourism entrepreneurs.

Indicating towards the detrimental effect of pandemic fear of epidemic Coronavirus on the tourism sector in Nepal, Dr. Regmi claimed that his priority would be to fight against the bad effect of coronavirus and free Nepal’s tourism sector from its worse impact.

Concerning promoting the Nepal government’s Visit Nepal 2020 campaign, Dr. Regmi said that Nepal Tourism Board has focused on how to bring in more tourists in the country and bolster economic development.

” Almost two weeks passed ever since I took over the post of CEO at Nepal Tourism Board. I am learning about its plans and system of doing things and ways to monitor the earlier tourism-related activities. Anyway, I need to follow the footsteps of my predecessors” said Regmi.

On being asked about his new action plan for Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), Regmi said his plans would go according to plans developed under NTB yearly action plans and nothing beyond that and following those NTB action plans would be his priority.

Regmi also claimed that his other job assignment would be to digitalize information which has not been digitalized before. Regmi further said that he has been coordinating and consulting with the Ministry of Health and other representatives concerned with the private tourism sector to arrive at one consensus to grapple with worldwide bad effects of coronavirus.

“We are looking for an alternative tourism market after Chinese tourists arrival plummeted sharply due to coronavirus fear. We have identified some other countries too. We are focussing on border towns. For example, at least 20 border towns of India which are within 100 km periphery range from Butwal and Kanchanpur are focused now.” said Regmi.Regmi also hoped that once the Nepal Airlines Corporation starts flights to Japan, more Japanese tourists are expected to arrive here.

“We are talking to Japanese tour operators and Korean tour operators and various other organizations for collaboration in the tourism sector,” said Regmi.

Regmi also said that after the last visit of Bangladeshi president in Nepal many Bangladeshi tourists are interested to visit Nepal. However, India permits tourist visas to Bangladeshis only once as they have to cross Indian territory to reach the Nepal border. Once they exist out of Nepal they cannot enter again according to Indian provision of visa provided to them. And bringing Bangladeshis through airways is costly enough. So, diplomatic approaches are being pursued with India and Bangladesh in this connection.NTB has completed its publicity works to promote Nepal’s tourism in at least 50 countries including China, India, Bangladesh, Japan, Korea, and Hongkong.

Regmi also opined that mishaps such as those of the Annapurna region and Daman should be prevented in future to get the full trust of the tourists.