The promotional efforts cost the country Rs 49.38 million. Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), the agency entrusted to promote the industry, said the bill is only 15 percent more than what it spent in 2009/10.[break]
The amount spent for luring the tourists was too low, particularly in view of the government target to bring a million tourists during the year.
"Nonetheless, we spent the money focusing on traditional markets and also made efforts to promote Nepal in some new markets," said Nandini Lahe-Thapa, director of Tourism Marketing, NTB, that celebrated its 13th anniversary on Friday.
NTB promoted Nepal in new cities of India and China, which are also its traditional markets.
"Under this, we participated in different events organized in north-eastern states in India and cities like Shenzhen and Kunming of China," she said. India and China are the two largest tourism generating countries for Nepal. During the year, Nepal received 200,000 tourists from India and Rs 100,000 from China.
NTB also focused on deepening its efforts in Bangladesh and Bhutan - the two other South Asian markets that show huge potentials to generate visitors. Thanks to those efforts, Thapa said the volume of tourists from Bangladesh is increasing over last some years.
"Promotional efforts have paid off as the growth in tourist arrivals has remained remarkable," said Tourism Secretary Dr Ganesh Raj Joshi, expressing hope that it would get better in coming years. "We should target to bring 1.5 million tourists in coming years," he added at the program organized to mark NTB´s anniversary.
Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) Lokendra Bista Magar said there is a need to promote tourism industry among Nepalis as well. "Future of the country rests on the development of tourism and hydropower and we should make our efforts towards that," he stated.
Minister Magar and officiating CEO of NTB Subash Nirola unveiled a publication of NTB ´In Focus 2011´.
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