KATHMANDU, June 24: Nepal introduced Visit Nepal Year 2020, a year long tourism promotional campaign, in China during the ongoing visit of Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli.

In a 14-point joint statement issued on Thursday during the visit, China assures support for Visit Nepal Year (VNY) 2020 campaign. 

According to a statement issued by Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), the Chinese side has agreed to continue providing Chinese language training in Nepal for Nepali tourism professionals to help promote Nepal’s tourism industry. 

In order to bring more tourists from the northern neighbor, the government has been introducing several services specially targeted toward Chinese tourists. Recently, Tribhuvan International Airport provided service in Chinese language for 12 days. 

“The Chinese government will continue to help arrange Chinese media and travel agency delegations to visit Nepal and encourage relevant Chinese agencies to further promote Nepal in China in view of upcoming Visit Nepal Year 2020,” reads the joint statement. 

Furthermore, the Chinese side has also invited Nepal to participate in the China International Travel Mart (CITM) to be held soon in 2018. As mentioned in the joint statement, the two sides have agreed to promote exchanges and cooperation in education, culture, tourism, media, thinks, youth, and people-to-people relations.

According to the joint statement, the Chinese side has agreed to encourage the Tibet Autonomous Region as well as Sichuan, Yunnan and Qinghai and other provinces to enhance cooperation in the areas of trade, tourism and investment, among others. The Chinese side also has agreed to provide around 400 training opportunities in human resources development and more government scholarships to Nepal.

“Nepali side reaffirmed its full commitment as specified in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2014 between the Ministry of Education of Nepal and the Chinese Embassy in Nepal, for facilitating the teaching program of volunteer Chinese language teachers in Nepal,” NTB said in the statement. 

The number of Chinese tourists visiting Nepal is increasing with every passing year. China was the second largest visitor generating market for Nepal last year with 104,664 visitors. In 2016, 104,005 Chinese tourists had visited Nepal.

According to the Department of Immigration, tourist arrivals from the northern neighbor (36,384) were the highest in the first quarter of 2018. Total arrivals from China over the first four months of 2018 stands at 53,322

 
• china
 
• visit
 
• nepal
 
• campaign