In the initial phase, the company, For Days, has brought 54 Japanese tourists to Nepal. They will leave Nepal in the next four days.
“Next batch will arrive soon and more will come when we hold our meetings here,” Keiko Wada, founder and president of For Days told myrepublica.com on the sidelines of a function held to welcome the Japanese team in Kathmandu on Friday. The company holds at least three of its meetings abroad.
For Days, established some five years ago, manufactures life prolonging health drinks for ageing people. It has a clientele base of 210,000 and sells its products only among its group.
It may sound odd for a health drink company to promote Nepal’s tourism but “this is a part of our corporate social responsibility (CSR),” Wada, who’s on a fourth visit to Nepal, said.
As a part of its CSR, the company is also planning to contribute a portion of its profits to improve people’s livelihood in Sarangkot, a hill-top tourist destination near Pokhara in western Nepal.
“I can’t give you any figures yet but we will give whatever we can,” Wada, a social entrepreneur, said. The money will be used to provide handicraft training, especially on production of souvenir items, to underprivileged people in Sarangkot.
“We will train people to make products that can promote the name of Nepal in Japan and other countries where the goods are sold,” Wada said. The Japanese team will also provide training on packaging so that the goods kept on the shelves of the stores look appealing.
The products manufactured by people of Sarangkot will be sold in Japan and departure lounge of Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport. “The income generated from the sales will go to those who have produced them,” Wada said. “We believe this is a better way of helping the needy people than handing over cash to them.”
Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) is soon signing a memorandum of understanding with the company in this regard. Under this voluntary agreement, the company will be responsible for promoting goods manufactured by people of Sarangkot in Japan.
“We hope this is one way of marketing Nepal’s name as a travel destination which will ultimately inspire Japanese people to visit our country. On top of that their endeavors also ensure that benefits of tourism will trickle down to the people who are in the lowest rungs of the economic ladder,” Prachanda Man Shrestha, CEO of NTB said. “We are ready to collaborate with any other company or group and run such projects.”
For Days was earlier carrying out voluntary tourism promotion programs in Cambodia. “But we realized there were too many organizations working for the welfare of underprivileged people,” Wada said. “That’s why we shifted to Nepal.”
Speaking at the function organized to welcome the Japanese team, Japanese ambassador to Nepal, Tatsuo Mizuno, urged Nepal to diversify its range of tourism products. He said, “The market for sightseeing spots, natural beauty and scenery is becoming too competitive. The country has to look for additional unique products to gain an edge.
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