The 41st annual general meeting (AGM) of the association had elected 18 members in executive committee earlier in the day. [break]The committee then selected president and other office-bearers.
The new executive committee has B K Shrestha as 1st vice-president, Binod Shanker Shrestha as 2nd vice-president, Amar Man Shakya as general secretary and Abhishek Shrestha as treasurer. Other members in the committee are Prabin Bahadur Pandey, Srijana Rana, Dinesh Bista, Biplab Paudel, Dinesh Tuladhar, Chhiten Norkel, Ghanendra Shrestha, Bishal Kumar, Rajan Shrestha, Shreedhar Acharya, Rakesh Das Shrestha and others.
Newly elected President Kakshapati nominated Ghanashyam Shrestha in the executive committee right after his election to the post. He will nominate two more members in the executive committee later.
HAN is the apex body of 286 hotels across the country.
Inaugurating the AGM earlier in the day, Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai said the government was positive about listing tourism as a national priority industry.
“The government will provide additional facilities to the hoteliers,” he assured. Bhattarai also asked tourism entrepreneurs to focus on programs that would help lengthen tourists´ stay in Nepal.
“Tourist arrival is increasing at a healthy rate. We will now focus on increasing tourists´ length of stay, identifying new destinations and promoting Nepal in international arena,” he said, asking entrepreneurs to focus on equitable sharing of profit for sustainable peace and prosperity of the country.
Delivering his keynote speech on ´Tourism Development for Investment and Employment´, Radhesh Pant, president of Nepal Investment Board, stressed the need for new activities to increased tourists´ per capita expenditure and length of stay.
Presenting the statistics of 2011, Pant said direct contribution of tourism to GDP was 3.2 percent (Rs 59.4 billion) and total contribution is estimated at 6.7 percent of GDP.
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