VITOF to focus on promoting tourism in quake-affected villages

Kaulepani receives village tourism award

KATHMANDU, August 1: Village Tourism Promotion Forum (VITOF)-Nepal is planning to make community-building a corner-stone in its recovery plan and promote one village in each earthquake-affected district as a 'model village'.

"As tourism-dependant villages in Gorkha, Rasuwa, Dhading, Nuwakot, Makawanpur, Kavrepalanchowk, Sindhupalchowk, Dolakha and Sindhuli have been damaged by the quake, VITOF has made the plan to help in reconstruction in the region and wants to promote village tourism. For this we want support and help from all the tourism industry stakeholders," Raj Kumar Thapa, the general secretary of VITOF-Nepal, said.

As tourism is closely linked to the villages, the villagers there, and the service they provide, tourism entrepreneurs have said that the government should support the development of village tourism.

Every year, VITOF celebrates Village Tourism Day on July 31 and announces its 'best village' for the year. This year, the best village tourism award was given to Kaulepani Homestay of Lamjung for providing the best hospitality service, for the quality of food it served, and for better sanitation and hygiene factors.

Speaking at a ceremony organized in Kathmandu on Friday to commemorate Village Tourism Day, Tourism Secretary Suresh Man Shrestha said that the village is linked with every aspect of tourism -- be it trekking, mountaineering or the homestays. "For the development of tourism, we should promote our villages and culture. Strengthening village tourism is very important," Shrestha said, adding that villages were a beautiful asset that Nepalis had.

VITOF has been focusing one village every year and announces its 'Village of the Year' on the occasion of World Tourism Day on September 27. At present, Kaulepani is the 'Village of the Year' until September this year. A new 'Village of the Year' will be declared on World Tourism Day.

Chitra Bahadur Gurung, the president of VITOF-Nepal, said that the earthquake had affected village tourism and that all stakeholders should support the reconstruction and revival of village tourism.

"We are currently working to revive tourism in Barpak, the famous homestay destination. The entrepreneurs of Barpak have initiated the concept of starting the homestay by making a community hall for present as it will take time to reconstruct the entire home. We have collected reconstruction fund and will support Barpak to make the hall for tourism revival," said Gurung.

Prem Sharma, senior advisor of VITOF, said that there was huge potential in village tourism as many were as yet unexplored and virgin products. "One can enjoy warm hospitality and culture there and it is affordable too," he said.

"Low civic awareness regarding homestay, poor media exposure and low government attention and support are among the major hindrances to village tourism," Sharma said.

"We are working to bring in international media for fam trips. We will also take representatives of Nepali as well as international media to different tourist destinations in September so that we can promote tourism for the coming season," Ramesh Kumar Adhikari, the chief administrator of Nepal Tourism Board, said, urging people to disseminate the right news about Nepal.