NEWS AND EVENTS

Students of Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM) are organizing ‘Arambha Food Fiesta 2010’ at NATHM premises on 28 August.

Apart from national and international cuisines, the day-long event will also showcase Nepali cultural dances, games and music and a photo exhibition on Nepal’s tourism products.

The event is being organized with the theme of ‘United for Tourism’ to promote Nepal Tourism Year 2011 campaign. The students plant to organize the event in the most eco-friendly way to raise awareness about environment conservation.

“An alfresco party with variety of delicious dishes and live music from different bands like Robin & The New Revolution, Cobweb and Stem Injuns among others will enthrall the crowd and make them feel refreshed,” NATH said in a statement.

TAAN E-news 23 Aug 2010

Oman Air has announced that it will start direct flights between Muscat and Kathmandu from September 2. The airlines hope that the flights would benefit Nepali workers who have been working in Oman. The airlines will fly four times a week to Kathmandu on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Apart from direct flights to Muscat, the airline will also offer connecting flight to other destinations like Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Dubai in the UAE as well as other destinations in the Gulf and Europe. The airline plans to operate B737-700 aircraft on the route.

TAAN E-news 23 Aug 2010

Buddha Air, one of the leading domestic airlines in the country, is expanding its wings to international skies with its maiden international flight to Paro in Bhutan from August 23. The airline will initially operate four flights a week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday using an 18-seater Beech 1900D aircraft. Buddha Air plans to gradually increase the frequency to seven flights a week. The existing Air Service Agreement between Nepal and Bhutan allows both sides to have a maximum of seven flights a week between Kathmandu and Paro.

After launching flights to Bhutan, Buddha Air will also start preparations to fly to Indian cities of Patna, Lucknow and Kolkata. The airline is in the process of receiving a letter of designation from India's Ministry of External Affairs. The existing Air Service Agreement between Nepal and India allows Nepali airlines to operate flights to 26 destinations in India.

TAAN E-news 23 Aug 2010

Bhaktapur Municipality has decided to increase entry fee for foreign tourists visiting the country from the very first day of Nepal Tourism Year 2011.

Municipality sources say the entry fee is almost 100 percent higher than what the municipality has been collecting at present. The municipality will charge Rs 100 as entry fee for visitors from SAARC countries and Rs 1,000 from visitors from other countries from January 2011.

Bhaktapur, one of the seven UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Kathmandu Valley, is popular among foreign visitors for historic temples, palace complexes and ancient art, culture and tradition.

TAAN E-news 23 Aug 2010

After the presentation, various speakers criticized the government for neglecting Rolwaling region which was the gateway to Mt Everest in the early years.

Similarly, Lal Prasad Gurung, director of Annapurna Conservation Area, made a presentation on Sustainable Tourism Development in the Annapurna Conservation Area. "As the advent of roads is shortening trekking routes in the region, we are identifying and developing alternative routes in coordination with Trekking Agencies' of Association Nepal (TAAN)," he added. Making a presentation on 'Manaslu: A Unique Mountain Tourism Destination', Madhu Chhetri, chief of Manaslu Conservation Area, said new trekking routes like Tsum Valley have been developed in the region to attract more visitors to the region. "Organisations like TAAN have been supporting us to develop new routes in the region," Chhetri added.

Prachanda Man Shrestha, CEO of Nepal Tourism Board, said Nepal nature-based tourism is Npeal's unique selling point and that Nepal has been successfully taking conservation and tourism hand in hand.

TAAN E-news 23 Aug 2010

A delegation of Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal (TAAN) met with Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Sharat Singh Bhandari and expressed concerned over the decision of the people of Upper Mustang to bar trekkers from entering the area from October 1.

It also drew the government's attention over the Dolpa District Development Committee's decision to collect Rs 500 each from trekkers to Dolpo region from the coming season.

The delegation also said the imposition of additional fees and obstructions on popular trekking routes could make negative impact on the tourism industry ahead of Nepal Tourism Year 2011.

Locals of Upper Mustang a few days ago had decided to bar trekkers to the region, stating that the Home Ministry hadn't released 60 percent of the royalty fee collected from trekkers for development works at the local level, despite expressing commitment to do so.

Responding to the delegation, Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Sharat Singh Bhandari said they would raise the issue before the Home Ministry and Local Development Ministry.

TAAN E-news 23 Aug 2010

Himalayan News Service

KATHMANDU: Gaurishankar Area Conservation (GCA) has become the third Conservation Area as per the Nepal Gazette dated January 11, 2010.

Earlier, only Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) and Mansalu Conservation Area (MCA) were recognised as conservation areas.

“Now, Gaurishankar will be conserved by NTNC for 20 years. We need to develop GCA,” said Juddha Bahadur Gurung, member secretary, NTNC. “We are trying to develop GCA as climate-friendly tourist destination,” he said.

According to the Nepal Gazette dated July 19, 2010, Gaurishankar Area Conservation responsibility has been entrusted to the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) for 20 years. ACA and MCA are already under the responsibility of NTNC.

GCA covers an area of 2,179 square kilometers and encompasses 22 Village Development Committees of three districts. Along with outstanding bio-diversity, GCA has been recognised as new tourist destination for the Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) 2011. “GCA is a wildlife corridor that connects to Langtang and Sagarmatha,” said Dr Siddhartha Bajra Bajracharya, executive officer, NTNC.

“It is a new tourism product. As the existing tourism destinations can not be sufficient for the tourism year, we need to promote GCA with special infrastructure development programme there,” Bajracharya said. According to Bajracharya, Gaurishankar can be developed as carbon neutral tourism destination as its main attraction.

“Compared to ACA and MCA, GCA has easy accessibility through roads as one can easily drive to the destination if necessary,” he said. Gaurishankar however, connects Langtang and Sagarmatha. It is relatively less visited and there is no exact data about the tourists arriving at GCA. Annually, more than 60,000 tourists visit ACA, while above 30,000 visit Sagarmatha and more than 10,000 visit the Langtang area.

Bajracharya said different tourist products can be promoted at Gaurishankar. He said, “Along with high-altitude, the region has a number of variations which need to be explored.”

“On an average, 1,000 tourists visits the area annually. However, the number can be increased with proper infrastructure and publicity,” he said. GCA can be developed for Trekking Tourism, Wildlife Tourism, Nature-based Tourism, Adventure Tourism, and Mountaineering.

www.thehimalayantimes.com 19 Aug 010

KATHMANDU: Nepal Tourism Year 2011 is providing all necessary impetus to the country’s hotel industry. Hotels, which were closed, are being revived. Their standards are being revisited to satisfy the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) guidelines. New hotels’ registration is up in anticipation of a boom time. And, foreign investments in the hotel sector are standing out at a time when the economy has not seen much FDI flow in recent times.

“We are putting in Rs 10 million on renovations only,” said Harihar Lal Shrestha, managing director, Hotel Woodlands Pvt Ltd. Kathmandu-based Hotel Woodlands is in the process of revival after being out of operation for three years. The hotel was closed in 2007. The four-star hotel is undergoing renovations with quality enhancement being the most important consideration.

MoTCA data reveals that new hotel registration has increased to 1,122 in 2009-10. Most of the new hotels are outside the valley.

In Kathmandu, most of these new hotels are under-construction while some closed facilities are being revived. Intensification of activity in the hotel sector is palpable, said a market watcher.

Lumbini, which attracts Buddhists from China, Japan, Sri Lanka among other countries, has three new hotels with foreign equity in the pipeline. One of them is Lumbini Hotel Kasai which is having Chinese investments.

Another  hotel going through infrastructure development is Lumbini Hokke Hotel. Hotel Devotee at Dhangadhi is another hotel in the process of finalising its standards. At Nepalgunj, one-star Hotel Sneha is developing its infrastructure to upgrade itself to a three-star status.

Madhav Om Shrestha, executive chairman, Hotel Association of Nepal, said the private sector is excited about the tourism year and gearing up for it.

By Eliza Manandhar www.thehimalayantimes.com 18 Aug 010

Tourist Guide Association of Nepal (TURGAN) – the association of certified tour guides in the country -- has proposed to raise freelance tourist guide service charge by 60-70 percent from October 01.

TURGAN President Hare Ram Baral said they proposed for the hike as the remuneration of tour guides hasn’t been raised after two percent hike in 2007 following the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nepal Association of Tours and Travel Agents (NATTA).

But travel agencies operators have said that the new rates were not reasonable. They said the hike in remuneration of guides can affect the tourism sector as a whole.

NATTA CEO Hari Sarmah said the new rates can’t be implemented soon because tourism entrepreneurs have already forwarded their quotations to foreign agencies.

Baral said they had to forwarded circulars about the new rates to NATTA and other concerned agencies after their proposal for the same was not entertained on time

TAAN e-news 22 July 2010

CAAN sources said the AOC of four airlines were cancelled after the aviation regulator was convinced with the airlines’ financial and technical strength.

“AOC of those four airlines have been annulled as per Aviation Regulations with effect from July 16,” the sources added. The sources further added that the airlines could apply against the decision within 180 days if they have convincing bases including aircraft, pilots, regular flights and strong financial backing.

 TAAN e-news 22 July 2010