NEWS AND EVENTS

Implementing Expert Group (IEG) – the investment group of businessmen involved in international trade – is preparing for the launch of its two new four-star hotels on the eve of Nepal Tourism Year 2011.

If everything goes as planned, Airport Hotel near Tribhuvan International Airport and Red Rose Apartment Hotel will begin operation from December.

The group is investing more than Rs 1 billion in the two projects. Sources at IEG said the new hotels would focus on up-market clientele and that they would not compromise on quality. The group will soft

launch the hotels in December and aggressively market and promote them in the first few months of 2011. While the Airport Hotel targets passengers flying to and from Tribhuvan International Airport, Red Rose expects to get visitors who want to stay for seven days or more.

Airport Hotel will have 55 rooms in five floors, while Red Rose will have 11 apartment and 30 rooms. Apart from accommodation facility, the group is also preparing to build operate shopping complexes and restaurants in both the buildings.

TAAN e-news 22 July 2010

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) and Himalayan Rescue Association on July 21 signed an agreement to establish Tourism Crisis Cell (TCC) to coordinate rescue of tourists in case of emergencies and address other tourism related problems.

HRA, which has been involved in coordinating rescue operations in mountain areas, will establish and operate TCC secretariat at its office building in Lazimpat. The cell can been contacted round-the-clock through 4442555 and 9751044088 hunting lines. As per the agreement, HRA has been entrusted with the responsibility of running shuttle bus service from Tribhuvan International Airport to different places in Kathmandu Valley during protests, bandas and other forms of strikes. Earlier, NTB used to operate shuttle bus service.

Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal (TAAN), Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN), Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA), PATA Nepal Chapter and Nepal Association of Tour Operators (NATO) are the members of the cell.

TAAN e-news 22 July 2010

A team of 20 government employees, including a woman, led by secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet Leelamani Poudyal is preparing to climb Mt Everest – the tallest peak on earth – next season.

Poudel made up his mind to climb Mt Everest while he was working with Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation two years ago.

The team will take basic and advance mountaineering training this year and the coming year and organize an expedition to Everest in spring next year.

The employees have already taken climbing training at the artificial climbing wall of Pasang Lhamu Mountaineering Federation and rock climbing at Nagarjun. They left for Rasuwa district in the third week of June to climb Yala Peak (5,550m).

A total of 49 government employees had applied at the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation to climb Everest. Under secretary Baburam Bhandari said they had selected 20 employees through different tests.

The team led by Poudel has joint secretary Laxman Prasad Bhattarai, Durga Prasad Bhattarai, section officer Muktiram Rijal and office assistant Rukmini Gurung, among others.

The government has exempted permit fee for the expedition and is also bearing all expenses of the expedition. He said the government will allocate a budget of Rs 30 million for the expedition in the upcoming budget.

Source TAAN-enews 22 June 2010

A team of Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal (TAAN) along with a number of organizations recently completed reconnaissance trek to Panchpokhari area in Sindhupalchowk district. Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), UNDP/MEDEP and Sindhupalchowk-Panchpokhari Tourism Development
Committee (SPTDC) were the other partners of the trek. The team had left Kathmandu on June 4.

Paanchpokhari (literally means Five Ponds), which falls in the Langtang National Park, is formed by melting glaciers and all the lakes are considered sacred.  There is also a Hindu temple nearby dedicated to Lord Shiva. Paanchpokhari is also among the nine highest altitude wetlands in the world. The sacred place wears a festive look during Janai Purnima festival (which is celebrated in July-August). Pilgrims from nearby villages and all over the country visit the place for to offer prayers. The festival runs for 15 days.

The 13-member team led by Mahendra Singh Thapa, second vice president of TAAN, has developed and suggested nine-day itinerary to Panchpokhari. The first day’s trek takes us to a beautiful village named Haveli after a drive of seven and half hours via Sankhu and Melamchi and a light trek of two hours. The second day takes trekkers to Tapkharka through dense forests and difficult trail in five hours. The third day’s trek is relatively shorter and ends at a place called Nosyampati. Thoughout the trek, one can enjoy pristine views of Pancpokhari Lake – literally five lakes – and snowcapped mountains. Trek from Nosyampati to Panchpokhari, which takes about three and a half hours, on the fourth day is a semi-rigorous hike. But you get rewarded with the magnificent views of all the five lakes and snowcapped mountains.

The fifth day begins with a hike to the highest point near the lake from where one can get stupendous views of the Yangri, Jugal, Dorje Lakpa, Gauri Shankar and Langtang Himalayan ranges. After lunch at Panchpokhari, the trek progresses back to Nosyampati which is a walk of three and a half hours. The trek on the sixth day is a bit long (seven hours approximately) and it begins from Nosyampati and concludes at Tembathang via Sukpa Kharka. Tembathang is a beautiful village of Sherpas and also the base camp of Jugal Himal. On the seventh day, the trek (approximately six hours) progresses to Gumba Tamang village where we get opportunity to enjoy Tamang culture. The trek on the eight day takes us to Pangtang village (1730m) which is inhabited by Tamang and Newar population. A three and a half hour trek on the ninth day takes us to Chanaute from where a drive of around three hours takes to Kathmandu. Along with suggested itineraries, the team will also prepare promotional collaterals of the trek very soon.

Source TAAN-enews 22 June 2010

Arrival from the South Asian region, except India and Sri Lanka, recorded a positive growth of 4.9 percent with strong contribution from Bangladesh (71.2 percent) and Pakistan (35.1 percent). Visitor arrivals from India, the largest visitor generating country for Nepal, witnessed a soft decline of 2.6 percent. Arrivals from the South Asia region grew by 15.9 percent in the first four months of April, compared to the figures recorded in the same period last year.

In the like manner, arrivals from Asia (other than South Asia) maintained the upward trend, thanks to strong contribution of Malaysia (14.2 percent) and South Korea (20.3 percent).

The figures also show increasing trend in the visitor arrivals from US and Canada with a growth of 3 percent and 8.3 percent respectively. However, Australia and New Zealand have registered negative growth by 15 percent and 9.3 percent respectively. European markets registered a negative growth of 5.5 percent.

Source TAAN e-news 14/5/010 http://www.taan.org.np

A 17-member team on 13 May embarked on a 17-day mapping and exploratory trip to Dhorpatan area in Baglung and Myagdi districts. The program is the joint initiative of Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal (TAAN), UNDP-MEDEP and Nepal Tourism Board.

The team comprises of representatives of TAAN, NTB, UNDP-MEDEP and local organizations along with videographers, photographers and a cartographer. The team will conduct feasibility study on the possibility of new tourism destinations and development of trekking route map; make visual documentary for promotion of the new trekking destination along and collect proper information about local community, available services, hospitality, etc. It will also produce promotional materials of the area and study the possibility of involving private sector people for marketing and promotion of tourism destination and products.

The estimated expenditure of the exploratory expedition is Rs 1,079,500. TAAN and NTB are contributing 15 percent and 25 percent of the total cost respectively, while UNDP-MEDEP is chipping in the rest.

TAAN has been taking initiative in developing new trekking areas in the country. Prior to this, it organized exploratory trips Tsum Valley, Panchpokhari, Machhapuchhre Base Camp and Ganesh Himal among others.

Source TAAN e-news 14/5/010 http://www.taan.org.np

Keeping in view the upcoming Nepal Tourism Year 2011 campaign, the government on May 7 decided to exempt visa fee for foreign mountaineers, who have climbed Mount Everest and Mt Dhaulagiri, for 2010 and 2011.

It also decided to waive 50 percent royalty fee for mountaineers climbing Mt Dhaulagiri in 2010 and 2011 to celebrate the golden jubilee of the first ascent of Mt Dhaulagiri.

More than 4,000 climbers have scaled Mt Everest since it was first climbed by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in 1953. Some 700 of these foreigners are said to be still alive.

"We have decided to waive the visa fees for these mountaineers in 2010 and 2011 as a part of promoting Nepal Tourism Year campaign," Ranjan Aryal, acting secretary at the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) said.

Nepal is celebrating that year 2011 as Nepal Tourism Year campaign and it aims to welcome one million foreign tourists during the year. 

 Source TAAN e-news 14/5/010 http://www.taan.org.np

Nepali security agencies along with US Embassy in Nepal and Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal (TAAN) have intensified search for missing US trekker Aubrey Caroline Sacco.

Aubrey checked in with the Langtang National Park check-point at Dhunche on April 20 and have gone out of contact ever since. She last wrote an email to her family members from Syafrubesi on the same day.

Aubrey was travelling as a Free Individual Trekker (FIT) and had taken TIMS Card meant for FITs. She was supposed to return to Kathmandu on April 29.

Aubrey (23) is a graduate of Colorado University and has interests in music, yoga and meditation. She has been teaching yoga in South Asia since the past six months. 

Nepal Police, Nepal Army, Tourist Police and TAAN are coordinating the search for the missing trekker. They have also started broadcasting information about Aubrey through a local radio station.

Meanwhile, District Police Office, Rasuwa, has deployed a search team in the Langtang region. Mahesh Shakya, a close friend of the Sacco family who is with the police team, said he believed Aubrey went missing between Syafrubensi and Ghoda Tabela, a day's hike from Syafrubesi.

Source TAAN e-news 14/5/010 http://www.taan.org.np

Nepal is facing an indefinite strike called by the UCPN (Maoist). It has been termed as a peaceful protest and so is the nature of the strike.

Today is the fourth day of the strike and Maoist cadres have swamped the major areas of the capital since early morning. Normal life across the na­tion has been crippled by this strike.

Though vehicular movements have been barred, green plated tourist vehi­cle carrying tourists are allowed to and from airport only. Short/long over­land drives eg to/from Pokhara, Chitwan, Lumbini, Kodari etc are not al­lowed. Nepal Tourism Board has made arrangements of shuttle busses to carry tourists to and from the airport.

It's true that there are so many restaurants, hotels, bars etc in Thamel, the main tourist hub, but because of the protest program all the restaurants and bars are closed and the only option now the tourist are having is the indoor restaurant the hotel provides. The situation is not every hotel in Thamel or elsewhere has their indoor restaurant which means those tour­ists who are staying in hotel without their indoor restaurant are compelled to go out in search of indoor restaurant in other hotels and the fact that we have been observing is that the protestor have threatened the hotel not to allow any other tourist to get in. So, if anyone has ticket to Nepal already then make sure that they stay in hotel with indoor restaurant.

Current situation in the country can be termed as unusual but there is no danger for tourists.

We receive an overwhelming number of daily enquiries via e-mail and be­cause of this unusual situation of our country; we are not being able to en­tertain every mail on time. Should you require more information or assis­tance, please contact us at the numbers given below. We will be very happy to assist you.

Rajendra Bajgain(Raj), Managing Director

00977 98510 22717

Mingma Sherpa, Sr. Travel Consultant

00977 98510 82548

The taskforce has been formed as per the government decision of carrying out out the study and get the recommendation within 15 days.  

The taskforce is headed by Laxman Bhattarai, spokesperson and joint secretary at the ministry, and comprises representatives from the travel trade industry, Nepal Tourism Board, Nepal Tourism Year 2011 National Coordination Committee, Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation and Department of Survey.  

The taskforce will conduct a study on the contemporary situation of expeditions and recommend ways to make expeditions competitive with neighboring countries. It will also prescribe necessary measures required for the Nepal Tourism Year 2011, allowing opening of mountains for expeditions, discovering new peaks for expeditions, honoring famous climbers and providing identity cards for the Everest summiteers among others.

Source TAAN e-news 31/3/010 http://www.taan.org.np