Future tourism should be culture, tourism friendly: Minister Kirati

Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Sudan Kirati on Saturday said future tourism should be culture and tourism friendly.

Addressing the ‘Hem Devi region culture and social service award-2080’ distribution ceremony organised here in Pokhara by the Bindhyabasini religious area development committee, the minister said Nepal’s tourism should be developed capitalizing the country’s originality. “The modality of future tourism development should be culture and nature. We can never compete by copying other countries. Tourism of Nepali originality is the integration of culture and nature,” he said.

Tourism minister Kirati said that Nepal would become the centre of tourism in the world in a few years. Stating that millions of tourists from the globe would come to a beautiful land like Nepal for meditation in solitude, he claimed that every thoroughfares, temple, cloths and languages of the country would become a tourist destination.

He stressed the need for connecting two famous religious places of Gandaki Province, Muktinath and Bindhyabasini with religious tourism.

On the occasion, minister Kirati presented the ‘Hem Devi religion culture and social service award-2080’ to Muktinath Peethadhishwor Swami Kamalanayancharya Maharaj (Muktinath Baba). The award carries a purse of Rs 101,000 in cash and a certificate.

Hem Bahadur Pradhan, founder president of Bindhyabasini religious area development committee, instituted the award by setting up a revolving fund of Rs 1.5 million in the name of his parents. Swami Kamalanayancharya was honoured with the award recognizing his contributions to the development of religious places and holy shrines like Muktinath, Bindhyabasini and Panchkot of Baglung, and Sanatan religion and culture, said Gane Bahadur Shrestha, chairperson of the committee.

The award is presented every two years to a person who is active in the social sector of Nepal, said the committee secretary Tirtha Shrestha.

Earlier, Satya Mohan Shrestha, Aatma Nanda Giri, Tulasi Dibas and Durga Ghimire were honoured with the award. ---