While Nepal's tourism sector, which was hit hard by the COVID epidemic last year, was slowly gaining momentum, the sector is once again being badly affected. Business people are now worried about how to bring tourists back to Nepal.
Even though covid is surging in different countries of the world, some enthusiastic tourism businessmen of Nepal have visited Europe with the aim of increasing the number of tourists in Nepal in the coming days.
At a fair called Fitur 2022 held in Madrid, the capital of Spain, they met with tourism businessmen and tour operators from different countries and requested them to send tourists to Nepal. It was not easy to travel abroad under such circumstances.
It is the third largest travel fair in the world. Like the ITB Berlin and the WT0 in London, this fair is considered to be an important place for tourism businessmen to meet other businessmen. This fair happens every year but it was not held last year because of the pandemic.
Nepalese who went to participate in this fair were assisted by the Nepal Tourism Board. The money for the exhibition site and space was paid by the board. The Nepal Pavilion was built at the Madrid Fear in collaboration with Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents NATTA and the Board. There were 25 participants from Nepal including tourism board in the fair. Everyone at the fair had a visa.
Nepalese tourism businessmen have also received bookings for the upcoming spring season in Spain, said Achyut Guragai, President of NATTA. He noted the good results of tourism business visits to Spain, adding that some travel agencies had even received bookings for March, April and May. He said that since Italians and Spaniards usually come to Nepal in July-August, the businessmen have returned to Nepal with bookings for that time as well.
He also said that some of those who had gone to Spain had returned and some were on their way back. There are very positive signs and European tourists are very eager to come to Nepal, said Chairman Guragai.
No other association in Nepal has made such an effort.
A sales mission called Nepal Road show was organized in Sri Lanka in collaboration with Nepal Tourism Board and NATTA. Similarly, a sales mission was also set up in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
For the third time, a program called Buddhist Circuit was organized to attract tourists to Nepal through Bodh Gaya, Barans, Kushinagar to Lumbini.
This time the visa was received within 10 days as the Spanish government's embassy in India easily provided assistance visa for the business mission to Spain.
Some members of the team will return after undergoing PCR test after 1 week of quarantine as their PCR result came positive. However, their condition was not serious, said Chairman Guragai.
The number of tourists visiting Nepal from Spain every year is remarkable. According to the Nepalese Embassy in Spain, 19,057 Spanish tourists visited Nepal in 2019.
Nepal and Spain entered into diplomatic relations on May 13, 1968. The Government of Nepal decided to open a residential embassy in Madrid on 20 February 2017.
According to Nepalese Embassy in Spain, approximately 10,000 Nepalese are residing in Spain.
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