First ever Int'l Mountain Day organised

Kathmandu, May 30:

International Mountain Tourism Day was launched on the International Sagarmatha Day on Wednesday in the capital.

Mountain Tourism International Forum (Nepal) was also held on the occasion. The programme was inaugurated by Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali.

The first 'International Mountain Tourism Day' was jointly held by the International Mountain Tourism Alliance (IMTA), China, Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) and Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA).

The major objective of the programme was to raise public awareness about protecting mountain resources and preserving mountain civilisation and public responsibility for promoting mountain economy to benefit the community of mountain people.

Similarly, the Mountain Tourism International Forum (Nepal), themed 'Ecology, green, science and technology lead the high-quality development of mountain tourism' focused on the opportunities, challenges and trends facing by the development of mountain tourism, the special tourism around the Himalayas, and the positive development of the mountain tourism industry.

Different experts, scholars and industry insiders from different countries such as Dr. Mario Hardy, CEO of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), Dr. Moez Kacem, Vice Chairman of World Association for Hospitality and Tourism Education and Training (AMFORHT), Dr. Donghoon Lee, Chairman of Korea Student Alpine Federation (KSAF), and several other delegations presented their ideas on promoting the high-quality sustainable development of mountain tourism.

IMTA apprised in the event that it chose Nepal as the destination for holding International Mountain Day as Nepal is one of the most representative countries in the world for mountain tourism and hosts half of the world's 14 tallest mountains.

Now that Nepalese tourism fraternity has adopted a goal of two million tourist arrivals to Nepal by 2020, celebrating Visit Nepal Year (VNY) 2020, NATTA believes the celebration of the International Mountain Tourism Day and exchange of insights shared in the forum will prove instrumental for the success of the programme, said NATTA.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 31 May 2019.