Govt to develop 100 tourist destinations in five years

Kathmandu, Aug. 2: The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) has said that the tourism sector's contribution to the country’s economy would reach 10 per cent, and 100 major tourist destinations would be developed by Fiscal Year 2021/22.

There will be at least a destination in each district across the country.

Currently, tourism has 2.8 per cent contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 3.2 per cent to the employment in Nepal.

The 10 per cent contribution to the GDP would be made possible by developing new tourism destinations and products and increasing the number of foreign tourists. The tourist arrival would reach 2.5 million by 2022, said Joint Secretary at the Ministry Ghanashyam Upadhyaya at an interaction organised by the MoCTCA. The programme  was also attended by the Vice-Chancellor of the National Planning Commission (NPC) and the federal and provincial ministers.

The ministry said that master plans at various religious and tourist destinations such as Lumbini, Rara, Muktinath, Khaptad, Swargadwari and Janakpur would be completed within the next five years.

“All the state apparatus and provincial governments would be mobilised to complete the master plans at these destinations. We need better infrastructure and services at all touristic destinations in order to attract more tourists,” said Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Rabindra Adhikari.

He said that the construction of two regional international airports – Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa and Pokhara International Airport in Pokhara – and upgrading of the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) would be accomplished by 2022 while about 50 per cent work in the Second International Airport in Nijgadh would be carried out.   

Similarly, the national flag-carrier Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) will have at least 10 narrow body and wide-body aircraft.

“The TIA’s parking capacity would be doubled and the NAC will have 60 per cent market share in international flights,” said Adhikari.

Tourism Sector information (2018)

Topic	Numbers
Tourist arrival via air	940,000
Annual tourist arrival growth	25 %
Average stay of tourists	12.6 days
Per day tourist’s expenditure	54 US$
Tourism contribution to GDP	2.8 %
Contribution to employment	3.2 %

Source: MoCTCA

The ministry has given top most priority to the tourism infrastructure development and completion of national pride projects.

“All the heritages related to Buddhism will be connected to International Buddhist Circuit. An integrated development project will be implemented at Kapilvastu-Tilaurakot, Ramgram-Devdaha, Niglihawa-Gotihawa-Kudan, and Sagarhawa, and an International Monastic Institute will be run in Lumbini,” said Upadhyaya.

There is a plan to develop Ramayan Circuit connecting Janakpur with Ayodhya in India, promote Mithila culture and heritages, plant 25,000 saplings at Swargadwari and develop infrastructure at Pathibhara in Taplejung.

Similarly, Kaligandaki corridor would be developed connecting Triveni,  Devghat, Ridi, Baglung, Kagbeni, Muktinath and Damodarkunda.

“Se-Foksundo-Rara-Badimalika-Khaptad trekking route will be developed, and Rara would be promoted as one of the major tourist destinations in the country,” said Upadhyaya.

The Ministry has also announced that incentives would be offered to the private sector to involve them in infrastructure development, tourism promotion, service operation and other activities in the new tourist destinations.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 3 August 2018.