Nepal plans steps to boost tourist flow from India

Our Bureau

Hyderabad, May 22: WITH a view to draw more tourist inflows from India to Nepal, especially on the back drop of last year’s hijacking incident, the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has initiated a friendship exercise to instill confidence among the Indian tourists.

According to Mr Pradeep Raj Pandey CEO of NTB, the Indian tourist inflow into Nepal had reported a fall after the hijack incident though the overall tourist inflow had increased by about 9.5 per cent during the last year.

He said that the Nepalese government has increased security measures at all the major tourist destinations and taken various safety measures. “ Nepal is totally safe for Indians, like for any other tourist from other countries”, he added.

NTB has launched three-month celebration starting from May 1, “The Festival of Life”, a complete package covering bountiful tourist attractions of Nepal with special privileges for Indians, Mr Pandey said. “Though we are also targeting other markets such as USA, Germany, Japan, China our focus is undoubtedly India”, he said stressingly. “This festival is not merely a shopping festival or a carnival, but the world’s First Festival, where nature and people get together in the grandest spectacle celebrating Life”, Mr Pandey said.

Further, Mr Panday said that NTB is in discussions with Indian Airlines to develop a joint-holiday package and it is also interested to have tie ups with various state owned tourism corporations. The tie up will be mostly to provide joint-packages for the tourists from western countries, he said.