| Chitwan Festival kicks off |
Chitwan Festival and Central Regional Industrial Fair started at the bank of Narayani River in Chitwan from January 9. The festival is a 10-day event, being organized for the promotion of tourism industry, showcases local products and exploring new business opportunities in agriculture and industrial sectors.
The festival includes various activities like food festivals, mini-zoo, beach volleyball competition, Paramotor riders, rafting, boat race and other aquatic events as the major attractions. Besides, the festival will also see different interactions and symposiums to exchange innovative ideas among businesspeople and experts. The event is expected to draw more than 3000,000 visitors and record transaction worth over Rs 120 million. The festival has a total of 453 stalls. Model houses of different indigenous communities like Tharu, Dari, Chepang, Kumal and Bote are the other attractions of the event.
Chitwan Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been organizing the festival for the last one and a half years in coordination with Ratnanagar Chamber of Commerce and Industry and local bodies.
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| President Dr Yadav to inaugurate NTY 2011 |
President Dr Ram Baran Yadav is scheduled to inaugurate Nepal Tourism Year 2011 amid a colorful ceremony at Dasharath Stadium on January 14. Officials of Nepal Tourism Year Main Organizing Committee informed that preparations for the yearlong promotional campaign were at the final stage.
About 40,000 people are expected in the formal launch. The inaugural ceremony will be participated by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Secretary General of UN World Tourism Organisation, Tourism ministers of SAARC member countries and tourism ministers of Iran and Cambodia, among other dignitaries. Similarly, representatives of 49 international media organizations have already also confirmed their participation.
Cultural processions of different indigenous communities, attractive fireworks and live broadcast of NTY torch rally to the summit of Mt Ama Dablam would be the major attractions of the event.
About 6,000 artistes, including school children and personnel of Nepal Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force, are performing in the inaugural ceremony.
Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal (TAAN) will lead a procession of more than3,5000 people involved in the trekking business, including trekking workers and entrepreneurs, in the inaugural ceremony.
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| NTY torch to be taken to Ama Dablam summit |
Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) has decided to take the torch of Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) 2011 campaign to the summit of Mt Ama Dablam.
At a press meet recently organized at NMA secretariat, NMA President Zimba Zangbu Sherpa said the 10-member Nepal Tourism Year 2011 Torch Expediton to Amadablam will take the torch to the summit of the 6812m peak on January 14, coinciding with the formal launch of the campaign.
The ceremony will be broadcast live at Dasharath Stadium where the formal launch of Nepal Tourism Year 2011 is being held. The government has waived permit fee for the mountaineers.
Travel trade associations like Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal and Himalayan Rescue Association are also supporting the expedition.
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| Tourist arrivals rise by 18 pc in 2010 |
The number of foreign visitors entering the country via air in the year 2010 increased by 18.3 percent as compared to the arrival figures of a year earlier. According to Immigration Office at Tribhuvan International Airport,
a total of 448,769 foreign visitors entered the country in 2010. The number is nearly half of the target that the country has set for Nepal Tourism Year 2011 campaign.
Arrivals from India, which contributed over one-fourth of the arrivals in 2010, grew by 20.5 percent. A total of 104,470 Indian visitors entered the country via air during the air. Similarly, arrivals from the SAARC region recorded a robust growth of 24.7 percent to 130,795. The Asia segment (excluding South Asia) recorded the growth of 17.7 percent to 83,396.
Overall arrivals from Europe recorded a growth of 14.4 percent to 138,724.
Arrivals in the month of December recorded a rise of 15.7 percent as compared to arrival figures recorded during the same period last year. Growth in December was contributed by strong surge in arrivals from India
(19.5 percent), Bangladesh (42.4 percent), Pakistan (94.3 percent) and Sri Lanka (14.8 percent).
Similarly, arrivals from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and South Korea in December recorded a positive growth of 41 percent, 26.4 percent 4.4 percent and 22.3 percent respectively. However, tourist arrivals from Japan declined by 0.4 percent.
Arrivals from Europe also recorded a marginal decline of 0.2 percent in December. However, arrivals from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and USA recorded positive growth of 8.5 percent, 57.9 percent, 1.2 percent and 14.4 percent respectively.
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| Nepal Tourism Year begins |
Marking the beginning Nepal Tourism Year, Nepal Tourism Board amidst a function on January 1 welcomed tourists at Tribhuvan International Airport.
NTB along with government officials and representatives of different travel trade associations gifted tourists with white scarf and a post-card of Mt Everest undersigned by Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Sarat Singh
Bhandari.
The government had inaugurated new gate at TIA along with a sterile zone on the eve of the campaign on December 31.
The official inauguration of NTY 2011 is scheduled for January 14 at Dasharath Stadium in the capital.
With the beginning of Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) 2011, tourism promotional activities have begun at major tourist destinations outside the capital.
Tourism entrepreneurs in Pokhara have unveiled different activities to be carried out in the lake city during the tourism year. Biplav Poudel, western regional coordinator of the NTY implementation committee, launched the activities, which include opening an information counter at Pokhara airport, celebrating mountaineering day, publication of an information directory, organizing tourism festivals and cleaning up Fewa Lake. Similarly, Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal (TAAN) Pokhara chapter is promotional activities including Kaligandaki Valley promotional trek, exploration of the Dhaulagiri trekking route and mapping of Kathmandu-Pokhara route.
Similarly, the Gandaki chapter of Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATA) is launching a promotional tour in different countries including close neighbors India and China and some countries in East Asia. It is also conducting trainings for tour guides and cabbies and sight seeing. The Pokhara Chapter of Restaurant and Bar Association (REBAN) has decided to organize street festival every month throughout the year.
Tourism entrepreneurs in Pokhara have set a target of bringing in more than 500,000 visitors to the lake city in 2001.
Similarly, tourism entrepreneurs in Chitwan welcomed 58 tourists including six foreigners at Bharatpur airport on January 1.
Activities were organized in various parts of the country to mark the first day of Nepal Tourism Year 2011 campaign. |
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