Tourism entrepreneurs press for more budget for international promotion

Tourism entrepreneurs related to various sub-sectors of the hospitality industry have asked Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) to raise its currently budget for promoting Nepal in the international and domestic market by 60 per cent in the current fiscal year.

Representatives of Trekking Agencies Association Nepal (TAAN), Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA) and Hotel Association Nepal (HAN), among others, pushed for the upward revision of the budget when NTB last week met with them for finalizing its budget for fiscal year 2012/13.

NTB, an autonomous body modeled in the concept of public-private partnership, seeks the opinion of private sector for its annual plans and programs. The board had formed a budget committee comprising of different tourism related association after private sector expressed dissatisfaction over the budget which is at around Rs 600 million.

The latest financial statement of the board shows it spent a total of Rs 346 million in 2010/11, but only around Rs 93.62 million of that was used for promotion and marketing. In 2009/10 also, the expenditure of promotion and marketing was limited to Rs 81.28 million even though the NTB spent a total of Rs 256.35 million during the year.

Following similar trend, NTB has allocated around 30 per cent of its budget for marketing and promotion for this year as well.

Madhusudan Acharya, first vice president of NATTA, who was present in the meeting, said they had asked the board to increase the amount in international promotion and work for product development. “There is no point of organizing other events when tourists do not come to Nepal and international promotion has key role in the competitive market,” he added.

The committee has also suggested new programs focusing on international promotions. “We are aware that many program are being organized inside the country but the promotional programs should be focused outside rather than inside the country,” he added.

The participants of the meeting said although the target market of Nepal was increasing, it was unfortunate that the budget was not enough to launch effective campaigns. NTB has decided to focus CIS (Commonwealth Independent States) and Scandinavian region from next year, continuing the promotional campaigns in the existing regions.

NTB board members said that they were positive about the suggestions. Tika Ram Sapkota, one of the board members said, “We have always incorporated the suggestion of private sector and are positive this time also.”

source: republica,19 Nov 2012