Tourism board fails to promote country in international market

Destination Nepal has failed to achieve the desired result due to the failure of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) to select appropriate stakeholders while promoting the destination in the international market.

“The participation of stakeholders in travel trade fairs was quite low as compared to other countries,” said chief executive officer at Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA) Dr Hari Sarmah. “The number of stakeholders in the travel fairs is quite low and the process to select participants is also not clear,” he said, adding that NTB should also focus on quality participants who can better define and promote the destination.

However, NTB has shifted the blame to the absence of a chief executive at the board. “As there is no chief executive in the board, it has affected the promotion of the country in the international market,” said director of planning and monitoring at NTB Kashi Raj Bhandari, adding that promotional work has slowed down and its impact can be seen in the slowdown of tourist arrivals in the peak season of October and November.

Bhandari, however, claimed that NTB’s promotional work is transparent.

NTB has its own criteria to select stakeholders for travel trade shows in the international market. “It selects participants on a first-come first-serve basis, must be

government recognised, and must never have been blacklisted,” he added.

“Increase or decrease in arrival of Indian tourists directly affects total tourist arrivals of the country,” said Bhandari, “Lack of promotional activities is not the only reason behind the decline in the number of Indian tourists last month.”

“The number of Indian tourists might have declined last month due to the pilgrimage season, but promotion is another factor which could have helped attract more tourists,” said Dr Sarmah.

According to NTB, tourist arrivals by air in the peak season of November slowed down due to the poor performance of the SAARC market that declined by 23 per cent as compared to the same month last year.

The Indian market has declined by 21.6 per cent, followed by Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with a negative growth of 37.3 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively, in November, as compared to the same period last year.

source: The Himalaya Times,6 Dec 2012