Nepali travel agents visting China

In a bid to attract Chinese tourists to Nepal, Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA) in association with Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) is organizing ´NATTA China Sales Mission 2013´ from May 15 to 24.

A group of 35 tourism entrepreneurs from 25 different companies will participate in the event that will take place in Chengdu, Shanghai, Beijing and Xi´an.

At a press meet organized in Kathmandu on Monday, officials of NATTA said a representative from Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) will make presentation about different attractions of Nepal to around 50 to 60 wholesale tour operators in the four cities in China. Likewise, members of the delegation will also provide information about tourism attractions of Nepal to local media persons.

Sambhu Pathak, second vice president of NATTA, said the mission will focus on activities like short trekking, hiking, ultra light flight, mountain flight, paragliding, hiking and trekking in the Everest and Annapurna regions, rafting, jungle safari and others.

The Nepali tour operators will also be providing information on regular and tailor made packages.

“As Chinese are among high spending tourists in Nepal, the participating companies have designed high-end packages that include chartered flights to Pokhara and even mountainous regions,” said Pavitra Kumar Karki, president of NATTA.

According to tourism entrepreneurs, Chinese tourists spend an average of $80-100 per day in Nepal. Average tourist spending at present is around $40-60 per day.

The Nepali travel delegation will begin their journey with a visit to Chengdu where they are scheduled to meet local tour operators and media persons. They will then travel to Sanghai and Beijing.

President Karki and Nepali Ambassador to China Mahesh Kumar Maskey are scheduled to address tour operators in Beijing.

The delegation will then travel to Xi´an before returning to Nepal.

NATTA, Nepali Embassy in China and the NTB´s representative agency in China have been organizing China Sales Mission since 2003.

Chinese tourists started visiting Nepal after the government of the People´s Republic of China included Nepal in the list of Approved Destination Status countries for outbound Chinese tourists in November, 2001.

The number of Chinese tourists has increased from 8,738 in 2001 to 107,500 in 2012, data provided by NATTA shows.

source: republica,13 may 2013