Nepal's tourism branding ineffective: Experts

Experts have said the existing branding of Nepal’s diverse tourist destinations has not been effective and that the country has not been able to get the right value for its products.

In a conference held here on Thursday to garner broad understanding among stakeholders to prepare a road-map to develop Nepal as a premium tourism model, they said Nepal should move for high value market tourism.

“As positioning and branding idea of Nepal is not effective, it is selling its products very cheaply,” said Amitabh Kant, who is credited for leading the successful “Incredible India” campaign.

He said there are a few destinations like Nepal endowed with all natural gifts. “However, it’s like a sleeping elephant for Nepal. And it signifies the gap between the performance and potential.”

Kant presented a six-point to-do list for Nepal to attract more tourists, stating more tourists mean more job creation. Kant’s six points are the need for a stable government, capacity building of service providers, effective communication and promotional strategy, convergence of tourism with other government stakeholders, community participation and open sky policy.

Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Sushil Ghimire said the lack of direct air connectivity with Europe and the US was the major hindrance for Nepal’s tourism development.

“This has made Nepal an expensive destination as 70 percent of the travellers’ budget is spent for airfare,” Ghimire said, admitting that the average spending of tourists in Nepal is dropping each passing year.The ministry statistics show the per-day spending of a tourist has dropped to $35.6 in 2012.

But Ghimire said the government has taken a number of initiatives like strengthening the international fleet of the national flag carrier Nepal Airlines Corporation, allowing code-sharing with international carriers and adopting flexible approach on the signing of bilateral air service agreements for the development of the country’s tourism industry.

The government is ready to revise the policies and plans to create a conducive investment environment and encourage private sector participation in tourism, said Ghimire.

“We are aware that tourism industry in Nepal has taken some hard knocks in the last decade. Political instability is the other issue at present,” said Shreejana Rana, director of Hotel Annapurna. “However, we just cannot sit and stare idly at years of our hard work and investment being blown away senselessly,” Rana said, urging the government to create a conducive environment to invest.

source: the kathmandu post,20 Sept 2013