Nepa govt working on a plan to woo Indian tourists after improvement In COVID-19 situation

The Gandaki provincial government of Nepal is prepping itself to impress the Indian tourists after the COVID-19 situation improves and travel restrictions are lifted. Nepal is working on a plan, and according to the plan the government has decided to keep the Indian tourists at the top of the list. Nepal's Tourist Minister Bikash Lamsal said that Indian tourists constitute the maximum portion of Nepal's foreign tourists. 

Bikash Lamsal: 'Working on plans to cover loses'

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Most numbers of Nepal's tourists are Indian and this is probably why the government has decided to keep them on top of their priority list. Out of 12 lakh tourists who visited Pokhara-The City of Lakes last year, 40% were Indian tourists. In the year 2018, approximately 11.73 lakh tourists visited Nepal and the majority of the tourists were from India. Activities like trekking, boating, paragliding, kayaking, etc are very popular in Nepal. Bikash Lamsal said as they were not able to host the tourists this year due to COVID-19, but  they are making efforts to welcome more foreign tourists in the upcoming years

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 The minister said, "We are celebrating the year 2019-2022 as Tourism Year with a target to host two million tourists. 2019 was Domestic Tourism Year, 2020 Neighbour Tourism Year, 2021 Tourism Infrastructure Improvement Year and 2022 International Tourism Year. As the situation is not favourable, we are working on plans to cover the loss incurred this year and will be focusing on revamping efforts next year."

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Due to the spread of pandemic Coronavirus, Nepal has suffered a loss of around 13 crore Nepali rupees on a daily basis because of the stop on all the tourist activities. According to a study conducted by the provincial government of Nepal, approximately 10,674 companies have been shut down due to the recession. Nepal's tourism sector suffered huge losses in the last four months due to COVID-19. 

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