Congress Party resolution to bring in 2 million tourists

KATHMANDU, Oct 30: The Nepali Congress has released the party's election manifesto with an ambitious goal of bringing 2 million foreign tourists annually within the next five years.

With the idea of tourism for sustainable and inclusive development, the Congress has set a target of increasing the annual foreign tourist arrivals from 1.2 million to 2 million in five years. According to government statistics, about 1.2 million foreign tourists entered Nepal in 2018 and 2019. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the rate of foreign tourists has decreased. The Congress has brought a resolution with the aim of returning this region, which has been most affected by the epidemic, to its old rhythm. According to the latest information of the Nepal Tourism Board, a total of 326,670 foreign tourists have entered Nepal by air in eight months.
     
The Congress has put forward a five-year strategy to boost the morale of the country's tourism sector due to the pandemic. It is said that the direct contribution of the tourism sector to the gross domestic product will reach five percent. For the revival of the country's tourism sector, the government has announced that the period from 2023 to 2032 will be celebrated as the Visit Nepal Decade.
     
Currently, the average stay of tourists in Nepal is 13 days. Congress has taken a policy to increase spending by extending the stay of tourists. The goal is to increase the length of stay of tourists to 15 days and increase the cost per tourist from 48 dollars to 100 dollars per day.
     
The Congress has said that tourism is a foundation for sustainable economic development because of its natural uniqueness, cultural richness, transformative spirituality, geo-structural beauty and strategic geographical location. In addition to making Nepal an international destination for nature-based tourism and adventure tourism, necessary actions will be taken to develop hotel infrastructure and human resources in collaboration with the private sector, and promotion of the destination is said in the resolution.

In the resolution, the Congress has mentioned the policy of reducing monopolies of air transport and encouraging competition, while extensive marketing will be done to bring in tourists from Western countries and emerging Asian countries with middle-class population density. The infrastructure will be expanded and upgraded for easy and accessible access to established and emerging destinations, while the tourist hotspots will be made safe and visible on digital maps.

In the same way, the traditional culture will be artistically beautified to reflect the local identity and become an attraction for tourists during the construction of new government and public infrastructure. It is said that community forests will be expanded and archaeological heritage sites will be protected to advance on the path of sustainable development by promoting tourism as an environment-friendly business.

Accident insurance will be provided for the manpower working as guides and porters in adventure activities such as mountain climbing, trekking, rafting, jungle safaris. It has adopted a policy to use the airport and other vacant public lands in different locations but not in use for the development of tourism activities in collaboration with the private sector. In order to make Nepal's air service more safe and reliable, it has been committed to take steps to remove Nepal from the European Union's air safety list by following international standards.