Chinese Airlines pledge tourism promotion between Nepal and China

KATHMANDU, Dec 06:Chinese Airlines have joined hands for the tourism promotion between Nepal and China, just ahead of Nepal Visit Year 2025 in China.

As part of joint promotion, Chinese Airlines Air China, China Southern, and China Eastern joined hands with China National Tourist Office Kathmandu to host "Nihao! China" Tourism Promotion Program in Nepal on Wednesday. 

The event aimed to help Nepali tourism professionals to have a better understanding of Chinese tourism resources and its tourism policies. It further aimed to help in setting up connections, sharing information, and exploring opportunities for the future collaboration between Chinese and Nepali tourism operators. 

Addressing the event, Xiao Jiang, head of China Cultural Center in Nepal, shared that both China and Nepal are blessed with unique culture and abundant tourism resources, offering immense potential for the deeper partnerships in tourism sector.

“The upcoming 2025 will be a special year as it will mark the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Nepal. The two governments have jointly declared that the year 2025 is going to be" Nepal Visit Year" in China. With this opportunity, we are looking forward to making a significant progress in cooperation between the two countries in the field of culture, tourism and people-to- people exchange,” Jiang remarked.

She further expressed hope that the tourism cooperation would help to elevate the Sino-Nepal friendship to a new height.

More than hundred Nepali travel and ticketing agents attended the event, along with Chinese tourism companies Guangxi Guangda Tourism Investment Limited, Tibet Yeti International Travel Service and Sichuan Mingyan Travel Agency. 

On the occasion, Managing Directors of Kathmandu Offices of Air China, China Southern, and China Eastern made special presentations about their companies and shared information about Chinese destinations and connecting flights between the major cities. 

Air China has been connecting Kathmandu directly with Chinese city Chengdu, China Southern with Guangzhou and China Eastern with Kunming. Besides, they also have connecting flights from the Nepali capital to different Chinese cities. 

The civil aviation ties between China and Nepal has grown in recent years, while both the governments encourage air transport enterprises of both sides to open air routes and flights between Chinese cities and Nepali cities like Pokhara and Lumbini in light of market demand.

The latest tourism promotion event comes at a time when the two governments have already announced 2025 as "Nepal Visit Year" in China. With this, the tourism companies and tour operators have started promotional campaigns and activities and offering special schemes.

China has stated that it welcomes Nepal to hold promotional activities of the Nepal Visit Year 2025 in China, and will encourage more Chinese tourists to visit Nepal. 

In response, Nepal will support the China Culture Center in holding various activities in Nepal, and welcomes China to hold signature events, such as China Festival and Happy Spring Festival, in Nepal. The two sides spoke positively of and will continue to support large cultural, sports and tourism activities in Nepal, as mentioned in a joint statement between the People’s Republic of China and Nepal issued on 3rd December during Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s official China visit.

Nepal welcomed more than one million foreign tourists by November this year, according to data of Nepal Tourism Board. At least 114,501 tourists visited the Himalayan country in November alone with 9,458 tourists from China.