March 21: Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has taken initiative to organise tourism marts in all seven provinces as well as border areas in order to promote domestic tourism and attract tourists from neighbouring India. In accordance with the plan, NTB is organizing Eastern Tourism Travel Mart in Dharan of Province 1 from March 25-27, 2022.

During a press conference organised at NTB on March 22, Dr Dhananjay Regmi, CEO of NTB, informed that the board is organizing tourism marts for tourism promotion in the border areas. NTB is organizing 'Provincial Travel Mart' in each province to develop and expand tourism activities of different provinces and to establish business relations with the tour operators of the international market. These programs are under the policy and program of 2078-79, Regmi said.

In this regard, to promote the tourism activities in Nepalgunj, Bardiya, and Karnali provinces, the Western Tourism Travel Mart was held on March 10 to 12 jointly by the Board and Nepalgunj Sub-Metropolitan City. In this mart, the city of Nepalgunj was promoted as the Gateway of Karnali.

Similarly, NTB, in collaboration with the Dharan sub-metropolis will organize the Eastern Tourism Travel Mart in Province 1 in Dharan on 25-27, March 2022. Similarly, the board will organize Far-Western Tourism Travel Mart in Dhangadhi on 8th-10th April 2022.

Bhawesh Kumar Shrestha, the coordinator of Eastern Tourism Travel Mart, informed that promoting the overall tourism activities and destinations of the country nationally and internationally is the objective of the Eastern Tourism Travel Mart. He informed that Eastern Tourism Travel Mart 2022 is the third edition of the mart organized in Dharan since 2018 BS.

Similarly, the organisers of the Far West Tourism Travel March 2022, plan to promote tourist destinations of the province that spread from  the Shuklaphanta plains to the Api and Saipal mountains in the north under the branding of ‘Sundar Sudur Paschin – from Shukla to Api/Saipal’ during the event in Dhangadhi on April 8, 9 and 10.

According to Hikmat Singh Aire, senior director of the board, these marts will have the active participation of state-level chapters of NATTA, as well as local tourism-related organizations.

In these marts, there will be business interaction between Nepal's tour operators, hoteliers, and tourism service providers to promote the sale of tour packages in the region by involving tour operators from bordering Indian cities. In these marts, tour operators, hoteliers, and tourism service providers will promote attractive packages, said Aire. 

Tour operators, hoteliers, and tourism service providers will promote packages with attractive stalls. Local cultural presentations and performances, and food stalls are the major attractions of the mart.