March 16: The Asia Pacific Regional Workshop on “Measuring Tourism: Better data for better tourism in Asia and the Pacific” kicked off in Kathmandu on Wednesday with an objective of making common concept for sustainable tourism development of Asia Pacific Region and South Asia.    

During the three-day workshop  organized by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Nepal Tourism Board and United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO),    

stakeholders will discuss various issues including the search for new tourism destinations for the development and expansion of COVID-affected tourism industry, its diversification, development of tourism infrastructure and increasing investment in this sector.    

Representatives of 11 different countries including Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, the Maldives, Indonesia, Iran, the Philippines, Cambodia and Laos a well as UNWTO representatives are attending the workshop with the objective of preparing better statistics for better tourism.    

The UNWTO, which has been organising such-type of programmes in different sector in order to hold discussion on different dimensions of global tourism and to make tourism industry dynamic, organised the regional workshop in Nepal.    

In the inaugural session of the workshop, Tourism Minister Sudan Kirati pointed out the need of paying attention to development and diversification by searching new tourism destinations for the development and expansion of the tourism industry.    

He opined that investment in tourism sector should be increased as well as tourism industry should be developed and expanded up to rural areas.    

Minister Kirati thanked the UNWTO for organising the workshop in Nepal. The organisers expect that the workshop would help in understanding the new dimensions of global tourism, to exchange experiences and to make common concept for sustainable tourism development.    

On the occasion Director of External Relations of the UN World Tourism Organization, Beka Zakeli, said that quality data was necessary for the development of tourism development plans and promotional activities.    

Likewise, Jongtae K-park of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea, speaking virtually, expressed the hope that the program would be fruitful in working on quality data and from exchange of experiences.    

Chief of Nepal Tourism Board, Dr Dhananjaya Regmi, said the event would help develop new approaches towards tourism and tourism-related statistics. (With inputs from RSS)