December 26: The topic of declaring Pokhara as the tourism capital of Nepal has been under discussion for a long time now. The issue has come into rigorous discussion after the Gandaki province government formed a study committee last month to declare its capital city as the tourism capital.

Gandaki Provincial Government and Pokhara Metropolitan City have repeatedly proposed to the federal government to declare Pokhara as the tourism capital. The provincial government took the initiative to declare Pokhara as the tourism capital after the federal government didn't give any positive response. 

The 11-member study committee formed under the chairmanship of Krishna Chandra Devkota, vice president of Gandaki State Policy and Planning Commission, is preparing to finalize its study report.

The study committee with tourism experts was assigned the task of identifying the necessary infrastructure and standards for declaring the tourism capital, increasing the quality of services, identifying the process of declaration and coordinating with the central government.

"The first meeting of the committee has prepared a draft of the declaration of the tourism capital and also a study report," said Devkota, chairman of the study committee.

He said that the report prepared by the committee will be submitted to the office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers on January 11. "The tourism minister, secretary and other officials of the ministry are also engaged in this work. Suggestions from tourism sector experts and stakeholders have been included in the report," Devkota added.

According to him, the committee has started studies to implement the provincial government's policy of declaring Pokhara as the tourism capital of Nepal by identifying and promoting new tourist destinations and developing and diversifying tourism infrastructure. In order to promote Pokhara as the tourism capital, the committee conducted further study based on the concept paper previously prepared by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment of the province.

 Industry, Tourism, Forest and Information Minister Dipendra Bahadur Thapa said the provincial government will focus on the necessary infrastructure for the announcement of the tourism capital based on recommendation made by the study report. 

"The declaration will be made in coordination with the federal government after completing the necessary works of infrastructure development and maintaining standards required for the proposed tourism capital," he said.

It has been years since Pokhara's tourism-based organizations and businessmen started demanding the declaration of Pokhara as the tourism capital.

Pom Narayan Shrestha, chairman of the Pokhara Tourism Council, said that since Pokhara is a well-developed tourist destination, they have been demanding the government to declare it as the tourism capital.

Experts in the tourism sector shared that Pokhara can be declared as the toruism capital taking into consideration its tourism activities, easy accessibility, tourist-friendly facilities, and a tourism-friendly legal structures.