Visit Nepal Year (VNY) 2020 is just around the corner and there is excitement as well as concern building up about the success of the much-hyped national tourism campaign which has set an ambitious target of attracting two million visitors to the country by the end of next year. This is the third mega tourism campaign which Nepal has organised after Visit Nepal Year 1998 and Nepal Tourism Year 2011, with all being milestones in the development of Nepali tourism.

However, a sense of pessimism about this particular campaign, followed by scepticism, has been growing due to its slow progress and the relatively short time available for preparations. In an interview with NewBiz Editor Mukul Humagain, VNY 2020 National Programme Coordinator Suraj Vaidya talked about the ongoing preparations, the plans of the VNY 2020 secretariat to launch new products and the problems being faced by the campaign. Excerpts:

Recently, during an interaction with newly elected executive committee of Non Resident Nepali Association, you said that the VNY 2020 campaign hasn’t taken momentum and there is a need for all stakeholders to work together for its success. Why is this?
It is not that VNY 2020 hasn’t gathered momentum. What I wished was that I had more time to work on the campaign. Nepal’s tourism potential Nepal is tremendous which has yet to be explored. The preparations for the campaign are on the right track.

We need to look at the global trend. There is a slowdown in the movement of people. Despite the fact that the travel trade has declined worldwide at present, we are gathering a good level of support for VNY. There has been good growth in Nepal tourist arrivals.

VNY 2020 is just two months away. As the National Coordinator, how prepared is Nepal to launch this mega tourism campaign?
For Nepal, tourism has always remained one of its major sectors. For the last 56 years, Nepal’s tourism has grown remarkably in terms of creating employment and attracting investment.

Talking about the preparations for VNY 2020, it started a long time back. In the last three years, the tourism sector has received the largest amount in foreign direct investment (FDI). This has built confidence in the private sector. Last year, 50 percent of the total FDI in Nepal came from the tourism sector. By 2021, three regional international airports will start operating. For 2020, we are working on the strengths Nepal already has.

The recent Nepal visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping and his announcement of China supporting the Visit Nepal year 2020 campaign has given a huge boost to our campaign. At the same time, we are also getting tremendous support from India as well. These two countries are the world’s largest tourist outbound market and we are preparing to receive the largest number of tourists from these markets in 2020.

VNY 2020 is the third national tourism campaign happening in the last two decades. How different is VNY 2020 compared to the last two campaigns?
When VNY 98 was launched under the leadership of Karna Sakya, the scope of Nepali tourism was limited. Shakya took VNY as a launch pad to introduce tourism in different parts of Nepal. In 2011 when Nepal was going through a political turmoil, Yogendra Shakya took the responsibility and did a fantastic job.

The theme of Nepal Tourism Year 2011“Unity for Tourism” showed the importance of tourism for the country. As time demands change and a new outlook, our vision has been to make VNY 2020 from a different perspective and not from the point of view of Nepalis, but from a tourist point of view. We are preparing to give “Lifetime Experiences” to the people visiting Nepal during VNY 2020.

Do you think enough promotion has been conducted in major markets such as India, China, United States and Europe?
We didn’t get enough time for the campaign’s promotion. Malaysia, for instance, is also launching its national tourism campaign - Visit Malaysia Year 2020. They started promoting the campaign way back in 2016. So, it gave them tremendous time to prepare, package and sell the products. Meanwhile, VNY 2020 was launched only one and a half years ago. But, the secretariat was formed only eight to nine months back. In this respect, we were a bit slow in promoting the campaign.

Nevertheless, the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has been attending most of the international events and has also been promoting tourism in many ways. So, I think if we can increase the growth of tourists from countries such as India, China, and other major destinations, we will be able to achieve the two million target.

I keep telling people that 2020 is not a one-off event; it is a continuous process to put the Nepali tourism sector in the global spotlight.

There were also suggestions from some quarters to launch the tourism year in 2021 and use 2020 as preparatory year. What is your comment on this?
Different ministries have their own strategies for the development of the tourism sector. Unfortunately, the strategies have only remained in documents. So, I think VNY 2020 is pivotal in terms of enhancing the image of Nepal.

People need to understand why we are celebrating VNY 2020. The government has said that Nepal wants to attract two million visitors and raise the daily average spending of tourists to USD 60 from USD 40. We are celebrating the campaign to tell the world that Nepal is progressive in many ways, because so far, the country has received negative publicity.

The most important thing is the country is moving ahead with the new constitution. We are a united country of 123 different ethnic groups speaking 124 different languages. We are diverse, yet we are so united. There is a stable government in place with a two-thirds majority. It is a story for us to tell the world.

Also, 2020 will be five years after the massive earthquake which struck Nepal in 2015. We need to assure the world that Nepal is safe, and the country is rebuilding its monuments and heritage sites. People here are resilient and strong. There are people around the world who are still unsure about Nepal’s earthquake effects.

We need to tell the world how we have achieved social progress over the years. We have achieved remarkable achievements in areas such as gender balance where the constitution has guaranteed specific rights to the country’s women populace.

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Nepal will be the first country in the world to double the population of tigers in a span of 10 years. We need to make the world know that despite having only about 0.1 percent of land mass of the world, Nepal is house to nine percent of the world’s bird species. There are other messages to spread like we never faced religious conflicts in the country.

Poor airport infrastructure has been cited as one of the key bottlenecks for the Nepali tourism industry. The issues include the poor state of ground handling, congested parking bays and high air fuel charges. How can we resolve these issues in airport infrastructure?
Some time ago, I went to Rome to attend a conference, and it took me two and a half hours to get out of the airport from the time I landed there. Two and a half hours is a very long time for any traveller. It will take you a maximum of one and a half hours to check out of the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).

During the 12 years of conflict, our infrastructural development came to an abrupt halt. In recent years, a lot of investment has poured into infrastructure projects. It is true that the progress of project development is slow in our country, but it has been gathering momentum in recent times.

If the Gautam Buddha International Airport starts operating by March 2020, it will give a huge boost to the tourism sector. There government needs to ensure timely completion of the construction of projects.

The TIA is also improving its facilities for 2020. Also, Himalaya Airlines is flying to four new destinations in China. When we have much more flights, inflow of tourists will increase. The good news is, more international airlines are coming to Nepal. It shows a strong interest of international airlines in Nepal as a popular destination.

The European Union (EU) ban on Nepali carriers to fly Europe is still there. Don't you think efforts should be expedited to lift the ban that will pave our airlines, especially Nepal Airlines Corporation to begin flights to European destinations?
I agree that the EU ban should be lifted as quickly as possible. The ICAO has already removed Nepal from its blacklist in 2017. At the same time, Nepal has already addressed the concerns raised by the EU and the government has also initiated the process of splitting the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) into a regulatory body and air navigation service provider. Now, the government needs to seriously negotiate with the EU to remove the ban on Nepali carriers from flying in EU airspace.

How important is the role of the national flag carrier Nepal Airlines in the success of VNY 2020?
National flag carriers are very important for any country. I want to promote Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) in every country I go. However, NAC has to be trustworthy for passengers as it has huge issues with flight schedules and timings. The airline needs to improve in these areas.

It doesn’t have to fly to many destinations, but at least it must ensure flights leave on time. The service is not bad, but the timing should be managed.

Do you think the private sector is prepared enough to handle the tourists coming to Nepal in 2020?
Investment in the hospitality and service sector has been amazing.  Till four years ago, we only had a few international hotel chains operating here.

Today a number of such chains have entered the Nepali hospitality market with some others coming in the near future, which is really positive. Domestic airlines such as Buddha and Yeti have added new planes to their fleets. Likewise, helicopter operators are adding more aircraft with new companies coming in which shows the confidence of the private sector.

But, they (private sector) have been unable to diversify the new products and services.
New destinations and products should be developed to diversify Nepali tourism. Just selling tour products and packages to destinations like Mount Everest, Annapurna, Chitwan, Kathmandu, Pokhara and some other destinations is not enough.
We can introduce new destinations in the Far-west region such as Khaptad, among others. Since provincial governments have already been formed, they can also develop new destinations and projects.

For example, Rara tour is a fantastic tour product but, there are no accommodation facilities around the Rara Lake area. So, the government needs to see how the land in such destinations can be utilised while also being cautious about the environmental impact in the long term.

If we want to increase the number of high-end tourists, the government needs to lease some of the land in prime locations where the private sector can invest. We are organising the ‘Tourism Investment Summit’ as a part of VNY 2020. If every province can provide a reasonable size of land to develop infrastructure related to tourism, Nepali tourism sector will see a huge boost.

The problem in Nepal is that the private sector is afraid to invest because of the high land prices. This is where the provincial governments come in. This is the reason why the country has started practicing the federal system of governance so that all the work is not carried out from Singha Durbar.

If we have a regional international airport each in the East and Far-west of the country, places such as Arun Valley, Kanchanjunga trails, among others will be new tourism destinations. Lack of proper connectivity is affecting the Nepali tourism sector at the moment. The government should invite private investors to invest in these areas

What major initiatives will the VNY Secretariat undertake in the next two months to make the campaign successful?
We are doing quite a bit. Recently, we went to South Korea and received commitments from Korean travel operators to double the number of Korean visitors to Nepal. We are working with all our embassies in Asia and Europe. We will now work with the embassies in the Middle East. My focus will be working with Malaysia, because we have seven flights from Malaysia to Nepal every day. We need to see how we can fill those aircrafts with Malaysian visitors.  

We have 30-40 flights to the Middle East a week. We will also work on attracting tourists from the Middle East. China is going to be critically important, so we will be focusing on the Chinese market. In India, we are organising road shows in four different cities. We are taking part in several meetings in London, Berlin and the United States. We are organising several programmes in these countries by working closely with the main outbound travel tour operators.

What new products and programmes can visitors expect in 2020?
The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation is working with the Nepal Tourism Board to bring all central and provincial ministers to launch the VNY on December 31. There are a series of programmes lined-up for 2020 to provide ‘Lifetime Experiences’ to the visitors. In the Far-west, we are looking to organise the world’s largest rafting competition at Karnali. Also, we will host other activities such as fishing and cannoning. The international mountain bike competition from Muktinath to Marpha will also be hosted. We are already working on the marketing of the competitions, and many European and Asian adventure seekers are really excited about it.

We have not promoted the spiritual side of Nepal. It is such an important product to sell. There is the Ramayana Circuit and Buddhist Circuit. We are looking to create a ‘Shiva Shakti Circuit’ in the Himalayas. We have requested the four ‘Shankaracharyas’ who will be in Nepal to assist us to develop the circuit.

The upcoming Buddha Jayanti will be a massive one. We are investing a huge amount of money to attract tourists to celebrate the birthday of Gautam Buddha in Nepal, the way the annual pilgrimage takes place in Mecca. We are also looking to organise Everest Marathon like the way Boston Marathon and London Marathon are organised. The Janaki Temple in Janakpur has really good potential, so we will also work to celebrate the ‘Bibaha Panchami’ festival.

Currently, climate change is a huge global issue. There are three ice poles of the world - North Pole, South Pole and the Himalayas. Himalayas has tremendous importance for the global climate. So, we are planning to organise climate change discussions working with UN agencies and the World Bank.