Message from the CEO on World Tourism Day 2020Sunday, September 27th, 2020

The World Tourism Day 2020 is being celebrated today with the theme Tourism and Rural Development as designated by the UNWTO. It has been evident over decades that tourism is an important tool to harness the potential of rural areas. Rural tourism is an integral part of Nepal’s tourism. We started our tourism journey with a couple expeditions from western mountaineers in the early 1900s and mountain tourism in the 1950s. A reflection over the years makes it evident that Nepal is one of the pioneers of rural development through tourism in the world.

With 8 of the 10 highest peaks in the world including Mt. Everest – 8,848 m, mountain tourism has played a major role in the development of rural Nepal. Englishman Bill Tillman is credited with introducing trekking tourism to the Nepal Himalayas in 1949, officially opening up Nepal to the world through tourism. As expedition crews and trekkers walked up seeking solace in the mountains, they enriched the lives of the local people generating employment, empowerment, and an awareness for the preservation of nature and culture.

Tea houses, homestays, villages, community lodges and camping are the accommodation options in the Nepal Himalayas. While tea-house trekking was developed and expanded by local communities, homestay and community lodges in rural areas have developed because of the extended support from the Government. The rich mountain cultures and human interactions are thoroughly enjoyed by trekkers en route.

Nepal’s mid-hills and Terai are equally potent in terms of rural tourism, and have seldom received their due credit in the last 70 years. This idea has, however, been prioritized by Nepal Tourism Board this year with concrete and strategic plans to develop new destinations across the mid hills and Terai section to diversify products and ensure that the benefits of tourism spread to all parts of the country and to every strata of the society, including the grass-roots level and marginalized communities.

In the past too, Nepal has initiated several such tourism programs for rural development ensuring that the local communities have a pivotal role in decision making and benefit sharing. It is now, however, time to evolve and expand our network of rural development through tourism falling back to our past best practices and practical knowledge reservoirs, and implementing them across potential tourism destinations across the country.

I take this opportunity to wish all my colleagues and friends in the tourism sector, including officials from the Government sectors and the industry both at home and worldwide, A Happy World Tourism Day 2020! The global pandemic of COVID-19 has brought the world tourism to a standstill like never before; and this has been a year of tremendous patience, learning, unlearning and evolving.

It is time, we set our differences aside walk together hand in hand through cooperation and collaboration to overcome the challenges and build back our communities as well as the global tourism industry for a sustainable and resilient future.

– Dr. Dhananjay Regmi
  Chief Executive Officer
  Nepal Tourism Board

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