Nepal Launches First Accessible Trail in Annapurna RegionMonday, April 16th, 2018

Nepal’s first accessible trail was inaugurated by the Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Hon’ble Mr. Rabindra Adhikari at a program in Pokhara on March 31, 2018.

The Deurali- Naudanda trail spanning 1.3 km in length, forming an attractive section of a 14-km long hiking path in the ridge connecting Sarangkot to Naudanda offers a magnificent view of Annapurna, Fisthtail and Manaslu range. The trail was built by Nepal Tourism Board under the management understanding with the local trail development committee. NTB built the trail to enhance the prospect of attracting a strong segment of accessible tourist population.

Chief Executive Officer of NTB Mr. Deepak Raj Joshi remarked that the initiative was taken by NTB to build the trail to add innovation in product and to diversify the tourism trails to generate greater interest among the visitors and to ensure that no one is left behind in experiencing the magnificence of Nepal’s beauty. Mr. Joshi was positive that this initiative would help to educate local authorities to develop accessible infrastructure and activities, promote Nepal globally through this novel message, and inspire the world towards accessible adventure activities.

CEO Mr. Joshi said, “We have chosen the trail after a systematic auditing from the GHT certified trail auditors under the supervision of NTB. We firmly believe this is in tune with the state’s policy to develop new products and to attract untapped but high end segment of differently-abled both domestic and international visitors.” NTB has funded the project with the sum of 1.9 million rupees.

Tourism minister Rabindra Adhikari expressed his vision to take the Nepal’s tourism to the next level in the next couple of years. “We now have the fundamental pre requisite of a stable government. Under my leadership as the tourism minister, I am fully committed to execute the plans and I am also looking forward to promote and develop new products with the proper support from Nepal Tourism Board.  This trail shall be a benchmark of our commitment to tourism and ministry would look into this to establish it as a model trail in Nepal”.

The trail is well endowed with proper signage and has accessible washroom. The concerned authorities have pledged more support in the coming fiscal year to lay down all the standards and facilities to establish the trail as probably the best and leading trail in Asia.

The global tourism off late has witnessed a major boom in accessible tourism. Estimated population of accessible segment is one billion in the world, and considered as rapidly growing and one of the niche and high-end segment in tourism. Tourism is widely seen as a multifaceted sector also to improve the living standards of various strata of society. UNWTO also promotes and advocates tourism as a cross cutting sector to ensure universal achievement of sustainable development goals, SDG.

At the same time the International Conference on Accessible Adventure was organized on March 30, 2018, in Pokhara, Nepal, by Nepal Tourism Board and International Development Institute – USA. The organizers of the event have declared to mark the March 30 to celebrate as “Access to All” day.

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