Remarks by Ambassador Mr. Ghanshyam Bhandari
at Nepal Tourism Promotion Programme
Jointly Organized under the Theme
‘Next Door Nepal: Your Ultimate Travel Destination’ by
Embassy of Nepal, Nepal Tourism Board, and Hotel Association of Nepal
(Hotel Westin, Dhaka, 5 July 2024)
Manager of Nepal Tourism Board Mr. Laxman Gautam
President of Hotel Association of Nepal Mr. Binayak Shah
Visiting Delegation from Nepal
Presidents of BIHA, ATAB, TOAB, BOTAO,
Hospitality, Travel and Tour Entrepreneurs from Bangladesh,
Friends from Media, and
Distinguished Guests
Namaste, As-salamu Alaykum, and Shuvo Sondhya!
It is my pleasure to welcome you all to this Nepal Tourism Promotion Programme being held under the theme of ‘Next Door Nepal: Your Ultimate Travel Destination’.
At the outset, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Nepal Tourism Board and Hotel Association of Nepal for joining hands with the Embassy in organizing this event.
It is our yet another effort to bring together tour operators, travel agents, and hotel entrepreneurs from both Nepal and Bangladesh and promote B2B interactions among them in order to further consolidate the people-to-people contacts between our two countries.
Dear Friends,
Nepal and Bangladesh enjoy deep-rooted civilizational, cultural, and linguistic linkages that serve as the strong foundation of our relations.
Even before Bangladesh became an independent country, our communities and societies had profound connections. History tells us that, great Bengali Buddhist scholar Atish Dipankar travelled to Nepal in the 11th century on his way to preach Buddhism across the regions of South Asia and Southeast Asia.
A palm-leaf manuscript of Charyapada was found in the Royal Court of Nepal in the early 20th Century by the renowned Bengali scholar Haraprasad Shastri.
This invaluable artefact is believed to be one of the ancestors of modern Bangla language.
Needless to say, Nepal and Bangladesh have many things in common- food, art, culture, language, lifestyle, and many more.
These excellent relations and close connections have been further strengthened by tourism and people-to-people contacts.
I am pleased to note that Nepal continues to remain one of the popular destinations for Bangladeshi travelers. Over thirty-six thousand Bangladeshi tourists visited Nepal in 2023. This is about 44 percent higher than the pre-pandemic level.
As most of you know, Nepal’s tourism motto is ‘Lifetime Experiences’.
It is not least in light of this that we have chosen the theme of today programme as ‘Next Door Nepal: Your Ultimate Travel Destination’.
As you saw in the beautiful presentations made by NTB and HAN, travel in Nepal offers a myriad of experiences – from adventure activities such as trekking, mountaineering, paragliding, and bungee jumping, to recreational, medical to spiritual to pilgrimage tourism.
And most important of all, the greatest attraction of Nepal is our people.
We believe in ‘atithi devo bhava’ meaning guests are like gods.
The Government of Nepal has been making continuous efforts to leverage our tourism potentials. In addition to the promotional campaigns, emphasis has been laid on improving our infrastructure.
Last year, we inaugurated two new international airports- one in Pokhara and the other one in Bhairahawa.
Big brands hotel chains (Crowne Plaza, Hyatt, Radisson, Marriot, and many others, some of which are represented here) are finding their ways in Nepal.
With the addition of tourism grade hotels, the number of hotels has reached a total of 1313 (star and tourist standard hotels), with bed capacity of over 50 thousand per day.
The number of registered Travel Agencies reached 3743 and Trekking Agencies are close to 2800.
The government has prepared a Strategic Action Plan for Visit Nepal Decade (2023-2032) with a target to bring in 3.5 million tourists and create 1 million additional jobs in the country’s tourism industry.
Dear Friends,
Connectivity is a lifeline for strengthening people-to-people contacts and for enhancing overall bilateral relations between any two countries.
Currently, two airlines – Biman Bangladesh and Himalayan Airlines – are operating 12 direct flights per week between our two capitals.
Enhanced connectivity including through roads, railways, airways, and transmission lines is critical for connecting hills and plains, and between markets and minds to connect our touristic products.
Both of our countries have unique and beautiful stories to tell, ideas to share, and narratives to promote.
The best way to boost tourism is by telling these stories and sharing these ideas and narratives.
I am confident that a networking event like this will be an opportunity to reflect on the challenges and opportunities and build on our collective commitment and action to bring our two countries and peoples together.
However, we have before us a joint team of 21 professionals, comprising representatives from the Nepal Tourism Board and Hotel Association Nepal, who have the real expertise to provide comprehensive insights about Nepal’s tourism sector.
I hope the B2B sessions held earlier today were useful to facilitate some meaningful interactions. I encourage you all to establish further business linkages and promote collaboration in this sector.
I would like to once again thank my dear brother Laxman Gautam and his team from NTB, President of HAN Mr. Binayak Shah, CEO Mr. Tek Mahat and the whole delegation from Nepal for their visit to attend this programme.
My sincere thanks to Mr. Mohiuddin Helal (Helal bhai), Mr. Md.Taslim Amin (Shobhan bhai), the presidents of ATAB, TOAB, and BOTAO for their kind support and cooperation extended to the Embassy in connection with this event.
প্রিয় সুধীমণ্ডলী,
পর্যটন নিয়ে কথা না বললে নেপাল-বাংলাদেশ সম্পর্কের কথা অসম্পূর্ণ থেকে যাবে।
পর্যটন এবং জনগণের মধ্যে যোগাযোগ আমাদের দ্বিপাক্ষিক সম্পর্কের কেন্দ্রস্থল।
এবং, আপনাদের মতো ভ্রমণ, সফর এবং হোটেল উদ্যেক্তাদের ইহাতে গুরুত্বপূর্ণ ভূমিকা রয়েছে।
আমি নিশ্চিত যে আজকের অনুষ্ঠানটি B2B যোগাযোগ এবং সামগ্রিক পর্যটন সংযোগগুলোকে আরও সুসংহত করার ক্ষেত্রে একটি গুরুত্বপূর্ণ ভূমিকা রাখবে।
এই চমৎকার সম্পর্কগুলোকে লালন-পালন করতে এবং আপনাদের ব্যবসা বৃদ্ধিতে সাহায্য করার জন্য দূতাবাস প্রতিশ্রুতিবদ্ধ।
আপনাদের সবাইকে অনেক অনেক ধন্যবাদ।
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