Province No 4 to run Atithi Devo Bhawa campaign
Pokhara, June 16 (RSS): The Province No 4 government is to conduct the 'Atithi Devo Bhawa (Guests are God)' tourism promotion campaign in collaboration with the private sector.
This is stated in the budget statement
for the fiscal year 2018/19 which the provincial government minister for
economic affairs and planning Kiran Gurung presented in the Province Assembly
meeting on Friday.
He said an environment would be created
through the campaign that the tourists would like to visit the province not
once but frequently.
The budget statement envisages
developing quality services and new tourist destinations to increase the
duration of tourist stay.
The provincial government has set aside
Rs 10 million through the budget for preparing a tourism master plan along with
an explicit work plan and estimated cost.
Similarly, Rs 300 million has been
earmarked for the home stay tourism infrastructure development programme which
aims to develop 300 villages as model tourism villages with the vision of
promoting village tourism.
President of Village Tourism Promotion
Forum (V-TuF) Province 4 Committee, Rabindra Raj Poudel said Province 4 is a
province with high possibility of village tourism and the provincial government
keeping it in high priority in its budget was a positive move. He however said
that they were in a wait and see as to how the province government's enthusiasm
reflected in the vision and campaign translates into action.
The Province No 4 government has
allocated Rs 60 million for the construction of new trekking routes, repair and
maintenance of the already existing ones and setting up tourism information
centres in the province.
"High number of foreign tourists
visits the province each year for trekking due to the availability of numerous
adventurous trekking destinations and routes including the world-famous
Annapurna Circuit in Province No 4," said Sushil Raj Poudel, secretary of
the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN) Western Region Chapter.
Expressing happiness over the
government's allocation of budget for the promotion of trekking tourism, he
believed that this would contribute to the development of the tourism sector as
a whole.
Similarly, construction of a multi-media
musical fountain in the Phewa Lake, development of canopy walk from Damsite to
the Peace Stupa and construction of grass bridge at water level have been
proposed in the budget for the beautification of the lake and for establishing
it as major tourism hub. It is stated these works would be carried out in
collaboration with the private sector. The provincial government has also
allocated Rs 80 million for preparing the detailed project report for these
projects.
The budget statement also talks about
forming a lake conservation and development authority for the conservation of
the lakes, ponds and other water bodies found in the province, in cooperation
with the federal and provincial governments.
It is also stated in the budget
statement that a policy would be formulated for regulating and managing the
various historical, religious and cultural sites, the village tourism centres,
home stay tourism and trekking tourism as well as the Annapurna Manaslu
Conservation Area.
President of Pokhara Tourism Council,
Kedarnath Sharma said the budgetary allocations to the tourism sector and its
prioritisation by the province government has enthused the tourism
entrepreneurs in the province.
"The government's policy and work
plan should be put into implementation in an effective manner. The development
of tourism in Province No 4 including in Pokhara would contribute to the
promotion of tourism in the entire country," he said.
The provincial government has included
in the budget statement its goal of expanding the adventure sports tourism and
developing Mustang, Manang and Chuma-Bri as the international standard film
shooting destinations.
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