The Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has stressed the need to devise a new strategy for sustainable tourism that addresses the challenges raised by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Board held an interaction with various donor agencies and diplomatic missions on Friday to discuss the Sustainable Tourism for Livelihood Recovery Project (STLRP) it is implementing in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). There, Chief Executive Officer Dr. Dhananjay Regmi shared the various activities NTB carried out in the midst of the pandemic.
“We actively carried out tourist search and rescue, worked to promote domestic tourism and continuously updated the travel protocol,” Regmi said. “NTB’s work won it the UK’s Wanderlust Gold Award for its response to COVID-19.”
On the occasion, Regmi also urged all partners and stakeholders to support Nepal’s tourism during this difficult situation created by the pandemic.
According to the NTB, STLRP has provided short-term employment to nearly 6,000 tourism workers and helped build and renovate 19 hiking routes, 15 kilometres of cycling tracks, 132 kilometres of foot trails, six tourist shelters and 18 wooden bridges. The project has been implemented in partnerships with 38 local levels of 23 districts.
Ayshanie Medagangoda-Labé, resident representative of UNDP Nepal, praised the work being done by NTB for the tourism sector. Shedding light on the objectives of STLRP, she said that such a project was necessary to mitigate the impact the coronavirus outbreak has had on the sector. She also informed that the UNDP was working with the governments of Gandaki and Sudurpashchim provinces to develop tourism in their respective regions.
Source : TRN,
