The fair was inaugurated by Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh (PRB) Honorable Minister Civil Aviation and Tourism Shahjahan Kamal among other Indian dignitaries including Consul General of Nepal, Kerala Eaknarayan Ariyal on July 6, 2018.

During his addressing at the inaugural ceremony Aryal identified TTF as an opportunity for these countries to create a tourist circuit to further promote their tourism potential.

The event saw the presence of 13 countries including Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) along with six Kathmandu private tourism companies and five companies from Mechi and Koshi regions represented Nepal at TTF.

TTF created a lot of scope for NTB promotional activities which included sideline meetings with important dignitaries from different State Tourism Authority of India (STAoI), Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

In discussions with Bihar Tourism Department Minister Pramod Kumar and Sri Lanka Tourism Board (SLTB) officials, NTB Director Mani Raj Lamichhane discussed the possibility of developing a joint partnership for the promotion of Ramayana Circuit, which includes the states of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Lamichhane suggested development of joint promotional collaterals and marketing among prospects including pilgrims, potential travelers and researchers.

In another meeting with Air India Assistant General Manager Jayanta Bhattacharya, Nepal representatives broached the subject regarding high air fares.

In view of the upcoming Visit Nepal 2020 program, Jayanta Bhattacharya said that they may consider reducing the flight fares and also tap on opportunities for operating flights between the two countries depending on the market demand and government proposal for the same.

Lamichhane highlighted Nepal’s tourism and culture opportunities for Meghalaya as part of his discussions with the Meghalaya Tourism Director Cyril V Diengdoh, while also pitching for promotion of religious sites of Meghalaya and Nepal,  along with knowledge & information exchange pertaining to tourism promotion.

In response, Diengdoh displayed keen interest in supporting ‘Visit Nepal 2020’ promotions from Meghalaya.

Tapping Business Opportunities
Other than meetings and talks, TTF created a strong base for Nepal B2C opportunities.

The Nepali stall witnessed many enthusiastic queries on visiting plans to Nepal, apart from interested persons developing business connections and renewing contact databases.

As part of the promotion activity, Nepal’s stall distributed items including tourist maps, posters of Mt. Everest and religious places like Lumbini, Muktinath & Pashupathinath with souvenir items.

The 5,000 colorful ‘carry bags’ with ‘brand Nepal’ that were distributed throughout the event became a major attraction and talk of the town, hundreds of people seen carrying these bags across prime markets in Kolkata.

The last day of the event concluded with an award ceremony, where senior Nepali official Khem Raj Timalsena received the ‘Most Innovative Decoration Award’ on behalf of the team for its overall presentation, while Lamichhane was honored with the task of awarding TTF fellow participants.

About TTF
TTF is one of Kolkata’s oldest and busiest travel-trade events in India. It serves as a major attraction for the industry owing to its business-gaining potential that draws inbound and outbound audience from East and Southwest Asia. Incepted in 1989, the show acts as an annual marketing platform and creates window for networking with travel trade in major cities.

This year the show witnessed a participation of over 430 exhibitors from 28 Indian states and 13 countries.

Nepal Tourism Sales Missions Lands in Australia
After successful sales mission rounds in the US, the Nepal Sales Mission (NSM) is also set to woo its Australian audience!

NTB and Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) organized NSM in three major Australian cities: Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane between July 2-5, 2018.

As part of promotion, NTB extensively promoted Nepal’s nature, culture, adventure activities and wildlife in these Australian cities.

NSM 2018 Australia: Highlights

• Primarily, NSM focused on the conducive environment of Nepal for travel and the Visit Nepal 2020 campaign with a provision of information on Australia-Nepal air connectivity, visa regulations and facilities available for Australian tourists in Nepal
• The program featured the cultural heritage: tangible and intangible, of Nepal
• It also portrayed Nepal as the center of peace and harmony, spirituality, meditation and yoga
• NTB Senior Manager Laxman Gautam made exclusive and detailed presentations on various tourism facts of Nepal to whole seller travel agents in all three cities

The event witnessed the participation of whole seller agents and media from these cities who displayed keen interest in the program.

Honorary Consulate of Victoria Chandra Yonzan, Honorary Consulate of New South Wales Deepak Khadka and Honorary Public Relations Representative Queensland Swotantra Pratap Shah welcomed participants in Melbourne and other respective cities.

NTB delegation made a presentation to Australian business personalities, US Consulate, Victoria, some Members of Parliament Victoria during the dinner session of investment forum organized by Nepal Embassy, Australia and Nepal’s Consulate Office, Victoria.

NSM drew more than 130 tour operators and 20 media representatives in all the three cities.

Hotel Barahi, Hotel Manang and Hotel Glacier represented Nepal along with NTB at the Sales Mission.

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The event saw the presence of 92 journey brokers, tour operators and San Francisco journalists who spent an informative and thrilling night at a beautifully-designed San Francisco America India Foundation (SFAIF).

During the event, the Director for Tourism Marketing and Promotion of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) Nandini Lahe Thapa narrated an eye-opening story about her home country to the members. The story was received well by San Francisco travel professionals who loved listening to her and enjoyed the presentation displaying stunning videos of the Himalayan country.

Tourism Marketing & Promoting Department Senior Manager Diwakar Bikram Rana co-represented NTB at the event.

Four of Nepal’s top tour operators were engrossed in talking about the diverse tourism packages for Nepal to San Francisco agents.

The event that witnessed some important persons from both countries Nepal and San Francisco was organized by Dmytro Makarov from eTurboNews (eTN) Haleiwa, Hawaii and eTN Publisher Juergen Steinmetz. Melanie Webster from eTN California was ‘Master of Ceremony’.

32^nd International Travel Expo & 13^th MICE Travel Expo
In another important event held between June 14-17, 2018, NTB, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) and four tourism companies represented Nepal in the global events and exchange programs for the 32^nd International Travel Expo (ITE) & the 13^th MICE Travel Expo.

NTB Director Mani Raj Lamichhane and Officer Pradip Basnet represented NTB while Sr. Officer Indira Khadka and Officer Nayan Sharma represented Nepal Airlines.

Nepal’s booth at the exhibition attracted hundreds of visitors including affluent travelers who were presented with theme travels and briefed about the national campaign ‘Visit Nepal Year 2020’.

Nepal’s Promotion Activities At the Event

• Nepal airlines offered a ‘special fare’ for the month for June Hong Kong visitors travelling to Nepal
• NTB distributed free souvenirs including Peacock Window, Buddha Statue Posters of Everest, Pokhara and Lumbini besides other tourism-related information

In his talks with the visiting press at ITE, Lamichhane mentioned about the Nepal Government’s declaration of 2020 as Visit Nepal Year and its target of receiving 2 million tourists to Nepal. The Nepal Government hopes to receive double the visitors to and from Hong Kong SAR.

He also asked reputed travel media from Hong Kong SAR to disseminate positive news/features about Nepal. Nepal Gastronomy was also briefed.

Nepal companies participating in the event included Scenic Nepal Adventure, Trekker Nepal Pvt Ltd and Sathi Nepal Tours & Travel.

About ITE
The International Travel Expo (ITE) in Hong Kong is the city’s only travel fair and is a combination of MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) and theme travels. leisure, visitors of trade, professional and affluent FIT.

The ‘670-exhibitor’ event features about 100 highly popular travel seminar in regular days as compared with 30 travel and MICE seminars on trade days and draws up to 200 audience.

The organizers held the event for trade and other professional on June 14^th and 15^th and for the public on June 16^th and 17^th.

Nepal Sales Summit 2018: Los Angeles

Nepal Tourism was also a center of focus at the Los Angeles Summit.

“This feels like stepping into Nepal for a few hours” says Rico, a Los Angeles based travel agent who visited the Nepal Sales Mission 2018 Los Angeles. The summit which created a lot of hype for Nepal Tourism in the US ended on the evening of June 27, 2018 at Tara’s Himalayan Cuisine, Los Angeles.

In a special occasion and ambience that made people feel like they were in Nepal, the Nepal Tourism Board warmly welcomed, the Honorary Consul General of Nepal, Rishi P. Dhakal and his special guest, one of the dignitaries of the Artesia City Council originally from Nepal.

The summit presented a wide range of ‘new’ product development to showcase and promote honeymoons, destination weddings, community volunteerism, yoga/wellness, experiential travel, accessible travel and food/culture in Nepal. Through this summit, the Nepal Tourism Board wanted to convey the overall message of ‘discovering culture, heritage, food, wellness and romance products made available to high per diem US Travelers to Nepal’, to the US media.

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