Wednesday 17th April 2024
The Nepali tourism sector has been pushed into hot water with the emergence of coronavirus pandemic. The tourist arrivals in the Himalayan nation have witnessed a steep drop for almost two years.
Hot on heels of this unprecedented crisis, the unemployment in the tourism sector has reached staggering levels. Many tourism workers are in dire straits.
Citing the unemployment crisis, the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) in collaboration with the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN) is planning to create short-term employment for 1,000 tourism workers.
The NTB and TAAN inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to this effect on Sunday.
The NTB has launched a project titled “Sustainable Tourism for Livelihood Recovery” with an aim to provide relief to the workers who lost their employment due to COVID-19 crisis.
Under the two-and-a-half year project, the Tourism Board is targeting to offer work ranging from around 70,000 man days to 100,000 man days, in support of the UNDP.
The project budget is estimated around USD 2.5 million. The NTB will provide USD 1 million and the remaining USD 1.5 million will be offered by the UNDP.
“We were hopeful that the project would help address the unemployment issue in the tourism sector a little bit and retain tourism businesses and workers,” said NTB Executive Director Dr. Dhananjaya Regmi.
The Tourism Board is also planning to create short-term employment opportunities for 50,000 workers in total in the near future.
The Board has already signed agreement with the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAAN), Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA), and Nepal Association of Rafting Agencies (NARA) to this effect.
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