Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA) celebrates Golden Jubilee
By Ramesh Tiwari —
Kathmandu: Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA) celebrated the Golden Jubilee of its establishment with the theme of “Nepal Tourism: Industry of National Priority.”
The 50th anniversary and XXI convention of NATTA urged the Nepal government to recognize Nepal tourism as a national industry.
High-level delegations representing Monaco based United Federation of Travel Agents’ Associations (UFTAA), UNWTO, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia , Bhutan , Pakistan, , India , Bangladesh ,and China attended the NATTA golden jubilee celebration held here on December 9-10 .
Inaugurating the NATTA golden jubilee celebration and the convention, Minister for Culture , Tourism and Civil Aviation Jiwan Bahadur Shahi emphasized on collective efforts of the government agencies and private sector travel trade professionals to develop tourism in the country.
Minister Shahi and State Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil aviation Indra Baniya released NATTA souvenir and directory.
On the occasion, veteran tourism personality Tek Chandra Pokharel was conferred with Sagarmatha Award – 2016 and Sudarshan Dhakal with Bhaskar Award – 2016.
Tourism Service Award was presented to former President and travel trade professional Arjun Prasad Sharma.
Similarly, 18 former Presidents of NATTA were honoured for their contribution to NATTA.
Air India , Thai Airways , UFTAA President Sunil Kumar , Nepal Tourism Board , Nepal Airlines Corporation , UTT , VLN . essay contest winners ,and jounalists from print and online media were also awarded during grand celebration of NATTA golden jubilee.
President of the United Federation of Travel Agents’ Associations (UFTAA) Sunil Kumar Rumeela, highlighting on latest world tourism trends in his keynote address, opined that the cultural heritages and amazing tourism products of Nepal could attract a large number of international tourists in the coming years.
Former Minister Pradip Gyawali said that tourism should be developed for economic prosperity of the country.
President of NATTA Madhu Sudan Acharya urged the government to give high priority to develop and build infrastructures of tourism in the country.
NATTA 1st Vice President and convener of NATTA Golden Jubilee Celebration and XXI Convention C.N. Pandey said the the golden jubilee theme aims to underline tourism as national industry and promote it as the mainstay of national economy of Nepal.
NATTA organized various programmes to celebrate the event including cycle rally, cleanup campaign at heritage sites, blood donation, and Round Table Conclave .
NATTA , established in 1966 as a non-governmental national association of travel industry, is an umbrella organization of more than 800 tour and travel agents.
Meanwhile , the 50th annual general meeting of NATTA discussed plans and programs of the organization and committed to unite all the travel agents and tour operators for a common mission of entrepreneurship, professionalism and promotion of tourism industry of Nepal.
December 10, 2016
