India‚ China promotion in dilemma

Kathmandu: The promotion of destination Nepal has already grabbed momentum in the international electronic media, BBC and CNN, but promotions at major tourist generating markets, China and India, have not yet gathered pace.

The promotion of Nepal from BBC in Australia began in November 2011, while the promos were aired in South Asia from December 5, 2011. Meanwhile, CNN started promos of destination Nepal from the American Airport network since mid February 2012, whereas promos in CNN’s South Asia network started from March 1 and was put in its website today.

However, preparations for promos in India and China are still uncertain. “The sponsorship of CNN Go Outdoor Adventures has gone live from today. We will now be able to view the advertisement of destination Nepal with the theme ‘Naturally Nepal’ in CNN’s website too,” said director of planning and monitoring at Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), Kashi Raj Bhandari.

But we are in a dilemma regarding the preparations for promotions for India and China. “We had a direct negotiation with BBC and CNN for the promotions but regarding China and India, the procedure is very complicated and on top of that NTB lacks a decision making authority,” said Bhandari.

According to Bhandari, the total budget allocated for the international promotions in BBC and CNN was Rs 40 million and for China and India too the government has allocated quite a substantial budget. “We have a bulk amount for the promotion of destination Nepal in our neighbouring countries but the absence of a chief executive officer and board members has put the whole process in a dilemma,” he said.

However, he added that the tourism board is still trying to develop a strategy to utilise the budget for the most deserved programme. The committee for Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) 2011 paid Rs 25 million to BBC and Rs 15 million to CNN. The promotions from BBC will end after March while promotions from CNN will end after April this year.

“We have plans to renew the international promotions but without the board members it is impossible,” he said. “International promotion of Nepal was a part of NTY 2011 campaign but due to some complications the promotions started late,” said Bhandari.

Nepal has observed an upward trend in tourist arrivals since the start of January 2012 which continued in the second month of the year, showing a rise in travel demand towards the destination. A total of 42,716 international tourists arrived in Nepal in February 2012. The number of tourists coming to Nepal by air increased by 13.7 per cent in February 2012 as compared to the corresponding month last year.

India, which constitutes the major market of Nepal, has recorded a positive growth of 28.8 per cent but arrivals from China declined by 23.1 per cent. However, tourism entrepreneurs are positive about more arrivals in the coming months.- THT