Speaking at an interaction with media personnel in Kathmandu on Sunday, DB Limbu, president of NATTA, said his association expects the number of Chinese tourists to double by the end of 2016 and reach 250,000. "To materialize this, we have planned special programs. One of them was appointing Chinese actor Ming Yang Jiang 'Ocean' out goodwill ambassador to promote Nepali in China," he added.According to China National Tourism Authority (CNTA), China's yearly outbound tourists reached 117 million in 2014, an increase of 19.16 percent compared to 2013. Of the total outbound tourists, 70 percent visited Hong Kong and Macau while 30 percent traveled to other countries.
Number of Chinese tourists has been growing consistently in Nepal. Nepal welcomed 125,000 Chinese tourists in 2014 - a rise of 40 percent compared to 2012 when the country had received 72,000 tourists from the northern neighbor.
"We believe that our tie up with the famous Chinese celebrities will help to bring more tourists to Nepal as he will promote Nepal throughout the year through online and print media as well as social media platforms in China," Mihika Dhakwa, general secretary of NATTA, said. "NATTA has planned different training for tour operators so that they sell tourism products and services to bring more Chinese tourists."
Dhakwa said NATTA is focusing on Chinese market mainly because it is a growing market for Nepal and it has better air connectivity. "Being a neighboring country, it can be a good market for Nepal," he added.
To let the rest of the world know that tourists are visiting Nepal like usual, NATTA invited 37 international media persons and tour operators for familiarization (fam) trip from September 24 to 30.
"The familiarization trip helped us to show international media and tour operators the actual situation of Nepal. Many of them have assured us to relay the message that Nepal is safe and its tourism is recovering after the earthquake," Shambhu Pathak, first vice president of NATTA, said.
Media persons and tour operators from Malaysia, France, UK, Hong Kong, China, Cambodia, Italy, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh , Bhutan, and India were in the fam trip.
"Now the earthquake is over. You should visit Nepal and see how they have been welcoming tourists," Sinan Halic a media person based Turkey said in a video message.
Similarly, the meeting of South Asian Tourism Federation (SATF), which was held on the sidelines of 20th NATTA Convention decided to make tour operators' associations of each country associate members of each others.
The next meeting of SATF will be held in Thimpu of Bhutan in December.
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