Nepal has a wide variety of wildlife. It is renowned for its diverse topographical features, flora, and fauna. Nepal is home to eight of the world’s fourteen tallest mountains. Many visitors visit Nepal each year to climb these mountains. One of the foundations of our country is tourism. It provides the government with a sizable sum of revenue. Good tourism results in development, lower brain emigration, and higher profits. Despite the enormous potential for tourism in Nepal, climate change has had an impact. The tourism sector has been negatively impacted by climate change. The tourism sector has found it challenging to recover from the losses caused by the global epidemic. Nepal is especially susceptible to climate change since it has a high value for tourism. Numerous people travel to Nepal each year to visit various locations. However, they leave their trash behind when they move. The ecosphere is changing significantly as a result of this trash. We are aware that a large amount of trash left by tourists has been collected in the mountainous area. There are so many that our tourist attraction is now less appealing.
It is high time we start taking the problem caused by climate change in the tourism sector seriously, Sath Sathai a women-focused non-profit organization founded in November 2021, on the occasion of World Tourism Day 2023, organized a one-day Tourism Conference on the theme, “ENSURING TOURISM BENEFITS: FOR PEOPLE, FOR PLANET, AND FOR PROSPERITY” in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Forests and Environment. We appreciate Nepal Airlines, Nepal Telecom, NMA, NTB, and World Link for their continuous support throughout the conference.
The national anthem and the reception of guests kicked off the program at three. The chairperson of Sath Sathai then spoke, emphasizing the need to raise awareness about the necessity to begin the practice of traveling within the country before doing so outside of it. Collaboration amongst stakeholders is necessary in this field. Following this, our esteemed guests gave their presentations. The presentations were highly informative and talked about the importance of taking climate action to improve tourism.
After this, we had a talk show with the Honorable Minister Sudan Kirati. He spoke about his present plans and future plans, and how he is trying to fulfill them. He also talked about how the policies should be made according to the needs of our country and not be copied from somewhere else. He expressed that we must first focus on quantity over quality. After a steady number of tourists are attracted to it, we must then focus on giving them a quality experience. The conference came to an end with the closing remarks from Badri Sigdel.
Objectives
- To promote tourism
- To aware people of the adverse effects of climate change on tourism
- To aware people about the cleaning of the mountains
Key Takeaways
- Tourism is highly vulnerable to climate change. To deal with this, Chairperson Karki said that climate-friendly infrastructures should be built for sustainable tourism development.
- The importance of diversifying tourism approaches in different zones, including adventure zones, hill stations, cultural trails, wildlife areas, and entertainment zone
- The mountain clean-up campaign was not solely an environmental endeavor but also an economic one
- Importance of responsible tourism practices that respect the cultural and environmental heritage of the region, ultimately leading to shared prosperity among the people of the Hindu Kush Himalaya region.
- Our promotional efforts to foreign countries are still lagging. Therefore, our first objective should be to attract a larger number of tourists. Once we achieve this, we can then focus on enhancing the quality of the tourists we attract.
- For a landlocked country like ours, airplanes are an important factor for tourism.
Presenters and Speakers
- Sudan Kirati – Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation
- Dhananjaya Regmi – Nepal Tourism Board
- Brigadier General Sundar Kumar Pandey – Nepal Army
- Dr. Anu Kumari Lama – Tourism Specialist
No Comments yet!