Unstoppable Nepal tourism industry

To boost the initiatives of the tourism industry in regaining much needed confidence for the destination, a one-day conference, “Destination Restoration and Motivation Workshop,” was organized by SAMA

To boost the initiatives of the tourism industry in regaining much needed confidence for the destination, a one-day conference, “Destination Restoration and Motivation Workshop,” was organized by SAMARTH on November 20, 2015 in Kathmandu. SAMARTH – Nepal Market Development Program (NMDP) is a five-year UK aid-funded rural market development program that aims to reduce poverty in Nepal by improving the underlying pro-poor performance of a range of rural sectors, including tourism.

The conference is an important addition to SAMARTH’s continual support to uplift Tourism industry after the April Earthquake. Despite of blockade on essentials and fuel supplies along India border, the participation in the workshop was highly encouraging. The entrepreneurs and leaders of most Tourism associations were present including NATTA, NATO, TAAN, and TURGAN to name a few.

Mr. Sumit Baral of SAMARTH opened the workshop highlighting the objective of the workshop.

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Mr. Ranjit Acharya, an eminent entrepreneur from Advertising industry and a Motivational Speaker, shared his experience and invaluable insights to uplift the enthusiasm and energy of the Tourism professionals. He did weave interesting examples and stories about how to manage the risk and crisis in order to convert them into the opportunities.

The key presentation was delivered by Dr. David Beirman on โ€œDestination Restoration in Nepal โ€“ A Worldโ€™s Best Practice Strategic Approach.โ€ Dr. Beirman, an expert on tourism risk, crisis and recovery marketing from University of Technology-Sydney, highlighted that no destination is immune to crisis but the key is how to respond to it. He shared his firsthand experience of handling such crisis and bouncing back strong. Some key ideas he floated for knowledge and capacity building were words of mouth publicity, re-identification of unique selling points, reviewing target markets, and creation of social media awareness during the time of crisis.

He did mention how his friends had reacted on hearing about his travel plan to Nepal. They thought all were gone in Nepal after the earthquake whereas the ground reality was so very different. Hence he urged all the concerned to come up with effective communication along with right strategies for the re-positioning. Dr. Beirman, also an ambassador of eTN in Australia, was excited about his sightseeing tour of UNESCO heritage sites in the valley. He is already hoping to come back to Nepal for a longer trip.

The conference was moderated by Ashoka fellow, Anil Chitrakar who is a respected social entrepreneur. Dr. Pranil Upadhyay of SAMARTH was instrumental in turning the idea of workshop into a reality.

Now many strongly believe that Destination Nepal is bound to bounce back, it is just a matter of time!

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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