-CB Adhikari
Kathmandu, December 27 : The mega tourism campaign of Nepal Year (VNY)-2020 is going to be formally inaugurated amidst a special programme at Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu on January 1, 2020.
The very campaign aims to attract 2 million foreign tourists in the country during the next year. President Bidya Devi Bhandari is scheduled to inaugurate it where Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli would also make a special address.
According to the Visit Nepal Year Secretariat, chief ministers of all seven states would also inaugurate the visit year from their respective state on the same day. Similarly, Visit Nepal Year would be inaugurated at Nepali Embassy in foreign countries on January 7 while the Visit Nepal 2020 would be inaugurated through Non-Resident Nepali Association in the countries where there is no Nepali Embassy, according to the Tourism Ministry.
The government has invited tourism ministers and senior delegates of 31 countries on the inaugural ceremony of the Visit Nepal year 2020. Of them, participation of tourism ministers of 10 countries and senior delegates of some countries has been guaranteed.
Different programmes like march past and cultural programmes would be performed at the inaugural ceremony. The inaugural ceremony of the Visit Nepal 2020 would begin from 3:00 pm. Minister for Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation, Yogesh Kumar Bhattarai, has been active round the clock in order to make the Visit Nepal Year 2020 a grand success.
Media personnel from 40 countries coming
Media personnel from 40 countries will be attending the Visit Nepal Year inauguration programme. There will be the representation of the famous media from India, China, Bangladesh, European countries, among many other countries.
Arrangements have been made for taking the foreign journalists on a visit to important tourism destinations in the country for three to five days, according to Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), which is responsible for managing the visit of the journalists. Visit Year 2020 National Programme Coordinator, Suraj Baidya said the message that Nepal is safe and attractive tourism destination would be spread around the world by organizing the inauguration in a grand manner.
According to him, the inauguration programme will be another big international level programme to be organized in the country after the 13th South Asian Games which concluded recently. He said the Secretariat has made all preparations for that purpose. Baidya informed that the final preparations have been completed for the Visit Year 2020 inauguration to be organized within the country and at Nepali embassies abroad.
Rs 20 million to be spent in inaugural programme
Coordinator Baidya said a total Rs 20 million is estimated to cost for the inauguration programme. The cost will come down as the government will provide the Dasharath Stadium, the venue for the opening ceremony, free of cost for the purpose. Otherwise, the daily rent of the Stadium would have been Rs 1.5 million. The Secretariat has stated that there would not be any scarcity of fund for the event. The government has recently approved Rs 617.4 million for the Visit Year.
Bhaktapur prepares for Visit Year
Meanwhile, the Bhaktapur Municipality is organizing a variety of programmes for making the Visit Nepal Year 2020 campaign successful. On January 1, 2020 when the Visit Year would be formally inaugurated, Bhaktapur Municipality will also inaugurate the Visit Year by organizing a special welcome programme to tourists visiting the ancient town. Bhaktapur Municipality’s mayor Sunil Prajapati said 93 monuments out of 116 in Bhaktapur which were damaged by the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake have been rebuilt, ready for the Visit Year. He also informed that the Municipality will organize the Bhaktapur Festival from March 17 to 21 to supplement to the Visit Nepal Year 2020. RSS
