Govt assessing COVID-19 impact on tourism

The government is conducting a thorough study regarding the impact of COVID-19 on Nepal’s tourism sector.

Tourism industry in the country is paralyzed owing to COVID-19 outbreak at a time when the government was supposed to conduct programmes for Visit Nepal Year 2020.

As per the directive of Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Kumar Bhattarai, the study would also delve into the impact of coronavirus on job market in the tourism sector.

For the task to accomplish, a team of Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Ghanshyam Upadhyay, Director General of Nepal Civil Aviation Authority Rajan Pokharel and CEO of Nepal Tourism Board Dr Dhananjaya Regmi is collecting the data over the issue.

Issuing a notice on Saturday, the Board has urged all the tourism entrepreneurs and stakeholders to help in the data collection, seeking their help to submit separate details online about airlines, hotel, tourist bus service, rafting, trekking, mountaineering and travels and tours.

CEO Dr Regmi said that online survey was started to identify the real situation of job market in tourism industry after the outbreak of global pandemic.

Meanwhile, Minister Bhattarai held a video conferencing with the chiefs of organizations relating to the tourism sector and asked them to consider the security of the employees.

During the meeting, discussions were held about impacts of COVID-19 on the tourism sector, all sorts of security of workers and officials and further plans of action, Minister Bhattarai’s secretariat said.