ITAHARI: Hotel and Tourism Entrepreneurs Association of Sunsari has decided to launch a package tourism guidebook of Province 1. The first-of-its-kind guidebook would be privately funded and formally launched on the eve of New Year of 2022, shared Tejbahadur Puri, Chair of the Association.

”Our guide book will help travelers to get concrete information and knowledge and the overall routes of the major destinations and activities in the province”, said Puri. He said the guidebook will mainly feature major tourist areas and activities of Sunsari and other world-class travel destinations and activities of the other 13 districts in the province.

”There are some government guidebooks out in the market which does not speak volumes about the tourism map of our province, ”said Basudev Baral, the Senior Vice-Chair of the Association. He added, ”In order to plug this void, we have come up with our own idea of privately created and published tourism guidebook of the province.”

Baral is of the view that despite populous Indian states of Bihar, West Bengal and touristic state of Sikkim in its neighborhood, Province 1 had failed to tap the touristic potential. Furthermore, it lacks far behind in terms of tourism infrastructure, activities and also branding among neighboring Indian market.

Decorated with World Heritage Site of Sagarmatha National Park and five mountains with more than eight thousand meters of height namely Mt. Everest, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu and the likes, Province 1 is not on par with Pokhara, Chitwan and Lumbuni when it comes to tourism footfalls.

”Our area is ahead in terms of attractions and destinations”, said Baral, ”What we are lagging is all about business and arrivals. This needs to be addressed at the earliest both from three-tier of governments and private players.”

The guidebook is expected to help publicize the major tourist destinations of the provinces, while also service a handy book for travelers in the province