KATHMANDU: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has urged tourism authorities to ensure warm hospitality to tourists visiting Nepal, while avoiding legal and administrative hassles.
At the National Tourism Dialogue organized by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation at Singha Durbar today, he directed for comprehensive reforms to remove obstacles, if any, and advance the pace of tourism infrastructure development.
Unnecessary hassles for visitors at the immigration, loss of luggage and harassing tourists entering through the land border checkpoints should be put to an end. “Let us take tourism ahead as a basis for prosperity without any shortcomings in the facilitation work required from the concerned authorities,” the Prime Minister said.
Referring to EU ban imposed on Nepali aviation service providers, the Prime Minister also directed the concerned authorities to work to address the terms and conditions and to fulfill other criteria towards that end, including by dividing the aviation regulation authority into licensing and regulatory agencies.
The dialogue emphasized the need for timely construction of major highways and roads including Kathmandu-Muglin-Pokhara, Butwal-Palpa-Pokhara, Kathmandu-Dhulikhel, ease of entry of tourists through border checkpoints, direct air connectivity to European countries, branding Nepal on the world stage, formulation of a master plan for tourism promotion, restructuring of Nepal Airlines Corporation, implementation of conclusions of the Sagarmatha Dialogue, quality investment, human resource management, ease of tax and currency exchange, cleaning of the Himalayas, expansion of digital efficiency and increased inter-agency coordination.
The event was attended by the concerned federal ministers, ministers in charge of tourism of the provincial governments, high-ranking officials, and representatives of the private sector.
An action plan prepared on the basis of suggestions received from the private sector regarding the existing problems in the tourism sector and solutions was presented for deliberations at the dialogue.
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