Hotel Association Nepal (Han) on Monday urged the key political parties to give special priority to the country’s tourism development in their election manifestos for the upcoming federal and provincial elections. The umbrella organization of the country’s hotel industry said that as all provinces had abundant prospects for tourism development, the party’s manifestos should promote sustainable tourism programmes to benefit the people. 

“As we cannot compete with other countries in trade, we have to realize that tourism holds a strong basis to generate jobs and income,” said CPN (Maoist Centre) leader Lila Mani Pokhrel, speaking at a programme entitled Tourism Industry: A Base for Sustainable Economic Development. “We have abundant potential for developing health and education tourism besides our natural tourism prospects.” 

Nepali Congress leader Prakash Sharan Mahat said that Nepal needed to focus on bringing tourists from the two giant economies—India and China. “Attracting a small fraction of tourists from these two neighbouring countries could vitalize our economy.”  He said that Nepal’s tourism industry had taken a great leap forward in the last two decades, but that it was still not satisfactory. 

CPN-UML leader Surya Thapa said their election manifesto included an ambitious plan to attract 5 million tourists in the next five years. “To realize this plan, we need to focus on developing infrastructure.