The government of Karnali on Thursday announced Rara-Karnali Visit Year 2018, a campaign that aims to create economic and job opportunities by increasing tourist inflow ten-fold to 500,000 individual in one of the poorest and most remote regions of Nepal.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has decided to inaugurate the campaign on April 14 in Rara, Mugu.

The campaign has been declared by the first Cabinet meeting of the Karnali Province. Government officials of the province said that despite the lack of proper infrastructure, the campaign aims to make visitors feel the “wild west”. The government has aimed to attract a horde of tourists to Rara Lake, the biggest lake in the country, which lies in Mugu district.

Another attraction is the Shey Phoksundo National Park in Dolpa, which contains spectacular landscapes that ranks among the most scenic mountain parks in the world. The park is the home of Shey Phoksundo Lake located at an elevation of 3,611.5m above sea level. The yarsagumba trail could be another attraction for visitors travelling to Karnali. Yarsagumba, the world’s most expensive medicinal fungus is harvested every year during May and June.

Thousands of villagers from remote areas risk their own lives and head for the mountains to collect yarsagumba. It is estimated that one villager can earn up to Rs2,500 a day by collecting yarsagumba which has become a key source of income for many villagers in remote Karnali. Almost 50 percent of the annual supply of yarsagumba comes from Dolpa alone. The herb is also found in the Himalayan foothills of Jumla and Mugu. “As more than 42 percent of Karnali residents live below the poverty line, we believe that the tourism campaign will help the province to become self-sufficient on its own income through tourism income,” said Chief Minister of Karnali Province, Mahendra Bahadur Shahi. “In the long term, we have planned to produce organic agricultural products like vegetables and fruits to reduce dependency on state-subsidised and imported foods,” he told a press meet in Kathmandu.

According to Shahi, Karnali lack proper infrastructure but visitors can gain wild and natural experiences in Karnali.

Sight-seeing area like Murma Top (3,630 metres) in Mugu is the vantage point that provides a 360-degree view of Rara Lake. There are many old palaces and temples like Kanak Sundari in Jumla, Pandu Gupha in Dailekh and other historic and archeological sites in the province.