Four major political parties have placed tourism at the centre of their election manifestos, promising sweeping reforms in aviation safety, diplomatic efforts to secure additional air entry routes with India, and ambitious targets to double tourist arrivals and spending within five years.

A common thread running through the pledges is a commitment to remove Nepal from the European Commission’s air safety list and expand international flights from the country’s two new international airports.

The manifesto of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), led by Rabi Lamichhane, has pledged to double both tourist numbers and their average spending within the next five years, while also increasing the length of stay.

Nepal has been receiving just over 1 million tourists annually over the past three years, and arrivals have yet to return to the pre-Covid level of 2019. Industry stakeholders cite recurring plane crashes, poor highway infrastructure and weak international promotion as key deterrents.

The RSP manifesto, with the face of former Kathmandu Metropolitan City mayor Balendra Shah, popularly known as Balen, as probable prime minister, states that special focus will be placed on Karnali and Sudurpaschim provinces to develop new destinations, tapping what it describes as their abundant but underutilised natural resources.

The party has proposed a “one-door policy” through a digital platform to issue permits for trekking, national parks and heritage sites, aiming to reduce both time and cost for visitors. It has also promised to deploy drones for search and rescue operations in mountain regions and promote hill stations within 1.5 hours of bordering Indian towns to attract short-haul Indian tourists.

On aviation reform, the RSP has reiterated the long-delayed plan to split the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal into two separate entities—a regulator and a service provider. The restructuring, demanded by international watchdogs for years, has remained stalled under successive governments.

The party has also pledged to conduct the necessary technical and legal audits to remove Nepal from the European Commission’s air safety list. It says the debt-ridden Nepal Airlines Corporation will be restructured under a public-private partnership model, with the government retaining a 51 percent stake.

The RSP further says it will offer fee discounts and marketing incentives to operationalise the Gautam Buddha International Airport and the Pokhara International Airport at full capacity. It has also committed to stepping up diplomatic engagement with India to secure additional cross-border air entry routes.

For nearly two decades, Nepal has been urging India to operationalise four cross-border air routes via Janakpur, Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj and Mahendranagar to facilitate international flights to the new airports in Bhairahawa and Pokhara.

The Nepali Congress has taken a different approach by foregrounding wellness and spiritual tourism. Its manifesto proposes launching an “Aarogya Nepal” campaign integrating yoga, meditation, Ayurveda and medicinal herbs as a national pride project. The party says it will brand Nepal as the world’s spiritual capital and introduce a “wellness and digital nomad visa” for foreign tourists.

The Congress plans to build wellness zones and yoga laboratories in major tourist areas and promote community homestays and urban home-stay programmes to allow visitors to experience Nepali civilisation and lifestyle. Indigenous attire, cuisine and handicrafts will be packaged and branded as tourism products.

It also promises to develop cultural villages in key destinations and convert community forests and wetlands into eco-tourism centres with local participation.

For cultural and spiritual research, the party has pledged to establish international study centres in Kathmandu, Pokhara, Lumbini, Janakpur, Muktinath and Karnali. It envisions integrated tourism circuits linking Muktinath, Janakpur and Lumbini through improved air and road connectivity, including digital corridors such as the “Janakpur–Lumbini–Kathmandu” spiritual route and the “Buddha-to-Shiva” circuit.

On aviation, the Congress manifesto promises to reduce airport operation costs, landing and parking fees, and additional aviation fuel surcharges to make Nepal more cost-competitive. It also supports splitting the Civil Aviation Authority into two autonomous bodies and taking diplomatic initiatives to remove Nepal from the European air safety list.

The party says it will undertake high-level diplomatic efforts to run Pokhara and Bhairahawa airports at full capacity and establish direct connections with major global cities. Within 10 years, it aims to attract 3 million tourists annually and increase tourism’s contribution to gross domestic product to between 15 and 20 percent. It has also pledged to reform Nepal Airlines within six months and transform it into a “people’s flag carrier.”

The Congress further proposes preparing a Nepali Gastronomy Guide covering indigenous dishes and ingredients from all seven provinces, integrating organic agriculture and local beverages into the tourism supply chain with quality certification, and promoting herbal-infused Nepali cuisine as “medicinal food”.

The CPN-UML manifesto similarly prioritises tourism infrastructure development, market promotion, air service expansion, enhanced internal security and opening new destinations to double tourist arrivals within five years. It emphasises “tourist safety first” and improving service quality to extend visitors’ stays.

The party says it will collaborate with international airlines to improve connectivity, review visa policies and domestic airfare rates to make “Destination Nepal” more attractive, and encourage private investment in luxury resorts, eco-lodges and wellness centres. It also plans aggressive international promotion through social media, travel bloggers, influencers and documentaries, with active involvement of the Nepali diaspora.

The Nepali Communist Party led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal has pledged technical reforms in both Nepal Airlines and private carriers, along with legal measures to secure removal from the European Commission’s air safety list. It promises to expand international flights from Bhairahawa and Pokhara and promote eco-tourism, adventure tourism, health and wellness tourism, and herbal tourism.

The party also plans to develop more than 15 hill stations and resorts near the Indian border as entertainment hubs, wedding destinations and eco-tourism zones, and open up 97 lesser-known Himalayan peaks for mountaineering.

Noted hotelier Yogendra Shakya welcomed the focus on tourism but cautioned that implementation would be key. “The goals are not overly ambitious, but it depends on how they deliver. We will keep these documents and start questioning them once they are in government. They must not repeat empty promises,” he said.

According to the London-based World Travel and Tourism Council, Nepal’s tourism sector generated Rs327.9 billion ($2.5 billion) in revenue in 2023 and supported 1.19 million jobs directly and indirectly, accounting for 15.2 percent of total employment. The sector’s total contribution to GDP stood at Rs358.9 billion ($2.7 billion), or 6.6 percent, in 2023—slightly down from 6.7 percent in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic.