Tourism entrepreneurs of Province 3 have expressed their reservations about the provincial-level tourism promotion committee formed to promote Visit Nepal 2020.

The government announced the tourism programme with an aim to attract 2 million tourists in the country in 2020.

The hotel and tourism entrepreneurs complained that the provincial committee was formed overlooking the stakeholders. They accused the authorities of forming the committee with the representation of only a few districts of Province 3.

“Representation of hotel and tourism entrepreneurs was essential to make the Visit Nepal 2020 a grand success,” said Santosh Uprety of Nuwakot, who is also the chairman of Hotel and Tourism Entrepreneur Association of Province 3.

“People who are not related to the tourism sector have been included in the committee. Only a select few districts have representation in the committee,” Uprety said, asking, “How can the government-launched programme be successful when only a few districts out of the total 13 are included in the committee?”

The provincial government formed the tourism promotion committee under the chairmanship of Minister for Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment Arun Nepal, with Chief Secretary of the province Ananda Raj Dhakal as the co-chairman. Four tourism entrepreneurs from Kathmandu, two from Dhading and one each from Chitwan and Dolakha are the members of the committee. Only the local chapters of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Chitwan and Makwanpur have been mentioned as the members of the committee.

Shyam Munal, chairman of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Kavre, said that the representatives of all 13 districts should be included in the tourism promotion committee so that tourism related activities would be carried out in every district to make the Visit 2020 a historic success.