Delegation Meets Tourism Minister Bhandari

A delegation team of Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal on June 28 met with newly-appointed Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Sharat Singh Bhandari at his office in Singha Durbar.

The issues raised by the TAAN delegation are:

1. Define trekking as a permanent industry by annulling the provision of renewing the licence of trekking agents every year.

2. Annul the provision of bank guarantee for trekking agents which have completed the trial period of three years. Provide relaxation in customs duty for trekking agents to import goods for the upgradation of its facilities/services.

3. Scrap the provision of liaison officers for expeditions, except for the specialized ones, in a bid to attract expedition teams to different mountains in the country. We suggest the government to appoint a liaison officer for a trekking/mountaineering in a season.

4. Maintain one-window system for all formalities for foreign visitors. Distribute permits for controlled areas, mountaineering and other from a single place. The government should also authorize professional associations like TAAN to recommend on such things. This will help uphold professional ethics.

5. Implement TIMS on a one-window basis through TAAN. TIMS should be implemented through a central information mechanism to maintain records of trekkers and mountaineers from the upcoming fiscal year. It will help trace trekkers and mountaineers during natural disasters and help in their rescue works. Smart Card system will be implemented to enter records of trekkers on a hassle-free way. TAAN should be authorized to charge a nominal fee of US $ 2 for short treks and $ 5 for long treks. The amount would be collected in a fund which will be used for training, rescue and wellbeing of trekking assistants. Clothing bank and insurance facilities for trekking assistants could be managed from that fund. This will help promote responsible tourism in Nepal.

6. Authorise TAAN to permit fees for conservation areas/national parks and mountain climbing. This will help maintain one-window system.

7. Develop an effective mechanism to conduct rescue operation during the time of natural disasters. All hassles in this process should be sorted out.

8. Give due importance to trade mark value and name of existing companies while registering new companies. The government should make recommendation of umbrella organisations of such agencies compulsory while registering new companies. The government should authorize only one and pioneer umbrella organisation for the purpose.

9. Initiate in giving legal status to agreements reached between entrepreneurs and workers' unions.

10. Start tourism education campaign to further develop tourism sector. A monitoring body should be formed to study the quality of education/trainings provided by government-owned tourism training centres and tourism colleges.

11. Help Nepal make a tourism-friendly nation by introducing a unique colour and symbol for the entire industry and provide other privileges accordingly.

12. Issue free visa for visitors who want to come here during off-season. Also provide special facilities on mountaineering for them.

13. Develop and promote new areas to ease trekkers' traffic to existing areas and also to offer new attractions for visitors. The government should also authorise private sectors the authority of issuing permits and promote peaks, which are not popular among mountaineers, for certain time.

14. Roads have already been developed in Mustang and Dolpo regions from Tibetan side. The roads should be linked to Muktinath and Damodar Kund and developed as Silk Route. It can also be linked to Kailash Mansarovar region in Tibet.