Nepal will be focusing on domestic tourists as well in 2016

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Mr. Deepak Raj Joshi is the newly appointed CEO of Nepal Tourism Board. He was appointed as the new CEO of NTB on December 17.

Here is a short interview with Mr. Joshi about his plans to revive Tourism in Nepal

You been appointed CEO of NTB at a time when the country’s tourism industry is passing through difficult days? What will be your main priority?

Tourism Sector was in jeopardy after the earthquake and my first challenge is to revive the tourism industry. The year 2016 is not just about revival of tourism industry but also about its survival. We need to do adopt some powerful marketing and promotion strategies in some major markets. I will be focusing on revival of the industry to the earlier benchmark of 800,000 tourists annually for the year 2017. Similarly, reinvigoration for transforming financial and service operations in 2018, and building back better in 2019 will be my main priority.

Apart from that, I will be prioritising on new markets like Russia. Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan are the markets we need to target tactically, besides India and China, where outbound is growing.

Tourism entrepreneurs say bookings for spring 2016 are very low compared to 2015. Do you think tourism can be taken back to the earlier benchmark within 2016?

It is possible to come back to previous benchmark if things take a good turn unlike the present context. Besides that we will do aggressive marketing in China, , India and South East Asian countries like Myanmar, Vietnam and Indonesia. We hope that the recent decision to waive visa free for chinese tourists will boost the tourism sector of Nepal.

NTB will also target millennial generation – those who were born in the early 1980s to 2000s. They are young, speak good English and travel a lot.

We will also mobilize traditional media and social media for the promotion of Nepal’s tourism round the globe. We are looking forward to make very strong IT and Social media team for mobilization. Right now, we have nepalnow.org which is the official site for customer engagement, providing tourism related updates as a campaign for the revival of tourism industry and will run for a year.

There is a dispute between Trekking agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN) and NTB regarding Trekking Information Management System (TIMS) disbursement of TIMS fund. What is the actual problem and when will it be solved?

As far as I know, there are some legal and audit issues. But I have not still conducted a detailed study on that case. I will give it a high priority and will try to fix the issue as soon as possible. We can only work together as long as harmony exists. We need to work together with different trade organizations and travel sectors.

One needs a strong team to implement his/her programs. But more than 50 percent of posts at NTB are lying vacant. What about filling these posts?

There are some legal issues that needs to be sorted out before hiring new people. There are a total of 62 posts in NTB. But right now only 30 of us are working. As soon as the legal issues gets sorted out, we will hire new experts for media mobilization, branding and effective promotion. This shall be done within 6 months of time.

What will be your plan for international marketing and promotion?

NTB has been adopting traditional approaches like participating in travel trade fair and marts, and bringing media on fam trips. However, this time we will make changes and will focus on something which is impact – oriented. I am trying to approach Non-Resident Nepalese Association (NRNA) as it has presence in more than 70 countries. We need to forge partnership and synergize our effort. We will also be making mobile applications for the ease of people.

What are the immediate changes that one can feel at NTB within six months?

Good partnership with private sector, better and improved service delivery and increment in the inflow of tourists are something one can expect in a time span of 6 months.

From the lessons that we have learnt, my top priority will be to ensure transparency, and promoting healthy competition and honesty in delivery. I also want to assure one and all that whatever I do will be for larger interest of the industry. I will also educate key stakeholders about the fact that tourism is a business phenomenon and and should be taken to only those areas where one can get return of their investment. Similarly we will prioritize on domestic tourism as well which will be my topmost priority for the year 2016.