The Launching Ceremony of International Mountain Tourism Day and Mountain Tourism International Forum (Nepal) was held in Kathmandu on 29th May 2019 on the occasion of International Sagarmatha Day. The program was inaugurated by Minister for Foreign Affairs, Nepal Hon’ble Mr. Pradeep Kumar Gyawali at Hotel Yak & Yeti, Kathmandu.
The first “International Mountain Tourism Day” was jointly held by International Mountain Tourism Alliance (IMTA), China, Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) and Nepal Association of Tour & Travel Agents (NATTA).
The major objective of the program was in raising public awareness about protecting mountain resources and preserving mountain civilization and public responsibility for promoting mountain economy to benefit the community of mountain people.
Dividing into different sessions, the Mountain Tourism International Forum (Nepal), themed “Ecology, green, science & technology lead the high-quality development of mountain tourism”, focused on the opportunities, challenges and trends facing by the development of mountain tourism, the special tourism around the Himalayas, and the positive development of the mountain tourism industry.
Different Experts, scholars and industry insiders from different countries such as Dr. Mario Hardy, CEO of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), Dr. Moez Kacem, Vice Chairman of World Association for Hospitality and Tourism Education and Training (AMFORHT), Dr. Donghoon Lee, Chairman of Korea Student Alpine Federation (KSAF), and several other delegations presented and discussed how to promote the high-quality, sustainable development of mountain tourism.
Likewise our invitees from different sector of tourism industry joined the first “International Mountain Tourism Day” event to unfold a new chapter of mountain tourism together.
IMTA apprised in the event that it chose Nepal as the destination for holding International Mountain Day as Nepal is one of the most representative countries in the world for mountain tourism and hosts half of the world’s 14 tallest mountains. IMTA thanked Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and Nepal Tourism Board for their cordiality and support shown towards them. IMTA also acknowledged NATTA Board for the hard work and efforts in making this event possible overseas.
Now that Nepalese tourism fraternity has adopted a goal of two million tourist arrivals to Nepal by 2020, celebrating Visit Nepal Year (VNY) 2020. NATTA believes the celebration of International Mountain Tourism Day and exchange of insights shared in the forum will prove instrumental to VNY 2020.
NATTA would like to express the appreciation to International Mountain Tourism Alliance (IMTA) for choosing their first host country Nepal for their international organizational event as International Mountain Tourism Day. The special recognitions from NATTA goes to Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Nepal Tourism Board and friends of tourism fraternity who were supportive in making this program a historic one.
