A meeting between NATTA President Mr. Madhu Sudan Acharya and UNDP Sector Coordinator Tourism and Hospitality, Mr. Han van t’Hooft was held at NATTA Secretariat on 11th September 2017. Also present in the meeting were NATTA Second Vice President Mr. DK Sharma, Secretary Mr. Sudhir Kumar Upadhyay, Treasurer Mr. Chitra Bahadur Gurung, Executive Members Mr. Binay Basnet, Mr. Laxman Lamsal, Mr. Ghanashym Ghimire and Mr. Hari Bhakta Shrestha and Executive Director Mr. Laxman Gautam.
The meeting dealt with possible areas of mutual cooperation between both the organizations for the joint effort of developing and promoting tourism of Nepal. NATTA President Acharya proposed issues like developing remote areas of the country into tourism sites, providing tourism and hospitality trainings to the people of those areas and setting up basic hotels in those places. He outlined private sector would be reluctant to invest in hospitality sector in the less-travelled areas due to the risk of low return from such investment. Similarly, Office Bearers, Executive Members and Executive Director invited UNDP for support in the areas and sectors less focused by Government and Private sector like Simikot and Rara in Karnali, Haleshi in Khotang, Khaptad region in Far West region etc. Issues like continuing with TRPAP project initiated by UNDP a decade ago, providing basic skills and knowledge to those running home stays across the nation. Mr. t’Hooft acknowledged the concerns and expressed thanks to NATTA for the information about the tourism scenario of Nepal. He also showed keen interest in developing tourism sites in less frequented areas and sectors.