Nepal records tourist boom

NEPAL: Less than three years after a long and bloody civil war ended, tourists are returning to Nepal and its spectacular mountain scenery in record numbers despite a global economic slowdown.

The government, led by former Maoist rebels who waged an insurgency against the monarchy for 10 years, has set an ambitious target of doubling visitor numbers to the Himalayan nation by 2011, a top tourism official said.

The Maoists signed a peace deal in 2006 and won a landmark election in April last year.

Tourist arrivals grew 4 percent last year from 526,000 in 2007, the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) said, the highest number since Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed Mount Everest in 1953 and effectively launched the country’s tourism industry. Prachanda Man Shrestha, the NTB chief, said the government has designated 2011 as “Nepal Tourism Year” and hoped to receive 1 million visitors on the back of the peace deal.

Kathmandu, Sunday, Reuters