Nepal as a nation has resolved to revitalise her tourism industry. Tourism in Nepal, is the most important sector of the economy after agriculture, and contributes substantially to uplifiting the quality of life of her people. As a socio-economic activity, tourism touches the life of every Nepali citizen in one way or another.

Officially declared by His Majisty's Government, "Visit Nepal' 98" is today a policy priority for Nepal, to uplift the quality of products and services offered to our visitors. Through this effort, Nepal endeavours to achieve higher yields from tourism, Nepal not only will invite more visitors, but will strive to improve its infrastructure, address issues of environmental degradation and seeks to have more quality visitors. Visitors such as you, sensitive to preserving the destination's natural and cultural heritage will pay the right price for right value.

"Visit Nepal '98" is the launching pad we have, to achieve this objective. It is not just a year when Nepal will have festivities, invite you to visit us and have new products on offer. It is our industry's combined resolve to work towards a process to ensure that we deliver quality in our products , excellence in service, fully involve all our citizens in tourism and obtain the most yield from it to benefit our country, our people, our business partners and our visitors.

OUR THEME AND SLOGAN
Our theme for "Visit Nepal '98" is "A sustainable habitat through sustainable tourism" and our marketing sloganis "Visit Nepa; '98" - A WORLD OF ITS OWN". The theme highlights the need to make tourism work better for Nepal and ensures we develop environmentally sound products, improve our services standards and distribute the benefits of tourism to our people in the cities and the remotest regions alike. The marketing slogan tells you that there is a 'world' in Nepal that you need to discover or further explore for yourself. We remind you that our natural resources are unique and that ours is a living heritage. We remind you that our people are friendly and hospitable and our product range is diverse. We invite you to visit us to discover or explore the unique 'world' out here.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVESS

The objectives we need to achieve are:

• Increase the number of visitor arrivals and lengthen the duration of their stay
• Enhance the image of Nepal by repositioning it as a unique visitor destination
• Improve and develop diverse eco-friendly and value based tourisrn products
• Create intense awareness-of the benefits of tourism
• Establish measures to ensure regional development through tourism and
• Provide an impetus to improve and develop infrastructure and effectively deal with environmental issues.

A lot of work is already being done in Nepal by the government, the tourism industry and all other related sectors to achieve these objectives. A lot rnore will be done between now and 1998. The success of our efforts, will depend greatly on your support to our efforts.

ACTIVITIES FOCUS

The three major activity areas for "Visit Nepal Year '98 are:

• Infrastructure improvement/development and community involvement initiatives.
• Product enhancement, new product development and staging special events and activities
• International publicity and promotion.

HOW DO WE ACHIEVE THEM ?

Through our acitivtiies :

• We plan to position Nepal as a quality destination.
• We shall motivate, train and retrain our workforce to offer the best in service.
• We shall ensure community participation through understanding and involvement.
• We shall enhance our tourism products and add new and exciting product itineraries for you to select from.
• We shall ensure that your stay in Nepal can be extended further by offering exciting new events and activities.
• We shall work together and mobilise everyone in our efforts.
• We shall reach out to all our friends abroad and give you the message of the rejuvenation of Nepal's tourism industry.
• We invite you and request you to invite your friends or clients to visit Nepal to discover this 'world of its own'.
• We request you to use the 'Visit Nepal '98' logo and slogan on all your Nepal related publications and communications.
• We invite you to join us and speak with a single voice to let the world know that there is a world out here for them to explore.
• We shall together provide the leadership.