Nepal ties up with Jet

Looking beyond Kathmandu, the Nepal Tourism Board has chalked out a plan to make other places of tourism importance in the country popular. The board will make other tourism hot spots easily accessible.

The board has strategically tied up with Jet Airways, which became the first private airlines in India to start flights to Nepal as part of its strategy to increase traffic from India.

The board has also decided to take up various measures to promote the country's tourism destinations among corporates in India.

"The board plans to increase traffic to Nepal to further develop tourism in the country. We have a similar objective of increasing passenger traffic to Nepal from India and this will be done during the next few months through various common promotional activities. Jet Airways has already been selling Nepal as a tourist destination through its own Jet Escapes travel packages. We will soon come up with more attractive offers for Indian tourists aspiring to visit Nepal," said Nalin Gagrani, marketing manager of Jet Airways (India) Pvt Ltd.

Jet has at present a package at Rs 19,000 for each person travelling from Ahmedabad, Mumbai or New Delhi to Kathmandu. The charge includes even a few days' stay in a star hotel in Kathmandu.

"Following the introduction of a daily Jet Airways day flight from Delhi, leisure tourism in Nepal has received a fillip and with attractive packages being offered by Jet, it is cheaper to holiday in Nepal than in most of the hill stations in India. We are working for making it more affordable following the strategic tie-up with the board which will be organising various workshops for even film and television producers in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata," said Gagrani.

Jet Airways will be able to make substantial business from such huge units travelling for filming.

"In fact, we have recently chalked out a strategy to promote cultural tourism in Nepal and locations like Lumbini where Lord Buddha was born and Palpa, known for its rich cultural heritage, will be promoted. Pokhra will be the hub of our strategy to promote natural tourism. To make these locations closer for travellers from India, we are trying to work out upgradation of existing airport facilities in Lumbini and Pokhra and talks are on with the civil aviation department of Nepal so that Indian travellers who want to avoid crowded Kathmandu can straight away land in Lumbini or Pokhra," said Aditya Baral, manager (tourism, marketing and promotion) of the board on Tuesday.

At present, Lumbini airstrip has facilities for landing smaller aircraft while Pokhra airport should have a better runway and terminal.

"We are also working on making Mansarovar closer to Indians," Baral said.