Minister Ale for establishing Nepal as centre of adventure tourism

Kathmandu: Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Prem Bahadur Ale has urged all the tourism entrepreneurs to establish Nepal as the centre for adventure tourism.

Minister Ale stated this in a message of best wishes to the 15th International Sagarmatha Day programme organised at Nepal Academy by Nepal Tourism Board today. Stating that the mountain tourism has also suffered stagnation due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, he stressed on giving out the message through this Day that tourism is safe in Nepal as well as establishing Nepal as the centre for adventure tourism.

The Tourism Minister stated that the Himalaya mountains in the country were in crisis due to the increasing global warming and this is in turn posing challenge to the mountain culture.

There is a need of meaningful collaboration among the national and international stakeholders for enhancement of the Himalayan environment, he added.

Describing Sagarmatha and other mountains as the glory of Nepal and the Nepalis, he said, “The cooperation and collaboration of all the stakeholders is required in the task of conserving the culture of the mountain peoples while maintaining the purity of the Himalayan environment.”

On the occasion, the Tourism Minister said he and the entire Ministry were committed to preparing a concrete implementation plan through policy reforms in the conservation of the Himalayas.  He also pledged to always work for taking the glory of the world’s highest mountain, Mt Everest, higher.

Tourism Minister Ale said he has informed the Minister for Communication and Information Technology to draw the attention of the bodies concerned regarding the black marketeering done by some unscrupulous entrepreneurs cutting off the internet link to the Everest base camp at the time when there is inflow of foreign tourists there, and get such activities stopped and to take action against the guilty.

Chair of the International Sagarmatha Day Main Programme Committee and Tourism Secretary Maheshwor Neupane paid tributes to Tenzing Norgey Sherpa and Sir Edmund Hillary who made history by climbing Sagarmatha for the first time in this very day in 1953.

He said the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and the Department of Tourism are always positive towards resolving the problems of the Everest summiteers.