Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Explore the Wonders of Dhulikhel

Mountain View From Dhulikhel

Dhulikhel is set at a height of 5,500 ft above sea level and 30 Kilometers east of Kathmandu on the Kodari Highway. Dhulikhel is a small town with a long history. It is one of the nearest city from kathmandu which is favorite tourist destination for all. Records show that it has been around for more than 500 years. The artistic skill and urban ethos of its Newar inhabitants have created a place of charm and beauty. Streets lined with bare-brick houses, carved wooden windows, sloping title roofs, pagoda temples and sacred statues everywhere. You will think you have wandered into a cultural theme park.
The city provides an absolute panoramic sight of the snow-capped varieties from Karyolung in the east to Himalchuli in the west. The attractive town is a must toured place for all and thus several Hotels in Dhulikhel in Nepal have come up to provide accommodation to all.
Because of increasing number of tourists in Dhulikhel tour operators and hotels are trying to increase the staying period of the tourist with in the region. They are organizing the trekking with in near villages like panauti, Namo Buddha, Palanchok Bhagawati etc. They are also organizing the different adventures programs like rafting, mountain biking and many more.


Sightseeing in Dhulikehel
How to reach: It takes 45 minutes to reach Dhulikhel by Taxi or private car or two and half to three hours by bicycle or one and half hour by local bus. Many travel agents operate Dhulikhel tour. But Dhulikhel is an ideal spot to stop for minimum one or more nights to explore and enjoy tradition, culture and Nepalese landscape with finest Himalayan panoramic views.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Government collecting info on ancient monuments

The Department of Archaeology (DoA) is collecting information on historical monuments and artefacts scattered across the country and is making preparations to classify them on the basis of their national and local significance.
Although Nepal is known as a country full of temples and rich historical monuments, comprehensive data about their numbers, types and condition are lacking. Archaeologists estimate that Nepal has over 10,000 ancient monuments.
Bishnu Raj Karki, chief archaeological officer of the DoA, said studies were conducted, especially in the three districts of the valley — Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur. There is no dearth of data about monuments of the valley, but very few studies have been conducted on monuments situated in other 72 districts of the country.
With the objective of collecting data, the DoA is selecting a team of 20 people, those with Masters in Nepali culture, history and archaeology.
It will train them to identify and classify historical monuments and artefacts. Members of the team will be sent to different parts of the country to gather information with help from the locals.
The identified monuments, namely temples, monasteries and artefacts, will be classified on the basis of their national, regional and local importance.
Karki said the information thus gathered will also help priorities the preservation of monuments. “The DoA will preserve the monuments of national importance, while local authorities will look after the monuments of local importance,” he said.
The DoA has come up with an ‘Ancient Monument Conservation Procedures, 2007’ for the preservation of ancient monuments.
“Collected data will not only help classify and preserve the ancient monuments, but will also help update information,” Ram Bahadur Kunwar, an archaeologist at the DoA, said. He added that a three-year monument preservation programme will probably commence in a month from the Far-Western or Mid-Western Development region.



Source Himalayan News Service

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Things to do in Nepal

Here are some of the interesting activities that the travelers can do in Nepal.

1. Buy Nepalese and Tibetan Handicrafts and art facts. I personally suggest travellers to buy the Nepalese and tibetan handicrafts from G.Light Handicrafts Pvt. Ltd where you can enjoy huge collection of Nepalese arts with free shipping world wide.

2. Go on an elephant ride in the Royal Chitwan National Park, Nepal’s first national park, which is a jungle overflowing with wildlife.

3. Take a scenic flight over Mount Everest. Most of the domestic airlines arrange flights in light aircraft. Flights are also available from Pokhara and other locations west of the capital, flying over the spectacular Annapurna range.
4. Go river rafting: Rafting permits are not required for the general areas; however, to raft the Himalayan rivers, a permit must be obtained from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation.

5. One of the principal reasons for visiting Nepal must be either to see or to climb the mountains, especially Mount Everest, Sagarmatha ('Head of the Sky') in Nepalese. At an altitude of 8,848m (29,022ft), Everest is the world’s highest peak and has been opened for commercial mountaineering for decades.

6. Go ballooning or hang-gliding in Kathmandu. Hang-gliding is popular in Pokhara and in the Langtang region. Paragliding and power paragliding are available in Pokhara.

7. Try to find the Nepal Yeti: the existence of the famous Nepal Yeti, a giant, gorilla-sized hairy snowman that eats yaks and sheep, remains strongly questionable. Only a few people, including the father of Tenzing Norgay (the first Sherpa to conquer Mount Everest), claim to have seen it. Popular myth recounts that those who did spot the creature got sick and died within a few days. For Yeti enthusiasts wishing to try their luck, the abominable snowman is said to make random appearances around the Khumbu region (in the foothills of Mount Everest).

8. For walkers and trekkers, Nepal is a true paradise. The trekking season is generally from September to May, but the best periods are October to December and March to April. Some foreign travel agencies can book trekking packages in advance in collaboration with the Nepalese trekking agencies. In Kathmandu, there are many local officially registered trekking agencies that can provide a fully organised trek, complete with porters, guide, cook, food tents, sleeping bags, mattresses, transport to and from the starting and finishing points, flight arrangements, permits and insurance. Pony treks are also available and follow nearly the same routes as normal treks and are offered mostly in the western region around Pokhara, as well as in the hinterlands of Dolpo and Lo Manthang. Trekking permits are no longer required for the general trekking areas designated by the Department of Immigration (such as the Annapurna, the Everest, the Langtang and Rara). For all other areas, a permit is still required and can be obtained from the Department of Immigration located at New Baneshwar, Kathmandu (tel: 494 273 or 337) or via trekking agencies and tour operators. Trekking to Dolpa, Kanchanjunga, Makalu and Upper Mustang can only be undertaken through a registered trekking agency.

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Sunday, November 11, 2007

Nepal Launches New Tourism Brand

For years, Nepal has been known as a land of Mt. Everest, sublime scenery, arcane temples, and some of the best walking trails on earth combined with exciting adventurous activities, which has positioned it as a unique, and interesting travel destination. But lately Nepalese tourism industry has felt necessary to reposition its image in the international tourism market with a popular brand amidst the stiff competition among destinations. New Brand, which was unveiled on March 5, 2005 , is a contemporary approach of promotion that Nepal 's tourism industry has taken so far to re-position the country in the competitive world of destination promotion.

To project the myriad images of Nepal in a condensed way, Nepal Tourism Board has launched a New Tourism Brand incorporating entire spectrum of tourism products/services, which provides leeway to Nepal to promote and market its tourism product in a complete package. The New Tourism Brand will be adopted by all the travel trade and other concerned agencies that market Nepal nationally or internationally.

Explaining the New Tourism Brand, Tek Bahadur Dangi- Chief Executive Officer of Nepal Tourism Board says: “New Nepal Brand will be instrumental in increasing the number of tourists to Nepal . Prior to this Campaign, we were solely dependant on the individual overseas tour operators to promote Nepal but we will now all be working together in a concerted, focused and centralized effort to penetrate new segment of consumer market also that has great potential.”

The thrust of New Tourism Brand is to reinvent Nepal ’s diversity, modernity and cultural heritage while keeping in view the sustainability and environmental aspects at bay. To be very precise, Nepal 's New Tourism Brand is all about the true feeling of hospitality; smiling people; festivals throughout the year; extreme adventure & air sports; meditation and many more. "Our philosophy is that a destination brand is the totality of perceptions that a customer holds about the experiences associated with a place," Mr. Dangi adds.

The brand, developed by India based social infrastructure agency Alchemy, is the result of more than six months of research and planning with the Board in consultation with a wide range of other private and government agencies in Nepal, India and other major tourist generating market. The massive collaborative exercise has been carried out to unleash the Nepal 's tourism brand in a given time frame. The new brand has tried to redefine Nepalese tourism with a different flavor. Though Nepal 's traditional role as a destination is important, it must not only retained but also improve upon- through the reformulation of the Nepal product into a truly world class one. And with a strategic location and supporting infrastructure, Nepal is well suited to be both short and long haul destination. This option has been explored in this branding. The reformulation of the Nepal product is about building upon existing strengths and minimizing in on the weakness. It is about catering to the myriad interests of the visitors while ensuing that locals' own needs are met. These all approaches are incorporated in new brand, which will address the global concept of branding a destination. While every care is being taken to attract Indian tourists for weekend from Indian cities, more emphasis is being given to long haul tourists coming to Nepal for adventure holidays from Europe and America.

The new tourism brand has evolved with three major segments: Weekends breaks, Adventure holidays and Lifetime experience. Weekend break deals specially for Indian markets and other regional markets due to their proximity and easy air connectivity and Adventure and Lifetime experience aims at long haul markets like USA , Europe , Australia and others.

Unlike other countries, tourism branding exercise carried out by NTB is considered to be cost effective in terms of huge expenses that are being made by other countries in branding. NTB's brand consulting Company Alchemy Social Infrastructure was hired though global tender based on their merit of cost effective budget which was deemed appropriate in view of NTB's resource dispensation. Minimum amount required for the effective Brand campaign in India and other primary markets like UK, Germany, France and other South East Asian countries was proposed to be in tune of NRs. 10 crore Nepali Rupees for Guerilla type of brand campaign, however, due to the paucity of funds with the Government and NTB, the proposition could not be entertained. Therefore, austerity campaign measure is adopted by NTB to handle with bare minimum budget of nearly 2.5 crore within this Fiscal year. After an extensive research and substantive ground work of nearly six months, NTB has finally rolled out this new brand to kick start the process of campagain from the home front followed by unveiling at ITB-Berlin in March 11, 2006 by Minister of State of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Mrs Yankilla Sherpa.

It is an appropriate forum to share the good news that Nepal tourism Board has bagged the prestigious PATA Gold Award in CD-ROM category for the year 2006 for the second time. We believe that the award of this nature has inspired the travel industry of Nepal in general and NTB in particular amidst the brand-launching extravaganza that is taking place nationally and internationally. Now, the new brand will have a lot of ingredient to make strong its stance in the tourism marketplace.

This new tourism brand is first of its kind created with professional expertise in the tourism history of Nepal . Previously also, lots of national programs were run but they were not based on the outcome of research and surveys. However, this new tourism brand is absolutely backed by the research and surveys, hence has lot of ingredients to support for the yield subject to availability of matching resources and required environment. Therefore, if this new brand is owned by all the major stakeholders of tourism industry in the country with the support of our foreign counterparts with univocal voice for its promotions at all levels, NTB is optimistic to generate desired outcome from this national brand exercise. Nepal Tourism Board firmly believes that tourism industry of Nepal will find belongingness in this national tourism brand- closer to its heart.

Source: www.welcomenepal.com (Nepal Tourism Board)

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Nepal October Tourists Arrival Chart

According to A press release from Nepal Tourism Board on Tourists Arrival for October 2007, the visitors’ arrival data from Nepal’s Tribhuvan International Airport for the month of October 2007 shows the healthy growth of 18 percent, up by 6617 compared to the corresponding month of last year. Some of the growth indicators are as follows:
China showed a robust growth of 133%
and Sweden by 91.7%, and other countries;
Denmark by 88.6%
Austria by 56.9%
Norway by 55.4%
Belgium by 50.3%
South Korea by 37%
Germany by 33.3%
Bangladesh by 51.1%
Sri Lanka by 56.6% all showing positive indication of increase in Tourists inflow in the country.

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Tourist Arrival Growth for Oct 07 as Compared to Oct 06 Countrywise

In the meantime American markets such as USA (40.3%) and Canada (43.2%) have continued to show the positive result despite their Government’s travel advisory.

Total arrivals in the last nine months have gone up by 30 % (295,855 visitors by air) as compared to the same period last year.

“Each country has recorded very optimistic figures. Indian market has made negative growth. Cheap tour package floated by South East Asian and European countries have reportedly lured upward mobile Indians which is one of the reasons for decline in tourist arrivals from India. Since Cosmic Air has already resumed its service to New Delhi and other airlines are expected to increase flight frequency in this sector soon, tourists arrival will definitely increase from India in next few months. Launching of service of SilkAir from Singapore and Etihad Airways from the United Arab Emirates in the month of October has given a positive massage to the world that Nepal is a happening destination. With the operation of these two airlines, it is expected to increase the number of passengers from Singapore, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Europe.”, says Nepal Tourism Board in its official site welcomenepal.com (www.welcomenepal.com)