Nepal Tourism Board rescued 1721 tourists

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Currently, Nepal only has 6 known cases of Coronavirus. One person recovered and no one died. Nepal was one of the first countries in the region to stop tourism and movement early.

“I don’t thinkย  I’ll be wrong to say that Nepal Tourism Board is one of the few National Tourism Boards in the world that is actually rescuing and helping Tourists in such a crisis!” said a proud and a little tired Shradha Shrestha, Manager Brand Development and Corporate Partnership of the Nepal Tourism Board.

Here is how everything developed:

On January 27 Nepal agreed to open the first Global Resilience center in Kathmandu joining forces with the centers initiative started by the Jamaican Government.

Nepal was looking forward to Nepal night eTurboNews organized for the NTB in Berlin, Germany for March 4. It was the second celebration to celebrate Nepal 2020. The first event was successfully organized by eTurboNews during ITB 2019ย  A record 300 friends of Nepal were expected to join the Nepal Tourism Board, the minister and Nepal exhibitors to celebrate theย  Nepal 2020 campaign at Logenhaus in Berlin.

Nepal Tourism Board rescued 1721 tourists

ITB was canceled on February 29 minutes before the flight was to take off from Kathmandu to take the NTB team to Germany.

On March 10 the country stopped issuing visa on arrivals to Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, S. Korea, China, and Iran.

On March 27 the Nepal Government locked down the country and restricted movement. At that time less than 2000 visitors were still in the country. Nepal Tourism Board took the lead in activating the Crisis Response Unit at NTB.

In a well-coordinated mission, Nepal Tourism Board staff and volunteers worked around the clock to show their guests what NAMASTE and Nepal Hospitality means.

Nepal Tourism Board rescued 1721 tourists

ntb crisis cell notice 27 mar 2020

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Nepal Tourism Board was successful in rescuing a total of 1721 tourists from all over Nepal.ย  868 tourists were rescued by air,853 by land. The rescue process started ended on 3rd April.

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Nepal Tourism Board posted it was indebted to the Government Of Nepal and especially Honโ€™ble Dep. Prime Minister Ishwar Pokhrel & Honโ€™ble Minister, MoCTCA Mr. Yogesh Bhattarai for entrusting us and giving the sole responsibility for this Hercules task

Dr.Dhananjay Regmi , a proud Nepal Tourism Boardย  CEO said: I am proud of my team for the successful accomplishment of the task entrusted to us by the Government of Nepal. I would like to thank all who supported us for the completion of this operation.

Today tourists are safe in the homes and Shradha Shrestha and the rest of the members of the Nepal Tourism Board are relieved.

Shradha said: “We handled almost 1700 calls and responded to more than 1200 emails in this period.ย  ย A crisis is always an opportunity! A part of the crisis-the Rescue is over but we are yet to handle the bigger challenge of RECOVERY and REVIVAL!ย  Gratitude to all who were involved and have supported.”

 

About the author

Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz has continuously worked in the travel and tourism industry since he was a teenager in Germany (1977).
He founded eTurboNews in 1999 as the first online newsletter for the global travel tourism industry.

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