Goodwill ambassadors will help revive Nepal’s tourism industry that has been hit hard by the recent earthquake
The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation last week unveiled a list of goodwill ambassadors, which includes Japanese Junko Tabei, the first woman to climb Everest, Peter Hillary and Jamling Tenzing, sons of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Italian climber Reinhold Messner, who became the first person to scale Everest without supplemental oxygen.
The list also features names of well-known mountaineers Peter Athens (US), Um Hong-gill (South Korea), Idurne Pasaban (Spain), Jean Michel Asselin (France), Wolfgang Nairz (Austria), Ralf Dujmovits (Germany), Nichole Nikki (Switzerland), Katja Starrtjes (Netherlands), and Doc Mc Karr ( Britain).
Nepali women mountaineers Mingma Sherpa, Lhakpa Rita Sherpa, Susmita Maskey and Shailee Basnet (pic) are also among the newly-nominated goodwill ambassadors. The names were made public at an event organised in Kathmandu to mark international Mt Everest day last week.
The Ministry hopes the ambassadors will play a crucial role in promoting tourism in the international market and help revive the industry that has been hit hard by the recent earthquakes.
Arrivals have gone down as low as 90 per cent and majority of the hotels recorded hundred per cent booking cancellations. Even in areas not affected by the quake there are hardly any tourists left.
However, tourism entrepreneurs are hopeful that tourists will visit Nepal in the next autumn season as most trekking routes and tourism destinations are not affected by the quake.
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