By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Sept. 27: The Tourism Recovery Task Force (TRTF-Nepal) has been formally launched on Saturday on the occasion of World Tourism Day (WTD). The taskforce was formed as a joint initiative of public and private sectors to play a pro-active role for sound and speedy recovery of tourism affected by COID-19 pandemic.
Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Kumar Bhattarai launched the TRTF-Nepal amidst a function organised in the capital on the occasion of the WTD 2020.
On the occasion, Minister Bhattarai appreciated the private sector for coming together to foster collaborative efforts towards tourism recovery and invited the task force to jointly work with the governments at local, state and federal levels.
At the meantime, Minister Bhattarai also launched Desh Darshan, a domestic tourism promotion campaign in the presence of the key leaders and professionals of the tourism industry, according to the secretariat of TRTF-Nepal.
During the programme, the Secretary of Ministry Kedar Bahadur Adhikari, launched the training manual of the "Empowering Rural Destinations" campaign, which is an initiative by TRTF Nepal to train and build the capacity of the rural destinations with new safety protocols, and Food Safety and Hygiene for community health.
Adhikari praised the TRTF initiative by the private sector and suggested TRTF that it work together with the priorities of the government and further align the programmes in collaboration with the governments at the local and state levels.
Starting its engagement, the TRTF-Nepal has conducted a survey on ‘Industry’s Preparedness to Restart Tourism’, prepared infographic communication materials about HHS protocols, collecting and compiling information about successful Restarting Practices adopted by other countries/destinations.
Deepak Raj Joshi, former chief executive officer of Nepal Tours Board, is coordinator of the TRTF-Nepal. Joshi is also task force board of ‘Rebuilding Travel’, an international initiative for global tourism recovery.