Business as usual again in Nepal

With a ministerial seal of approval, a new social media campaign is set to stimulate travel and tourism to Nepal after being negatively affected by the earthquake earlier this year.

Reboot tourism

In mid October three renowned Dutch mountaineers and a Dutch Minister were on hand to launch the “NepalNow” campaign during a Nepal benefit event in Amsterdam. Set up by CBI, the Nepal Tourist Board and a group of tour operators, the objective of the NepalNow campaign is to reboot travel and tourism to Nepal from the Netherlands and from Europe in general. The campaign is necessary because the country relies heavily on tourism, which has been almost halved after the earthquake in April this year. It will make extensive use of social media, show Nepal as it is now and provide reliable information and interesting facts.

Normalised

Commenting on the campaign, Sarad Pradhan of the Nepal Tourism Board said: “There has been a lot of negative publicity related to tourism to Nepal. Now that life in most parts of the country has been normalised, most travel advice has been adapted and key trekking areas have been declared open and safe. We need to inform the general public about this.”

Good impression

The Netherlands’ Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Lilianne Ploumen, was also present during the launch of the campaign.  She shared the good news that the Netherlands official travel advice to Nepal had been reinstated to “business as usual”, with the exception of the Manaslu and Langtang regions. The Minister made a good impression with the audience when she set aside her official speech and told instead of her personal experiences in Nepal during a visit to the country in June. The Minister also explained CBI’s role and several times she expressed her support for this campaign.

Perfect fit

The Amsterdam benefit event during which the campaign was launched was organised by the NKBV, a Dutch mountaineering association with some 60,000 members in the Netherlands, including tour operators and consumers. In January 2016 NKBV is organising a trip to Nepal, which is seen as excellent timing and a perfect fit with the message being communicated by the NepalNow campaign.