With the government planning to celebrate 2011 as Nepal Tourism Year, tourism entrepreneurs in Nagarkot have announced that they would be celebrating 2011 as Visit Nagarkot.
The fifth annual general meeting of the Nagarkot Naldum Tourism Devel-opment Committee, that plays a vital role in the tourism development of Nagarkot, has formed a new committee for this purpose. A 13-member new executive committee has been formed under the chairmanship of Shyam Bhakta Kayastha.
The committee would be establishing an information centre for tourists and new trekking routes to increase tourist numbers. It has also planned to upgrade the Sundarijal-Nagarkot-Dhulikhel-Namobuddha-Panauti and Nagarkot-Changunarayan hiking routes.
The tourism entrepreneurs of Nagarkot are planning to host special programmes in the first months of Nepal Tourism Year. Events like concerts, village walks, horse riding, cycling, mountain biking and jungle safari have been planned, said committee chairman Kayastha. Nagarkot has 60 hotels with a bed capacity of 650. Tourism entrepreneurs of Nagarkot have already started working on the home stay scheme put forward by the government targeting Nepal Tourism Year 2011.
"We've already started looking for houses for home stay," said Kayastha. According to Badri Makaju, vice chairman of the committee, they are looking for old houses around Nagarkot to run the home stay scheme. Tourism entrepreneurs have asked the government to manage the view tower as it belongs to the Department of Survey.
"If a new tower is not constructed, tourist arrivals will be affected," said Dipak Lamichhane, secretary of the committee. The tower, constructed in 1973, is one of the popular attractions of Nagarkot.
