Himalayan Travel Mart 2018 is scheduled to start June 1 in Kathmandu with the aim of redefining adventure tourism and establishing Nepal as a gateway to the Himalaya, the organizer said Monday.

The three-day event is expected to bring 225 delegates from 53 countries. There will be more than 100 travel bloggers and media delegates from various tourist generating countries.

A day-long conference will be held on the sidelines of the mart on June 1 on key topics related to hospitality and tourism, aviation and management with international speakers.

On June 2, there will be an international bloggers’ conference. Influencers and bloggers will share and discuss new ideas, the latest trends and contemporary practices in digital marketing, branding and business promotion. Other topics that will be discussed are importance of blogging and different dynamics of marketing and development of travel and tourism.

The organizer said that a buyers and sellers meet will be held from June 2-3 where there will be 74 international buyers and 50 sellers from Nepal. The event is coordinated by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (Pata) Nepal Chapter in partnership with the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), PATA International, Nepal’s travel industry and other stakeholders. “This is a platform to create business opportunities where buyers and sellers from various countries will take part in the event,” said Deepak Raj Joshi, CEO of the NTB.

The mart will play a vital role in achieving the target of ‘Vision 5 million’, a campaign that aims to host 5 million tourists in Nepal by 2030, Pata said. “We believe that the event will pave the way by building the foundation in achieving the government envisaged target of Vision 2020 that aims to host 1.5 million tourists.”

The first Himalayan International Travel Mart was organised by the Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Natta) in 2005, attracting more than 200 tour operators from South and Southeast Asia. However, it failed to give continuity to the mart after controversies arose over the NTB. It was relaunched last year under the initiative of Pata.

Tourist arrivals to Nepal hit a new record in 2017 but remained short of the much ballyhooed target of 1 million individuals as national elections in November and December resulted in weaker-than-expected growth. The country received 940,218 tourists last year, up 24.86 percent from 2016.