The Himalayan Travel Mart (HTM) 2017 kicked off in the Capital on Thursday, starting with the first of its kind International Bloggers and Media Conference. 

The four-day event started with the aim of redefining adventure tourism and establishing Nepal as gateway to the Himalayas. More than 250 travel bloggers, journalists and international buyers assembled in Kathmandu to take part in the event. 

Suman Pandey, president of Pacific Asia Travel Association (Pata) Nepal Chapter, said that the conference objective was to make Nepal an event-friendly destination and reposition Nepal in the map of global tourism. Mario Hardy, Chief Executive Officer of PATA, said that Nepal could reap optimum benefit from the tourism sector. He

said that Nepal has not been able to promote its tourism potential in the global arena. He suggested that Nepal government and the private sector join hands to market the country and participate in different sales missions. The long-planned Travel Mart had been in limbo amid controversy surrounding Nepal Tourism Board (NTB). 

The first Himalayan International Travel Mart was organised by Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Natta) in 2005, attracting more than 200 tour operators from Southeast Asian countries. Nepal’s tourism experienced a dramatic turnaround last year after being hit by the twin disasters of a devastating earthquake and crippling

trade embargo in 2015. Foreign tourist arrivals to Nepal jumped 39.71 percent to 753,002 in 2016, boosted by robust visitor growth from India, China, the US, the UK and Sri Lanka, according to the statistics of the Department of Immigration. 

Nepal’s travel and tourism sector pumped Rs177 billion into the economy and supported more than 427,000 jobs last year, the World Travel and Tourism Council said.

According to its annual Economic Impact Research report for 2017, tourism accounts for 7.5 percent of Nepal’s GDP and is forecast to rise 4.3 percent annually to Rs287.6 billion, or 8.3 percent of the GDP in 2027.

The GDP generated directly by the travel and tourism sector includes its indirect and induced impacts.