Buddha Air, one of the leading domestic airlines in the country, is expanding its wings to international skies with its maiden international flight to Paro in Bhutan from August 23. The airline will initially operate four flights a week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday using an 18-seater Beech 1900D aircraft. Buddha Air plans to gradually increase the frequency to seven flights a week. The existing Air Service Agreement between Nepal and Bhutan allows both sides to have a maximum of seven flights a week between Kathmandu and Paro.

After launching flights to Bhutan, Buddha Air will also start preparations to fly to Indian cities of Patna, Lucknow and Kolkata. The airline is in the process of receiving a letter of designation from India's Ministry of External Affairs. The existing Air Service Agreement between Nepal and India allows Nepali airlines to operate flights to 26 destinations in India.

Oman Air to fly to Kathmandu
2010-08-16

Oman Air has announced that it will start direct flights between Muscat and Kathmandu from September 2. The airlines hope that the flights would benefit Nepali workers who have been working in Oman. The airlines will fly four times a week to Kathmandu on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Apart from direct flights to Muscat, the airline will also offer connecting flight to other destinations like Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Dubai in the UAE as well as other destinations in the Gulf and Europe. The airline plans to operate B737-700 aircraft on the route.

Date:- 2010-08-03
Arrivals up 26 percent in July

Tourist arrivals to the country via air in the month of July increased by 26.1 percent to 29,338 as compared to the arrival figure recorded in the same period last year.
According to statistics collected by Immigration Office at Tribhuvan International Airport and disseminated by Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), total arrivals from the South Asia region grew by 31.3 percent over the period. Arrivals from Bangladesh and India grew by 88.9 percent and 26.5 percent respectively, NTB said in a statement. Similarly, the number of Pakistani and Sri Lankan tourists also went up by 10.3 and 48.7 percent respectively.
"Except for the soft decline in April, arrivals from India have been showing sustained growth this year," the statement added.
Arrivals from countries from outside the SAARC bloc have also recorded double digit growth of 19.9 percent. China, a key source country for Nepali tourism industry, recorded a phenomenal growth of 104.2 percent, whereas the number of visitors from Japan, Malaysia and Singapore rose by 10.7 percent, 98.9 percent and 24.7 percent respectively. However, arrivals from South Korea and Thailand registered negative growth of 2.1 percent and 45 percent respectively.
From long-haul markets, Europe registered overall positive growth of 24.6 percent in July, with major source markets showing positive trend in terms of visitor arrivals. Similarly arrivals from Canada and US also surged by 24.9 percent and 12.8 percent respectively.
Australia showed marginal growth of arrival by 0.9 percent, while arrivals from New Zealand declined by 31.1 percent.
Tourist arrival via land till June reached 60,877, up by 6.2 percent compared to the figures of same period last year.

Date:- 2010-08-01

In a bid to bring in more visitors during Nepal Tourism Year 2011 campaign, Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation has proposed the government to waive visa free for foreign visitors at least during the campaign period.
Nepal has set a target to welcoming at least one million foreign tourists in 2011. More than half a million foreign visitors had visited the country in 2009.
According to Tourism Ministry sources, the proposal has been forwarded to the Finance Ministry to incorporate it in the budget for fiscal year 2010/11. The sources further informed that the proposal to introduce visa-free regime was worked out by the Nepal Tourism Year 2011 National Coordination Committee.
It is learnt that the Finance Ministry officials are positive about introducing free-visa regime in 2011.
The government collects around Rs 200 million as revenue from visa fee.
As a part of attracting more visitors to the country, the government has already offered free visa to Everest summiteers for two years

TURGAN proposes hike in guides’ fee
2010-07-22

Tourist Guide Association of Nepal (TURGAN) – the association of certified tour guides in the country- has proposed to raise freelance tourist guide service charge by 60-70 percent from October 01.
TURGAN President Hare Ram Baral said they proposed for the hike as the remuneration of tour guides hasn’t been raised after two percent hike in 2007 following the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nepal Association of Tours and Travel Agents (NATTA).
But travel agencies operators have said that the new rates were not reasonable. They said the hike in remuneration of guides can affect the tourism sector as a whole.
NATTA CEO Hari Sarmah said the new rates can’t be implemented soon because tourism entrepreneurs have already forwarded their quotations to foreign agencies.
Baral said they had to forwarded circulars about the new rates to NATTA and other concerned agencies after their proposal for the same was not entertained on time.

TIMS will be enforced through TAAN: Minister Gurung
2010-07-20

A delegation of Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal (TAAN called on Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Mr. Prithvi Subba Gurung at the latter's office at Singha Durbar on August 24, 2007.
Led by the association's President Mr. Narendra B.C., the delegation drew Minister Mr. Gurung's attention towards implementation of the Trekkers' Information Management System (TIMS) through TAAN.
The association has given a week's ultimatum to the Ministry for making a decision in this regard.
In his response, Minister Mr. Gurung expressed his commitment that the Ministry would enforce the TIMS through TAAN. "We will take the decision regarding this soon," he assured.
Other members of the delegation included TAAN's Secretary Mr. Ganesh Bahadur Neupane, Treasurer Mr. Mohan Lamsal, executive members Mr. Kami Rinji Sherpa and Mr. Chandra Bahadur Niraula, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Dinesh Shrestha.