Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil aviation Yogesh Bhattaraai urged Kathmandu based 31 heads of the diplomatic mission in Kathmandu to support Visit Nepal Year (VNY) 2020 success.

Inviting ambassadors and heads of bilateral mission, the minister appealed for their support and cooperation to make VNY 2020 a grand success. Minister Bhattarai said that ambassadors can play an important role in making VNY success. Minister and requested ambassadors to disseminate this message to the people of your country during your visit to the home in forthcoming Christmas and New Year.

He also informed that the government of Nepal has already sent the invitation to the tourism ministers of concerned countries to attend the inauguration of Visit Nepal year 2020. He also requested ambassadors to play a role as facilitator to make their Nepal visit possible.

He expressed the government’s gratitude to the concerned countries through ambassadors for their help and support during the earthquake saying Nepal again needs such support to make VNY 2020 a success. He said that out of 891 heritage sites damaged by the quake, 387 have already been rehabilitated. He said that tourism has contributing 3 percent to Nepal’s GDP and the country has a target to increase it up to 10 percent by end of 15th five years plan.

He said that Nepal is planning to increase the number of tourists from the current one million to 3.5 million. He said that the Gautam Buddha International Airport will complete by 2020 and Pokhara International Airport will be in 2021.

Secretary of ministry Kedar Bahadur Adhikari welcomed the ambassadors requesting them to support Nepal to make VNY 2020 a success. Coordinator of VNY 2020, Suraj Vaidya also spoke on the occasion. Ambassadors attending the program expressed the views that they will support Nepal’s efforts.