PATA Nepal Chapter concludes 44th AGM with the theme “Nepal: Celebrating Gastronomical Mastery Beyond Himalayas!”

The 44th Annual General Meeting of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Nepal Chapter themed “Nepal: Celebrating Gastronomical Mastery Beyond Himalayas!” concluded on March 5 at Park Village Resort, Kathmandu. Chairman Bibhuti Chand Thakur during his welcome remarks emphasised the top ten immediate priorities of the hour that Nepal as a destination must address to ensure its better preparedness and restart tourism towards rapid, robust and responsible recovery. These include waiving off of the mandatory quarantine, on arrival visa and PCR tests, easing entry for vaccinated travellers, training, and retraining of human capital with new normal protocols, vaccine to tourism service providers, compliance with safety protocols in service backed with monitoring and controlling mechanism, massive awareness and training programs on HHS throughout the nation, enhancing collaboration and partnership, smart marketing approaches, etc. He also shed light on the PATA Nepal Chapter’s Priority Action and Initiatives for the year 2021 and invited the entire tourism fraternity to work together to build-back-better the tourism industry. PATA Nepal Chapter had invited Nepali celebrity chef Santosh Shah as the keynote speaker for the 44th AGM. Shah urged the tourism fraternity of Nepal to emphasise two major segments of tourism services: hygienic food and quality accommodation with utmost priority to cleanliness and sanitisation in order to win the trust and confidence of travellers in the post-pandemic scenario as well as to present Nepal as a promising destination for culture and cuisine beyond the Himalayas! During the Award Presentation Ceremony, PATA felicitated Dipendra Purush Dhakal, Former Secretary of Ministry of Tourism of Nepal with the Lifetime Achievement Award; Tourism Trail Blazer Award to Dr. Mario Hardy, CEO of PATA International; Best Student Chapter of the Year 2020 Award to Silver Mountain School of Hotel Management (SMSHM); and Personality of the Year 2020 Award to Chef Santosh Shah.