March 10: The government is planning to postpone the Visit Nepal 2020 campaign. The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation informed that the government has adopted a new strategy to postpone the VNY 2020 as the entire tourism industry is has been severely affected by the coronavirus outbreak in China, which has now spread to over 100 countries and killed more than 3500 people.

After the deadly disease started spreading across the globe since it was first reported in China’s Wuhan in late December last year, the government had stopped all promotional activities of VNY 2020 and instead shifted its focus toward internal tourism. As this strategy was not much effective to support the beleaguered tourism industry that had invested heavily for the campaign, the government reached to a conclusion to defer the programme altogether.

A source at the ministry said the upcoming cabinet meeting will most likely take a decision to postpone the VNY 2020 campaign.

The VNY Secretariat said it has already received a letter from the concerned ministry instructing it to clear all its arrears within one month and to cast off its staff hired on contract basis within a week.

As the coronavirus first appeared in China, the government was hopeful that it would be able to attract tourists from other parts of the world. But with the deadly virus fast spreading to over 100 countries, the government has been forced to postpone the ambitious campaign which aims to welcome 2 million tourists to Nepal in 2020, says Rajan Poudel, under secretary at the VNY Secretariat.