Nepal Tourism Board Preparing Five-Year Marketing Strategy to Attract High-End Tourists

The Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) is preparing a five-year tourism marketing strategy aimed primarily at attracting high-spending foreign tourists, officials said.

The strategy will focus on identifying key source markets for high-end visitors and determining how best to promote Nepal’s tourism offerings in those markets. It will also outline approaches to increase overall foreign tourist arrivals by effectively marketing diverse tourism products.

NTB Chief Executive Officer Deepak Raj Joshi said the core objective of the strategy would be to draw high-end tourists to Nepal. “The strategy will categorise potential source markets and identify where such tourists can be attracted from,” he said.

The strategy is being developed in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Nepal under a sustainable tourism project currently being implemented through the Board with joint investment from NTB and UNDP.

In the past, the Board had formulated and implemented two comprehensive 10-year tourism promotion and marketing strategies for the periods 2005–2015 and 2016–2025. Apart from these, NTB has been promoting tourism based on annual policies and programmes. Joshi said the proposed plan would be the Board’s first strategy focused exclusively on tourism marketing for a five-year period.

“Nepal’s tourism is not limited to mountains alone. Tourist preferences in source markets have changed, and the strategy will be designed accordingly,” Joshi said. The plan will identify target markets and visitor segments based on changing tourism trends and promote the use of new tools and platforms for marketing.

Under the ongoing project, the Board has been working to promote various tourism segments, including developing the Api, Kanchenjunga and Manaslu regions as national trekking trails. While NTB’s core mandate is to promote Nepal’s tourism globally, it has not previously had a dedicated tourism marketing strategy.

Meanwhile, the government’s 16th Plan (Fiscal Years 2024/25–2028/29) aims to attract 2.5 million tourists to Nepal by the final year of the plan. The plan targets increasing the average length of stay from 13.1 days to 15 days and raising average daily tourist spending from USD 40.4 to USD 85.

According to the plan, tourism currently contributes 2.0 percent to Nepal’s gross domestic product and provides direct employment to around 200,000 people. However, tourism entrepreneurs have long argued that these figures underestimate the sector’s actual contribution to the economy and employment.