KATHMANDU: Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) have jointly launched a new project “Sustainable Tourism for Livelihood Recovery” to support the recovery of the tourism sector.
The US $ 2.05 million project to be co-funded by NTB and UNDP has been expected to create short-term jobs for the affected communities, particularly women and people from disadvantaged groups, whose livelihood is dependent on tourism. NTB and UNDP signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today.
Dhananjay Regmi, CEO of NTB, and Ayshanie Medagangoda-Labe, Resident Representative of UNDP – Nepal, have signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organizations. The project aims to create 1,600 short term jobs through construction and improvement of small tourism infrastructures, including trekking trails, tourism information center, waste management system and renovation of cultural heritage sites in selected tourist hotspots, including the Everest and Annapurna regions.
To be implemented through NTB, the two and a half year project will also initiate activities to support the long-term revival of the tourism sector by creating sustainable jobs and livelihood opportunities in partnership with the private sector stated the NTB. NTB has also aimed this project to assist in developing the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) and will do the policy intervention on Domestic Tourism Promotion / Domestic Tourism Awareness & Promotion Activities including international conferences.
The project comes after the success of a similar initial microprogram between NTB and UNDP, which started earlier in March 2020 as the global pandemic created a worldwide threat and traveling had come to a standstill. The microprogram already implemented in five different tourism areas across the country have employed 250 local people from the tourism workforce for upgrade and maintenance of major popular tourism trails and sites.