At a press conference organized in Pokhara on Sunday to provide information about the fair, Maniraj Lamichhane, head of the Pokhara Tourism Board, said that the fair is being organized in Bandipur in line with the policy of decentralizing tourism activities without limiting them to Pokhara.
We use Google Cloud Translation Services. Google requires we provide the following disclaimer relating to use of this service:
This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, expressed or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement.
The 'Village Tourism Fair' is to be held in Bandipur, a historic tourist town in Tanahun, on 18 and 19 Baisakh. The fair is being organized jointly by the Nepal Tourism Board Gandaki Province Office and Bandipur Rural Municipality and co-organized by the Village Tourism Promotion Forum (VTOF) Gandaki.
The organizers have announced that this time, this program, which has been centered around Pokhara in the past years, is being decentralized and taken outside Pokhara for the first time. The venue of the fair has been selected with the aim of developing Bandipur, known as the 'Queen of the Mountains', as a hub of village tourism.
In the context of the 16th Plan of the Government of Nepal, which aims to attract 2.5 million tourists annually and increase the contribution of tourism to the gross domestic product to 7 percent, it is believed that this fair will help make rural tourism a major source of economic income and employment.
In a press conference organized in Pokhara on Sunday to provide information about the fair, Maniraj Lamichhane, the head of the Pokhara Tourism Board, said that the fair is being organized in Bandipur in line with the policy of decentralizing tourism activities without limiting them to Pokhara. ‘Bandipur itself is an excellent example of village tourism,’ he said, ‘This mart will work as a ‘B-to-B’ platform that will directly connect small tourism entrepreneurs and community homestays in the village with urban markets and large agencies.’
The fair will have more than 30 stalls of community homestays and tourism entrepreneurs. The program will also include a dialogue on the topics of ‘Journey to Prosperity through Village Tourism’ and ‘Bandipur Tourism: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’.
Surendra Bahadur Thapa, the chairman of Bandipur Rural Municipality, said that the fair will provide additional energy, adding the context of the Bandipur Visit Year. ‘Bandipur has just completed the Visit Year 2025 and has declared it the Bandipur Village Tourism Year again,’ he said. ‘This fair, which is being held at such an important time, will take Bandipur’s tourism to a new height. We are fully prepared to promote local products and culture.’
The fair will also feature cultural performances from different ethnic groups. Shobha Sapkota, chairperson of the Village Tourism Promotion Forum (VTOF) Gandaki, said that emphasis should be placed on marketing rural tourism. ‘Village tourism is not limited to homestays only, it encompasses multifaceted cultural and natural aspects,’ she said. ‘Many new destinations are being overlooked, this mart will prove to be a milestone in providing market access to entrepreneurs in those areas and improving the quality of service.’
The fair will be jointly organized by the Pokhara Tourism Council, Homestay Federation Gandaki, and local hotel and restaurant entrepreneurs of Bandipur. The two-day fair is expected to see significant participation from tourism professionals, policymakers, students, and domestic and foreign tourists.
