Butwal Sub-metropolitan City Mayor Khelraj Pandey has urged the private sector to invest in tourism as it has ample potential for the economic development of Rupandehi. He also expressed his commitment to the local government to be supportive of private sector investment.

At a program on 'Opportunities and Challenges of Rupandehi's Tourism Industry' organized by the Rupandehi Industry Association in Butwal on Monday, Mayor Pandey said that the state's own weaknesses have prevented the tourism sector from achieving the desired results.

‘The private sector should take the initiative in promoting and attracting tourism to many historical, religious and culturally important places like Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, the primitive human Ramapithecus, and the strategically important Jitgadhi Fort,’ he said, ‘Butwal Sub-metropolitan City is committed to being a partner in that.’

At the program, Deputy Mayor Savitra Devi Aryal and Mayor of Devdaha Municipality Dhruv Kharel said that they have always been extending their hands of cooperation to make tourism plans by connecting the Buddha Circuit. At the program, Senior Manager of Nepal Tourism Board Suman Ghimire, Researcher and Professor Yubaraj Kandel, and Department Head of Lumbini University Dr. Shri Prasad Bhattarai presented separate concept papers on tourism development.

Many emphasized the need to make Rupandehi a tourism destination by introducing Lumbini to the world as a tourist area of ​​peace, meditation and health. In the discussion, Ghimire, Senior Manager of the Tourism Board, emphasized the use of domestic products and said that since Butwal has developed as a transit city, there is a possibility of making it attractive to tourists if the culture here is explained and utilized properly.

Giving an overview of the situation of the tourism sector in Rupandehi, Researcher Kandel said that services and stories are necessary to develop tourism. He suggested that there is a need for a tourism information center and that it is necessary to move forward by connecting the new generation in the development of tourism through professional organizations.

Bhattarai, Department Head of Lumbini University, warned that the issue of duplicating our cultural heritage, including monasteries and centers of faith (destination duplication) in the recent past will create long-term and serious problems in the development of original tourism. ‘The work of bringing Palpa’s Bhairavsthan to Butwal and preparing Arghakhanchi’s Supadeurali in Kapilvastu is serious,’ he said. ‘If India learns from that tomorrow and builds Lumbini in Delhi, whether we can have the strength to protest is serious.’ He said that students studying hotel management and tourism should be given practical knowledge in hotels rather than in the classroom. In the