Nepal Tourism Board organizing a special programme in Kathmandu to mark its 27th anniversary officially announced “Nepal ASEAN Tourism Year 2026” with a view to attracting more tourists from the ASEAN countries.
Speaking on the occasion, CEO of NTB Deepak Raj Joshi said, NTB will focus on the ASEAN countries in the year 2026, to explore the market with high potentiality. “Nepal witnessed more than 1 lakh and seven thousand visitors from ASEAN countries last year, which shows that it is a huge market with long term potentiality for Nepal,” he pointed out.
We will focus on “Buddhist and spiritual tourism, nature, culture and adventure tourism, and wellness Ayurvedic tourism” in order to establish Nepal as a vibrant destination for the market of ASEAN, he said.
“Nepal received around 1.16 million tourists by air route in the year 2025, welcoming on an average almost one lakh tourists in a month,” he informed. This was a big achievement despite there was some disturbances in tourism sector during the Gen Z movement in September, he pointed out. “Nepal achieved quickest recovery in tourism sector after the agitation as we achieve around 3 percent growth in tourist arrival,” he added.
Defining Nepal’s tourism strategy for the year 2026, Joshi said, “Nepal will focus on developing it as a peaceful destination, pursue AI driven administration in tourism, stress on digitized professionalism, gaining personalized experience for the visitors, focus on off-grid destination and prioritize culture,” remarked Joshi.
Inaugurating the event Minister for Tourism and Culture Anil Kumar Sinha remarked, “Nepal should focus on promoting quality tourism in order to expand its market to global level.” He underscored the need “to adopt digital technology, promote quality tourism, and link tourism strategy to national priority” so as to make tourism a tool for attaining economic prosperity for the country.
