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Minister: Nepal to host one mln tourists in 2011
Two
years after the end of Nepal's brutal civil war, more tourists than
ever visited the Himalayan country in 2008, officials said Friday.
Tourism brings vital foreign currency into the young republic
governed by former rebel Maoists who won elections last April with
pledges to lift Nepal out of dire poverty.
"With nearly 550,000 tourists in 2008, arrivals have increased by
just over four percent compared to the previous year," said Aditya
Baral, Nepal Tourism Board spokesman, adding that 2007 set the
previous record for the highest number of tourist arrivals.
Officials had been expecting higher numbers, but the terrorist
attacks in Mumbai and recent unrest that shut down Thailand's main
international airport have taken their toll on arrivals, the
spokesman said.
Indians account for one quarter of Nepal's tourists, and have been
arriving in lower numbers since the attacks, Baral said
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Bumper year for Nepal tourism in 2008: official
Two
years after the end of Nepal's brutal civil war, more tourists than
ever visited the Himalayan country in 2008, officials said Friday.
Tourism brings vital foreign currency into the young republic
governed by former rebel Maoists who won elections last April with
pledges to lift Nepal out of dire poverty.
"With nearly 550,000 tourists in 2008, arrivals have increased by
just over four percent compared to the previous year," said Aditya
Baral, Nepal Tourism Board spokesman, adding that 2007 set the
previous record for the highest number of tourist arrivals.
Officials had been expecting higher numbers, but the terrorist
attacks in Mumbai and recent unrest that shut down Thailand's main
international airport have taken their toll on arrivals, the
spokesman said.
Indians account for one quarter of Nepal's tourists, and have been
arriving in lower numbers since the attacks, Baral said
...More>>>
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Int'l Mountain Film Festival to be held in Nepali capital
More
than 60 films would be screened in Nepali capital Kathmandu at the
6th Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival (KIMFF) on
December 11-15, the Rising Nepal reported on Wednesday.
The films to be shown cover a wide range of subjects, including
conflict, culture, climbing, wildlife, environment, globalization
gender, lifestyles.
According to the information from the press meeting here on Tuesday,
more than 200 entries from 26 countries were received for the
festival while 66 were selected. Similarly, 34 films among the
selected would be screened in the international non-competitive
section and 20 in the international competitive category.
An international panel of jury would judge the competition. The
first prize winner would be provided the prize of 1,500 U.S. dollars
while the second and the third would get 1,000 and 500 dollars
respectively
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Expeditions for climbing Himalayas increase in Nepal
The
number of mountaineering expeditions is on the rise as the climbing
season gets underway in the Himalayas on the Nepali side, The
Kathmandu Post reported on Tuesday.
According to the daily, some 31 expeditions are already headed
towards Mt. Qomolangma, the central attraction, this spring season.
This is more than the number of teams that arrived during the whole
of last year when 24 climbing parties took a shot at the tallest
peak on earth.
The mood is high at other Himalayan peaks too. Dinesh Hari Adhikari,
joint secretary of the Tourism Industry Division of the Ministry of
Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, said they have granted climbing
permits to 85 teams in total this season, up from around six dozen
last year.
Mid-March to May is considered the most favorable time for
mountaineering in Nepal. Adhikari said some expeditions are expected
to arrive in the next week or two.
Lovers of mountaineering said the end of the conflict in Nepal had
encouraged them to head for the Himalayas and climb the great peaks.
Mountaineers are considered to be high-spending visitors as they pay
huge sums for climbing permits. And it is estimated that an
expedition normally employs around 600 porters and 400 others as
guides, cooks and kitchen boys during the time it stays in Nepal.
According to the report, climbing permit for Qomolangma costs 70,000
U.S dollars for an expedition consisting of seven members, with an
additional charge of 10,000 dollars for each extra member.
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First all-Nepali women expedition set to climb Mt. Qomolangma
The
first all-women Nepali expedition is set to climb Mt. Qomolangma (Sagarmatha)
to draw the world's attention to gender equality, women empowerment
and the effects of climate change in the Himalayas.
They are setting out to the Sagarmatha Base Camp for this purpose on
Monday, Nepal's National News Agency RSS reported Sunday.
RSS said that the expedition consists of 10 women, representing a
range of castes and ethnic groups in Nepal. The climbers said they
will climb the world highest peak to show that they are "equally
skilled, courageous and strong" as male climbers.
Through their noble endeavor, the expedition members will also try
to raise awareness about the million of children who go to school
hungry in Asia.
The expedition will carry a MDG 3 (United Nations Millennium
Development Goal 3) banner, handed over Sunday by Ambassador of
Denmark to Nepal Finn Thilsted.
The Embassy of Denmark announced at a press conference that it will
give 25,000 U.S. dollars to the expedition. The United Nations
Development Program and the United Nations World Food Program have
also extended their support to the expedition.
"We hope that the expedition will be successful in unfurling the
banner at the summit of Sagarmatha. We very much look forward to
getting pictures of the banner at the top of the world which will be
a strong symbol of the empowerment of all women throughout the
world," Danish ambassador Thilsted said.
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Nepal Votes in Historic Election
Nepalis embraced the country's return to democracy Thursday with
millions voting in an election meant to secure lasting peace in a
land riven by communist insurgents and an autocratic king.
Undeterred by shootings and clashes that killed two people, many
voters lined up before sunrise outside polling stations across this
Himalayan land. Some even broke into applause when voting began.
With the rebels out of the bush and contesting the vote and the
monarch — the world's last Hindu king — likely to soon lose his
throne, millions saw the country's first election in nine years as a
moment too historic to miss.
"This is our chance to stop the bleeding," said Arpana Shrestha, a
47-year-old woman waiting to vote in Katmandu. "Always there was
blood in Nepal. Not anymore."
An estimated 60 percent of the 17.6 million voters cast ballots at
20,000 polling stations
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FACTBOX: Key Nepal parties in constituent assembly polls
Nepalis vote in historic elections on Thursday, their first in nine
years, for an assembly meant to write a new constitution and serve
as a parliament.
Here are some key political parties among 54 groups contesting the
April 10 elections:
* Nepali Congress party -- Nepal's oldest and biggest political
party, formed nearly 60 years ago, it has fought for democracy for
decades. Has been in power for most of the past 17 years.
In 2006, led mass anti-king protests and forced King Gyanendra to
hand power back to political parties. Party headed by Prime Minister
Girija Prasad Koirala, 83. Led the peace process with the Maoists
ending their decade-long civil war, and has adopted their demand for
a republic.
* Communist UML party -- Formed after 1990 by uniting different
communist factions in Nepal. A left-of-centre party, wants to turn
Nepal into a republic after this week's vote.
* Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) -- Founded in 1994 by Pushpa
Kamal Dahal, widely known as Prachanda. The Maoists began a revolt
in 1996 to topple the monarchy.
Signed a peace deal with the government in 2006. Wants Nepal to be a
republic and Prachanda to be president.
* Madheshi groups -- Many political groups demand autonomy for the
southern plains known as the Madhesh or Terai, bordering India.
Biggest among them is the Madheshi People's Rights Forum which
organized protests that led to at least 50 deaths in 2007.
* Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal (RPP-Nepal) -- Formed by
royalists after King Gyanendra lost almost all his powers following
the political changes in 2006. The royalists want a referendum to
decide the future of the monarchy.
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Key facts about Nepal, facing historic vote
Nepalis vote in historic elections on Thursday, their first in nine
years, for an assembly meant to write a new constitution and serve
as a parliament.
Here are some key facts about Nepal:
* Mountainous Nepal, tucked in the Himalayas between China and
India, occupies an area of 147,000 sq km and has a population of
26.4 million. It is home to eight of the world's 14 highest
mountains, including Mount Everest.
* Nepal was the world's last Hindu kingdom, before declaring itself
officially secular in 2006. The king was traditionally considered an
incarnation of the god Vishnu, one of the trinity of Hindu gods.
* But that reverence has been lost since King Gyanendra grabbed
power in early 2005. He was forced from power after street protests
the following year.
* Eighty percent of Nepalis are Hindus, with the rest Buddhists,
Muslims and Christians.
* Nepal is one of the world's poorest countries and its economy
depends on aid and tourism. Western aid comprises more than 30
percent of the annual budget. Nearly one third of its people still
live on a daily income of less than a dollar.
* More than 80 percent of the population earn their livelihood from
agriculture. Emerging from a decade-long civil war, the economy grew
by just 2.3 percent in the fiscal year ending mid-July 2007, down
from 3.1 percent the year before.
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Everest expedition in Hillary's memory
The first expedition to the world's highest peak in memory of
the man who conquered it first will kick off from Nepal in April led
by a 24-year-old Sherpa whose father and grandfather were close
associates of Edmund Hillary.
Twenty-four-year-old Dawa Steven Sherpa, whose grandfather Konchok
Chumbi Sherpa accompanied the New Zealander around the world in the
50's when the Everest hero was trying to prove the yeti existed, and
whose father was in the first batch of students who passed out of
the school Hillary founded in Khumjung in the Everest region,
planned the Eco Everest Expedition 2008 that kicks off from
Kathmandu on April 6. The first Hillary memorial expedition comes
close on the heels of Nepal's government on Sunday renaming the
Lukla Airport in the north as the Tenzing-Hillary Airport.
"If I say Everest, everybody listens," Dawa said, announcing the
attempt to summit the peak to draw attention to the danger of
"mountain tsunami" in the Himalayan ranges. Global warming has
endangered about 200 glacial lakes in the mountains. They could
burst any time, unleashing avalanches with the power to wipe out
buildings, power stations and entire villages.
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Nepal renames key airport
Nepal has renamed the airport that serves as the gateway to Mount
Everest after late pioneer climbers Tenzing Norgay and Edmund
Hillary, the country’s tourism minister said on Monday.
“The Lukla airport will now be known as the Tenzing-Hillary Airport.
The cabinet approved the renaming of the airport on Sunday,” Tourism
Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung told AFP.
Set up with help from Hillary’s Himalayan Trust in 1964, Lukla
airport, 140 kilometres northeast of Kathmandu, is one of the
busiest in the country during the spring and autumn trekking and
mountaineering seasons.
“A part of the trail to reach the Everest Base Camp will also be
named as Tenzing-Hillary route,” the minister said.
Hillary, the modest New Zealand beekeeper who shot to global fame as
the first person to climb Mount Everest, died last month, aged 88.
Hillary and Norgay made history in May 1953 when they reached the
summit of the 8,848-metre (29,028-foot) peak.
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