Hotel Association Nepal Forms Bagmati Province Ad Hoc Committee

KATHMANDU: Hotel Association Nepal (HAN), the umbrella organization of Nepal’s hotel and hospitality industry, has formed an ad hoc committee for Bagmati Province with the objective of strengthening hospitality services in areas that receive high numbers of tourists.

Acting President of HAN, Prabin Bahadur Pandey, said the provincial ad hoc committee was formed to make hospitality services more efficient and organized across major tourist destinations in the province.

“We have been forming ad hoc committees by focusing initially on areas that receive a high number of tourists,” Pandey said. “We believe this will further improve the effectiveness of hospitality services. We are confident that this initiative will make a significant contribution to overall economic prosperity.”

Pandey also stressed the need for HAN to establish regional offices in Kathmandu and Lalitpur to strengthen the organization’s presence and provide more effective support to hotel businesses.
He said the association has already initiated discussions with the federal government to amend existing laws related to the hotel and hospitality sector.

“Hotels providing hospitality services in Nepal need proper licensing to be legally recognized. We have been making efforts on this issue at various levels,” Pandey said. “Even today, around 30 percent of tourists visiting Nepal are staying in and using services provided by hotels that do not have the required licenses.”

According to Pandey, providing legal recognition to hotels would also help promote and publicize the specialized services and facilities available to tourists visiting Nepal.

He further said HAN would make digital information about hotels affiliated with the association available to the public, which would improve access to reliable information about accommodation and hospitality services across the country.

HAN’s Legal Advisor Gandhi Pandit said the formation of the Bagmati Province ad hoc committee marks the beginning of the association’s transformation in line with Nepal’s federal structure.

“This is not merely the formation of a committee. From today, the scope of the Hotel Association Nepal has expanded further,” Pandit said. “Among the private sector industries, the hotel sector is one of the major areas for investment, employment generation and foreign exchange earnings. However, the sector has yet to receive the level of recognition and support it deserves from the state.”
Chairman of the Bagmati Province Ad Hoc Committee, Ram Sundar Bakey, said the formation of the committee had added a new dimension to Nepal’s tourism sector.

He said the committee would work toward bringing significant improvements to the country’s tourism industry and strengthening the hospitality sector in the days ahead.

The newly formed Bagmati Province Ad Hoc Committee comprises Netra Jung Thapa as Vice President, Shivraj Duwadi as General Secretary and Lina Khadka as Treasurer.

Similarly, Sameer Lama, Rajaram Silwal and Binod Jirel have been appointed as members of the committee.

Ghanshyam Shrestha, Gyanendra Kumar Bista, Prem Kant Shrestha and Satyaram Suwal have been appointed as advisors to the ad hoc committee.