The Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA) is set for a three-way contest for its upcoming leadership after Jiswan Tuladhar Shrestha, Yubika Bhandari and Bharat Jung Pandey formally registered their candidacies for president today. The three candidates reached NATTA and formally submitted their candidacies and respective panels for the 25th Executive Committee election, which will be held alongside the organization’s 59th Annual General Meeting on Shrawan 29.
The registration of the three presidential candidacies has officially confirmed the three-way contest for NATTA’s next leadership. The election comes as the two-year tenure of current NATTA President Kumar Mani Thapaliya is nearing completion. With the registration process now underway, all three groups have intensified their campaigns, seeking support from travel and tourism entrepreneurs.
Three Candidates Enter the Presidential Race
The presidential race features two experienced women tourism entrepreneurs and one male candidate. Jiswan Tuladhar Shrestha, Senior Vice President of NATTA and Managing Director of Swaa Tours & Travels Pvt. Ltd., has registered her candidacy, citing her extensive experience in the tourism sector and long involvement with NATTA.
Yubika Bhandari, General Secretary of NATTA and associated with Shashi’s Holidays International Travel & Tours Pvt. Ltd., has also formally registered her candidacy. She has placed innovation, digitalization, and institutional transparency at the center of her campaign. Meanwhile, Bharat Jung Pandey, Managing Director of Everest Miracle Travels and Tours, has registered his candidacy as the third presidential contender, leading a separate panel. All three candidates have presented their respective visions and agendas while seeking the support of NATTA members.
Tuladhar Highlights 25 Years of Tourism Experience
Jiswan Tuladhar Shrestha has outlined an agenda focused on strengthening NATTA’s role as an effective representative body, enhancing policy advocacy, reconnecting members with the association, and creating a more business-friendly tourism environment.
She aims to promote quality and high-value tourism by targeting wellness, adventure, leisure, honeymoon, family, and international budget travelers, while expanding Nepal’s global presence through major travel fairs, roadshows in markets such as India and China, and stronger international partnerships. Her plans also include strengthening BITM, promoting domestic tourism, recognizing businesses serving domestic travelers, and bridging experienced tourism professionals with young entrepreneurs to encourage innovation, investment, and collaboration in Nepal’s tourism sector.
Bhandari Campaigns on Digital Transformation
Yubika Bhandari is contesting the NATTA presidency with the slogan “Tourism Rises, Nepal Rises”, focusing her strategy on innovation, digital transformation, institutional transparency, professional capacity building and sustainable tourism development. Her agenda aims to strengthen NATTA as a modern and effective representative body by improving training and skills development, expanding heritage, wellness, Buddhist and community-based tourism, promoting Nepal in international markets, and strengthening collaboration between the government and private sector.
Drawing on her nearly two decades of tourism experience and leadership within NATTA, she also plans to empower young and women tourism entrepreneurs, strengthen international partnerships, encourage technology-driven travel businesses, and build a more resilient, inclusive, and globally competitive tourism industry.
Pandey’s Strategy: Stronger Representation, Policy Reform and a Modern NATTA
Bharat Jung Pandey is entering the NATTA presidential race with a strategy centered on building a stronger, modern and member-focused association that can more effectively represent Nepal’s tour and travel entrepreneurs. Drawing on more than two decades of tourism industry experience and his previous role as a NATTA Executive Committee member, Pandey’s key priorities include protecting the rights and interests of travel businesses, strengthening policy advocacy, improving coordination with government and tourism stakeholders, expanding international partnerships, accelerating digital transformation, and creating greater opportunities for young tourism entrepreneurs.
He also aims to improve services for NATTA members and strengthen the association’s institutional capacity so that it can play a more influential role in tourism policymaking, promote sustainable and competitive tourism growth, and serve as a stronger collective voice for Nepal’s travel trade.
Candidates Register Complete Panels
Along with their presidential candidacies, the three contenders have registered candidates for key executive positions and executive committee membership.
| Position | Jiswan Tuladhar Shrestha Panel | Yubika Bhandari Panel | Bharat Jung Pandey Panel |
|---|---|---|---|
| President | Jiswan Tuladhar Shrestha | Yubika Bhandari | Bharat Jung Pandey |
| Senior Vice President | Bishnu Pandey | Varun Mehta | Sunil Sharma |
| Vice President | Pragya Pathak Sharma | Dhak Nath Kafle | Sabita KC Bhattarai |
| Secretary General | Sushil Pant | Krishna Prasad Dhakal | Raj Kumar Devkota |
| Secretary | Ramesh Ghimire | Shraddha Joshi | Ramesh Parajuli |
| Treasurer | Krishna Prasad Dhakal | Rama Kumari Pyakurel | Diki Sherpa |
| Joint Secretary / Joint Treasurer | Dr. Bimala Dahal | Bidur Khatiwada | Jeevan Koirala |
| Executive Member | Trilochan Neupane | Pradeep Prasad Udaya | Dinanath Pandey |
| Executive Member | Anu Adhikari (Raut) | Bibash Poudel | Dinesh Mainali |
| Executive Member | Sudarshan Gajurel | Shree Ram Thapa | Dipak Marasheni |
| Executive Member | Dinesh Ghimire | Ms. Smarika Thapa | Nabin Gurung |
| Executive Member | Roman Sapkota | Sanket Dahal | Prakash Lohani |
| Executive Member | Ashok Kumar Baniya | Dr. Umesh Gupta | Sarala Sapkota |
| Executive Member | Jamuna Pandey (Upadhyaya) | Hom Bahadur Pariyar | Suman Lal Shrestha |
| Executive Member | Rojina Ranjit | Rajendra Prasad Tripathi | Swastika Pradhan |
Election Campaign Intensifies
With the formal registration of all three presidential candidacies today, the NATTA election campaign is expected to gain further momentum. The three groups have already begun reaching out to tourism entrepreneurs and NATTA members through meetings, networking and social media campaigns. Their focus is largely on securing institutional support and presenting their respective plans for the future of Nepal’s travel and tourism industry.
The election will determine NATTA’s next leadership for the upcoming two-year term. The new executive committee will be responsible for representing travel and tour operators at a time when the industry is seeking stronger institutional representation, technological transformation, international market expansion and improved business conditions. The three-way presidential contest is therefore expected to make NATTA’s upcoming 59th Annual General Meeting and 25th Executive Committee election a closely watched event within Nepal’s tourism sector.
