To fill two open seats on the Executive Committee of the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation has established a nomination and recommendation committee. Basu Dhungana and Vibhutichandra Thakur are members of the committee, which is chaired by Joint Secretary Indu Ghimire. The committee has met twice already. Coordinator Ghimire stated, “We will recommend the names shortly.”
According to the regulations, the Executive Committee is composed of eleven members, with the NTB CEO acting as the member secretary and the Secretary of the Ministry as the coordinator. Five private-sector tourism entrepreneurs make up the committee. The committee has a three-year term. The process of selecting two new members has begun since Madan Acharya and Milan Devkota’s terms have ended. The final appointments will be made by the Council of Ministers based on the committee’s recommendation.
In the past, the political party that controls the tourism ministry has frequently appointed members. Ram Prasad Sapkota, Rajendra Lama, and Rishiram Bhandari were appointed under Maoist Tourism Minister Hit Bahadur Tamang. Many tourism professionals from the Nepali Congress are interested in joining the board since Badri Pandey, a young leader from the party, is currently the minister of tourism. Kumar Mani Thapaliya, Narendra Bhatt, Milan Devkota, Dambar Parajuli, Ganesh Bahadur Bhattarai, Dharma Panthi, Pomanarayan Shrestha, Ganesh Thapa, Ramsharan Thapaliya, and Achyut Guragain are well-known figures in the travel industry.
Given that the current minister is from the Far West, it is anticipated that one member will be selected from that region, which makes seasoned travel businessman Narendra Bhatt a formidable candidate. Another prominent candidate is reportedly Kumar Mani Thapaliya, the current president of the Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents, or NATTA. The minister is said to favor these two.
No special privileges are granted to members of the NTB Executive Committee. The committee is required to meet at least every two months in accordance with the NTB Act 2053 (1996) and to work toward accomplishing the goals of the board. A meeting allowance of NPR 4,000 is given to members for each meeting. In addition, they frequently advertise tourism-related businesses in foreign travel markets by using their board affiliation. Their primary impact, though, is on the NTB’s yearly budget. Members frequently allocate funds to the areas they want. Other than that, they play a very small part in daily operations.
Despite having little power, there is fierce competition to join. Additionally, the job does not come with a dedicated office. Numerous NTB employees, especially those with long tenure, are charged with putting benefits ahead of real tourism development. They would rather attend international events, which entail travel abroad and substantial allowances, than actively promote domestic travel. These staff members are notorious for putting off work and avoiding using the board’s funds for neighborhood initiatives. However, they actively look for opportunities to participate in international tourism expos and fairs, frequently working with the CEO, making international events a top priority.
Typically, the NTB Executive Committee establishes three subcommittees: Monitoring, Accounts, and Budget. Only the Budget Committee, however, usually operates; the other two only exist in theory. This time, Rajendra Lama was assigned to monitoring, Ram Prasad Sapkota to accounts, and Rishiram Bhandari to coordinator of the budget committee. However, the latter two are only symbolic because they lack budget, personnel, and office space. No apparent attempt has been made by the committee heads to carry out their duties in an efficient manner.
