Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) is a national organization established in 1998 by an act of Parliament in the form of partnership between the Government of Nepal and private sector tourism industry. It was set up to develop and market Nepal as an attractive tourist destination. The Board provides platform for vision-drawn leadership for Nepal’s tourism sector by integrating government commitment with the dynamism of private sector. NTB is promoting Nepal in the domestic and international market and is working toward repositioning the image of the country. It also aims to regulate product development activities. Fund for NTB is collected in the form of Tourist Service Fee from departing foreign passengers at the Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, thus keeping it financially independent. The Board chaired by the Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation consists of 11 board members with five government representatives, five private sector representatives and the Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Deepak Raj Joshi, the new CEO of NTB is a visionary with a dynamic personality. With an aim to work on strategic management and sustainable development, we interviewed Mr. Joshi. Here is the excerpt from the interview.
- Tell us about yourself!
A: I completed my schooling from Bardiya and moved to Lucknow for my intermediate studies. I finished my Diploma form Kathmandu’s Shanker Dev College and later completed my MBA and Masters in Sociology. It has been 15 years since I have been working in Nepal Tourism Board. I started with the Human Resource Department and then worked in different departments. I also got the opportunity to work in Europe and America as Desk Marketer for the Tourism Department. I later moved to Destination Management and got training for Promotion Management in Israel, China and Spain.
- How did you land in Tourism?
A: There is no particular answer to how I got here (smiles). During my college days my friends said I would be good for this sector. Fortunately enough, one day I saw an advertisement for NTB. I applied and got in and then began my tourism journey. I think my nature has always been the one that suits this profession. Moreover, I strongly believe it is the only sectors that can help the country develop.
- You must be a busy man. How do you balance your professional and personal life?
A: This is tough one to answer. I think many people would agree to that. But what I do believe is that tactful management is imperative. In fact, I am trying to get my hands around it.
- How about family pressure?
A: Family pressure is always going to be there. I wish I could do more but thanks to my wife who understands me and also takes care of our beautiful daughters; of 7 years and 11 months respectively.
- How often do you travel?
A: I have been traveling a lot ever since I was in grade 8-9. I love traveling and had visited around 40 districts of Nepal during my college days. I guess after another 10-15, I can proudly say I have been to all the 75 districts of the country.
- Tell us about any situation that was difficult in the past for you to handle and how would you react to it now? Has the experience made you any wiser?
A: There was this one particular incident that happened when I was studying in Lucknow during my tenth grade that changed me. I was on the public bus and someone suddenly stepped on my feet. I was so mad and tried to knock him down right away. But accidentally he fell from the bus. Fortunately, nothing serious happened to him. It was a mistake but could have been treated as an attempt to murder. That was the biggest lesson I learned and realized how important it was to control my anger. Also, compassion is something I want to work on. Helping other makes you happy but can also be very stressful. I am still working on becoming passionate without stressing myself out.
- What kept you in NTB for the last 15 years?
A: I strongly believe that tourism in Nepal has a lot of potentials to earn better and stronger name in the international market. But we are still unable to capitalize and leverage on it. Wanting to do a lot of things in this field in a diversified manner has kept me going.
- What has changed after you being the CEO of NTB?
A: We are trying to work on the strategic approach. Coming up with image enhancement is one of our priorities. We have identified some new segments and will start working on it. Tourists know Nepal as an adventurous place. But we also want them to remember us as a culturally rich place. We have more than 100 ethnic groups within the span of 20-25 kilometer. We are also very diverse. If you notice, we celebrate some or the other festival every day, in and outside Kathmandu. Therefore, we can promote ourselves culturally rather than sticking to only the traditional promoting products. We can brand our country in a much better and fruitful way. Climate is another sellable factor. People go to Spain and other European countries because it gets a lot of sunshine. In case of our country, we got 300+ days of sunshine. We have diversity when it comes to wildlife. Snow leopard found only in 11 countries in the world is in Nepal. The point is we have a lot of things to promote and if we work on it strongly, we would attract more tourists which would help boost the economy. Next, we are trying to incorporate digital media promotion. We have been using the traditional mechanism of promotion. Trade fair and media was prime but now with the speedy social media, the digital scene has become very active. We need to tap these also. We have more than 70 desks in different country and we can approach them to be our partners. So, you see lots of strategic planning is going on strongly and we believe these will have a strong and a very fruitful impact.
- Tell us about your memorable moment in NTB?
A: I always try to do things differently. No matter how big or small. I strongly believe that when you do something, the impact should be stronger. After the earthquake we came up with Tourism Recovery Committee and started working on it. It was our initiative which was quite commendable. People really appreciated it because we were spontaneous and reacted swiftly. Apart from that, Nepal Tourism Year Campaign which we initiated turned out to be very productive. The success of the event success always motivated me and us to come up with interesting work that would entice the department and help the nation in the best possible way.
- How badly did the earthquake affect us? And how long do you think it is going to take for things to normalize when tourism industry is concerned?
A: If we look at it, the total footfall before the earthquake it was 8,00,000 plus but sadly has come down by 60%. The media gave out the wrong figure because of which tourists have a negative perception about the country. We carried out an immediate investigation and found out that more the 90% of the hotels were safe. Airport was working right from the next day itself and highways were completely operational along with the hospitals. And moreover, the earthquake had major impact only in 11 districts. The major tourist destinations remained untouched. But the problem was that this was not communicated right to the local mass and internationals properly. Having said that, things are getting better. And it is in our 2016 agenda to revive the tourism industry with proper, strategic communication.
- According to you, how is tourism industry moving ahead?
A: The way I see is, we have been working for the last 60 years since the inception but still have not been able to capitalize on so many aspects. The next thing is the active participation of the private sector. We need to work together to create a synergy. We lack a proper infrastructure. We only have one international airport which is not really in a flattering condition. If we look at it, trekking agencies are increasing but not the tourists. We are unable to give them the right and effective service. We are moving on price war rather than service war. The industry is not yet mature to understand how business should ideally work. We need to have sustainable approach and since we have great potential, we can work and make this happen.
- What is your success mantra?
A: Dedication and honesty, thinking differently and creatively with less commitment and more delivery. Let’s walk the talk.
- What are your long term goals as you are now in the decision making position?
A: I will be highlighting more on tourism. Rather than focusing on the number game, I will be stressing more on service quality and delivery. We need to erase it from the minds of the foreigners that they will carry water borne disease when they come here and that is not a good sign for us. We need to change the image of the country. Also we need to work on branding and promotion of our different services.
- How do you define success?
A: I define success as more of a responsibility rather than achievement and I measure it through the results that have been achieved.
- How do you see the step taken by Nepal government for free Visa to Chinese tourists?
A: We already have this among SAARC countries. We share an open border with India. The step is appreciable but if we could have more VISA issuing outlets, it would be of tremendous help. We have been talking to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the same. Chinese and Indian tourists are the world leaders for tourism so it is paramount for us to attract them at any cost. We shall be starting with other countries as well through bilateral talks. I also believe that rather than working on the cost of visa we should focus on easy and timely availability.
- What could be your possible strategies for sustainable development?
A: I believe tourism needs to be developed with focus on eco-tourism that is sustainable. I would also like to focus on the fact that investment in Nepal will give high return. Apart from trekking, we have a variety of other adventurous activities like village-walk, forest-walk which definitely gives high return. Tourism has given employment to over five hundred thousand people directly. And to up this, we need to upgrade our tourism industry.
- Where is NTB moving when it comes to Digital Marketing?
A: We are coming up with our own Youtube channel and are becoming more active on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We have strong plans when it comes to digital marketing in the coming days.
- Where do you see NTB after your retirement?
A: If thing goes as planned, in 4 years time we will increase the numbers tourists from one to five lakhs, needless to mention the service quality. Meanwhile, the market expansion would be strategically enhanced. Just like in Thailand and Hong Kong. We would like to see ourselves moving to countries like Vietnam. We shall expand more to South East Asia which will also expand our product. As per the figure is concerned, I would like to see it cross 1.5 million visits.
- Everyone has an idol. Which personalities do you follow?
A: I am inspired by the CEO of Virgin Group, Richard Branson, Late Steve Jobs, and Bollywood actor Amir Khan.
- What would you like to say to our readers?
A: What I have always believed is that tourism in Nepal has immense scope and opportunity. But it can’t be developed in isolation. This has to be multidimensional. There are other sectors within it namely, medical tourism, herb tourism and others. Along with the private sectors, these should move forward also. We can our heritage at a local level that is also for us and not just the tourists. I would like to request all the readers to work in oneness.
- Is there anything you want to tell Team Udaan?
A: It is nice to see a specialized magazine for aviation and tourism. We look forward to a mutual cooperation from Udaan and wish the team success in the years ahead.
