Devotees are observing Mahashivaratri, a great festival of Hindus, by thronging to various Shiva temples across the country and worshiping lord Shiva, Friday.
Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu is crowded with hundreds of thousands of devotees from Nepal and India since early morning today. At least half a million devotees are expected to visit the temple this year.

Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT), responsible for managing the festivities in Pashupati temple, has made the system more efficient for worship this year. All four doors at the temple have been opened and the queues are progressing faster than in the yesteryears, our correspondent at Pashupatinath temple said.

PADT has also started a paid service for devotees who wish to worship without standing on the queue at a cost from this year. A devotee does not need to stand on regular queue if he/she deposits Rs 1000 at the stipulated account.

Likewise, various other Shiva temples across the country are also crowded with devotees from early morning today. 

Source: Nepalnews.com

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) launched a "tourism song" named "Paryeton" keeping in view the upcoming Tourism Year 2011 (NTY) on Sunday.

Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation Sharat Singh Bhandari unveiled the new song at a program held at the NTB office in the capital.

The song was played to the audience gathered at the NTB hall after the opening ceremony and Minister Bhandari said he liked the song. He also said that tourism is one of the biggest and profitable industries in Nepal.

"So, let's hope NTY 2011 will be very fruitful for our country's economy and to the people of Nepal as well," Minister Bhandari said. He, however, added that much publicity still needs to be done to ensure the success of NTY 2011.

The National Industrial Fair and Tourism Festival will be held in Siddhartha Nagar of Rupandhehi district from Feb. 5-14.

The festival will be inaugurated by Unified CPN (Maoist) chairman Puspa Kamal Dhahal on Feb. 4. Festival organizers said a rally will be taken out on the inauguration day. The rally will feature traditional dresses of various communities of the country and showcase other cultural performances and events.

This festival is very different from the previous such industrial festivals in that it is not only for promoting trade and tourism, but also to encourage fellow feeling among the business persons and local people, the organizers said.

The festival will also showcase different home-made products from the hilly and Terai regions including garments, arts, pashmina, handicraft etc. There will also be a photo exhibition of various parts of the country like Chitwan and Lumbini, which, the organizers believe, will help in promoting internal tourism.

Khagendra Thapa, who is vying for the title of world's smallest man, will also participate in the festival and is expected to be a major crowd-puller.

Source: nepalnews.com

KATHMANDU: PATA Adventure Travel and Responsible Tourism Conference and Mart 2010 got its official launch here yesterday. Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), with support of PATA Nepal, inaugurated the programme that will run till February 5. 

Speaking on the occasion, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal said, “Along with the peace process, government is concerned about creating an investment friendly environment to encourage investment in tourism, infrastructure and hydropower sectors.” 

Nepal Tourism Year 2011, the year when the country will welcome a million tourists from the world over, would be vital in selling Nepal’s attractions in the international market, said Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA), Sharat Singh Bhandari 

According to PATA chief executive officer Greg Duffel, tourism sector is a significant contributor to GDP and creator of jobs. Malaysian representative Dr Victory said, “During the recession in Malaysia tourist arrival plunged to 5.5 million in 1995 but with the government’s concern and identification of potential of tourism sector in 2005 the arrival number marked 22.1 million with Singapore as the 11th tourist destination.” He said Malaysia launched several promotional campaigns with different taglines for different destinations which also included one million free tickets to Malaysia. Nepal should also work on the issues of connectivity, service sector and infrastructure.