On the initiation of the Nepal Tourism Board and in collaboration of the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN), short-term jobs are to be created for 1,000 people from tourism sector. A project titled “Sustainable Tourism for Livelihood Recovery” launched by the NTB and supported by the UNDP is targeted at the workers of tourism sector, one of the hardest-hit areas from COVID-19 pandemic. NTB and TAAN signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to this recently. The project is expected to provide a relief, to some extent, to those workers who were out of work due to COVID-19 crisis, according to NTB Vice-Chair Chandra Rijal.

NTB Executive Director Dr Dhananjaya Regmi said they were hopeful that the Project would help address the unemployment issue in the tourism sector though a little bit and retain tourism business and workers. Under the project, the NTB aims to offer works ranging from around 70,000 mandays to 100,000 mandays. The NTB is thinking of coming up with such programmes for the relief of tourism workforce in the days ahead, too. The NTB has already signed this kind of agreement with the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAAN), Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA), and Nepal Association of Rafting Agencies (NARA).

The NTB will be spending budget worth 2 million 50 thousand US dollars: one million US dollar on its own and 1 million 50 thousand US dollars to be supported by the UNDP for the implementation of the two-and-half year project. The NTB aims to provide short-term jobs to 50,000 workers in total mainly from the tourism sector under this project. Besides, it sets a goal of offering jobs for over 2,000 people in partnership with local levels across the country.