Nepal's tourism promotion through Travel Banking in Bangladesh

Nepal's tourism promotion through Travel Banking in BangladeshMarch 26, 2008
"Nepal is a beautiful country and we wish to visit Nepal once again… there are so many places to enjoy and experience with this special! ", was the response received by Nepal Tourism Board(NTB) officials during the Consumer Focus Promotion Campaign launched by NTB from 16th to 23rd March 2008 in four major cities of Bangladesh.

The special campaign, the first ever to reach the consumers directly is a joint venture between Nepal tourism Board and Eastern Bank Limited one of the leading consumer oriented banks in Bangladesh.

Acknowledging the growing interest of Bangladeshi outbound travelers in Nepal as the most preferred destination Eastern Bank Ltd has come forward with the idea of promoting special Travel Loans to Nepal. Nepal has a special attraction among the Bangladeshi people because of its close proximity, easy accessibility, affordability and entirely different geophysical structure with its appealing Himalayas as against the sea and beach tourism products of Bangladesh.

A special event of Media, Tour operators and Elites' Meet was organized in Sylhet, Chittagong , Bogra and Dhaka during which NTB official Mrs. Ujjwala Dali Manager, Tourism marketing & Promotion for Nepal Tourism Board, highlighted Nepalese Tourism Attractions as well as briefed about Gratis Visa, special concessions for SAARC nationals etc. Nepal's soft adventure options for youth as well as the potential for MICE and Medical Tourism specially for the corporate sector was also emphasized during the presentation which was received with keen interest by the tour operators.

Mr. Nazeem Choudhury, Head of Marketing for Eastern Bank Limited while explaining the concept of Travel Banking informed the special offer of travel loans to Nepal along with the other discounts for their credit card holders. Under this campaign, Nepal will be promoted as the "Holiday Destination for this year" to its 150,000 card holders through its branches, ATMs, Website, SMS and direct mailers.

Sylhet a growing city, famous for its tea garden, has a high number of people visiting foreign countries. The city is getting a substantial amount as remittance from Bangladeshis residing in UK, USA etc. and is considered as a potential tourism outbound centre. Chittagong the second largest city of Bangladesh, a centre of commerce has lot of international visitors and expatriates along with the growing class of wealthy Bangladeshis. Similarly Bogra is also a flourishing city with developing new corporate houses. It is very well linked with other commercial centers of Baladesh like Rajshahi, Rangour Sherpur etc..

In all the cities the campaign was well received as an innovative idea for tourism promotion by the corporate sector and tour operators. Nepal Tourism Board believes that this consumer focus campaign will bring a very positive impact for Nepalese tourism in coming days.

Prior to the Sales Mission, Nepal Tourism Board also took part in Dhaka Travel Mart from 13-15 March 2008. A total of forty five organizations including National Tourism Organizations especially Nepal, Malaysia and Thailand, as well as Airlines, Tour Operators, Hotels, Resorts, Travel and Trade bodies, Financial and Educational institutions from twelve different countries took part in the Mart.

The response of Bangladeshi visitors at the stall was highly encouraging from the point of view of their interest in special packages or offers from Nepal side. This definitely established the fact that Bangladeshis are not only aware about Nepal's stable conditions as well as attractive tourism products but also interested in finding out the specific product offer to match their needs.

In line with Nepal's destination brand "Naturally Nepal Once is not enough" many of Bangladeshi had visited Nepal at least three times and wished to visit once again enquiring about places like Pokhara, Daman, Bandipur. Nagarkot and Dhulikhel happened to be the most popular tourist spots amongst Bangladeshis.

Many of the visitors were the ones who had already visited Nepal. Most of the stall visitors talked mainly about Pokhara, Nagarkot, Daman and Bandipur. Few young people also showed interest in Nepal's adventure activities such as Everest base camp trek, rafting and ultra light ride. The information on such activities was thus disseminated in the fair to various tour operators with special focus.

Another promotion of NTB in Bangladesh also received a tremendous response when RC Travel On program featured Nepal in 6 episodes on the popular channel i in the month of February. SMS Quiz Contest on Nepal received total 70000 entries from the Bangladeshi viewers. The two winners of the contest were handed over the prize, sponsored jointly by GMG Airlines and NTB amidst the function at Dhaka. Mr. Erfan Haque, General Manager – Sales announced that the airline has taken initiative to increase their flight frequency from 4 flights to 7 flights a week in response to the growing demand for Dhaka/KTM/Dhaka sector.