Nepal Tourism Board, along with the Nepalese private sector, participated in the 30th edition of Borsa Internazionale del Tourismo (BIT) held at Rho Fieromilano Trade Fair Complex, Milan, Italy from 18th to 21st Feb 2010. Whereas the first two days were devoted to buyers from all around the world, the last two days it was open for general public. BIT, considered to be one in the top four tourism fairs in the world, has this year become an ideal platform for new ideas, new market segments and niches for operators and increasing involvement of prospective travelers. A total of 130 countries showcasing their tourism products and services were represented in the current edition of the fair. Since 2008 the fair has constantly exceeded the figure of 150000-plus visitors and this year to the response from the consumers was phenomenal.
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The Nepal stall attracted huge numbers of enthusiastic buyers, media and the general public alike. The buyers were more focussed on the technicalities of visits to Nepal and the general public queried on issues of connectivity, security, frontier formalities and possibilities of combining tours with India and Tibet. On 20th Feb, CESVI, an Italian NGO working in Nepal in areas of Responsible Tourism development in the Sagarmatha region, in collaboration with Nepal Tourism Board and Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal, organized a workshop on "Tourist Information Management System and Code of Conduct for Responsible Travel" in the presence of the Italian media and Travel Trade. Therein, Mr. Kashi Raj Bhandari, Director, NTB, made a presentation on Nepal Tourism Year 2011 and appealed the Italian media and tour operators to help make the campaign a grand success.
The participating co-exhibitors at the Nepal stand were Yeti Travels, Cho-Oyu Trekking, Wonderland Travels and Amadablam Trekking. Mr. Udaya Bhattarai, Asst. Manager, NTB and Ms. Ranu Shah, Officer, NTB were the members of the NTB team led by Mr. Bhandari.