Tibetan Travel Agencies Expected To Handle Nepal Visas

At a promotional campaign jointly held by the Consulate General of Nepal in Lhasa, the Nepal Tourism Board, and the China Tibet Tourism Bureau, an official from the Consulate General of Nepal promised to 22 travel wholesalers that in the near future travel agencies in Tibet would be able to offer visa services to Chinese tourists who want to visit Nepal.

"This is what we have been longing for all along," said Liu Jin, the sales manager of Tibet China International Travel Service. "Tibet and Nepal both have abundant tourism resources that are strongly complementary to each other."

According to Shrestha, the director of Nepal Tourism Board, between 2006 and 2008, 500,000 tourists visited Nepal each year and 7% of these were from China. In 2008, Tibet welcomed more than 3 million domestic and foreign tourists. Nepal hopes the promotion will attract more people to visit the country by way of Tibet.

Wang Songping, the director of the China Tibet Tourism Bureau, stated that Nepal is an important hub for Tibet's tourist market, while Lhasa is also an important transit point for Chinese visiting Nepal via Tibet. Wang stated that the cooperation between the two regions would certainly be a success.