Immigration Department Director General: Quality Tourists Not Attracted by Free Visas or Promotion Alone

Kathmandu. Director General of the Department of Immigration, Ramchandra Tiwari, said that quality tourists cannot be brought into the country solely through publicity and free visas. He said this while speaking at an interaction program on 'Foreign Citizen Management Information System' organized at the department on Tuesday. He said that for tourism promotion, emphasis should be placed on developing tourist infrastructure rather than publicity. Tiwari claimed that if the necessary infrastructure and attractive 'products' are developed in the tourism sector, tourists will come automatically. He also informed that preparations are underway to provide tourists with a 'unique ID' in the near future by further systematizing the foreign citizen management information system. Speaking at the program, he said, 'I am also a member of the Tourism Board. We have not added a single tourist through promotion. Because no tourist of that quality has come to Nepal. If there is the necessary infrastructure and product for tourism, tourists will come on their own. If tourists come by giving free visas and promotion, even if Afghanistan does not take visas, no one goes there, and even if America asks for a deposit of lakhs of rupees, they pay it. Because there is tourist infrastructure and product there. But still, we will spend two minutes of time for the tourists and encourage them, we have said that we will do it. They should fill the QR code and make it easy for us. Later, we will give tourists a unique ID, make it mandatory.' Director General Tiwari also said that preparations are being made to register all hotels in the Kathmandu Valley with the department and put them on the online system to make security and management efficient.