Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Nepal have signed an agreement to develop Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) framework and to promote sustainable tourism in Nepal.

Under the partnership, NTB and UNDP will undertake joint initiatives to strengthen the system of tourism statistics which eventually help Nepal explore opportunities to create employment and livelihood options for local communities through tourism. This requires a strong and credible data collection system that could reveal in details how the tourism generates income, creates employment and livelihoods opportunities and contributes to the Nepali economy.

To that end, the framework of Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) will be developed with technical support from United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNTO) and funding from UNDP. TSA is an internationally-accepted standard tool to accurately measure the contribution of tourism sector to the country’s economy. It is a joint endeavor of Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Central Bureau of Statistics, Nepal Rastra Bank and Nepal Tourism Board that involves meticulous collection, analysis, interpretation and presentation of primary and secondary data related to economic transaction of the visitors.

Chief Executive Office of NTB, Deepak Raj Joshi and UNDP Nepal’s Resident Representative Ayshanie Medagangoda-Labé signed the agreement on 20^th May at NTB.  “As tourism plays significant role for socio economic development, the project will help understand the size of tourism economy and further strengthen the tourism sector’s contribution in promoting people’s livelihoods and the local economy,” said Mr. Joshi upon the signing of the agreement. 

Emphasizing the role of tourism to achieve the Global Goals, UNDP’s RR Labé said, “It is important to develop sustainable tourism as a driver that connects people, history and cultures and contributes to all five key elements of the SDGs – people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership. This partnership to “analyze data” will be useful for broad spectrum of tourism stakeholders and help make better and informed decisions.  This is a unique opportunity to promote sectoral coherence among various partners contributing to the prosperity and sustainability of the planet and prosperity of Nepal.”  

Nepal accords high priority to tourism development and several new initiatives have been announced by the Nepal Government for research, development and promotion of the sector. Tourism Satellite Account framework is one such prioritized initiatives which will support in providing credible data supporting the promotion of the tourism sector.