SANGAM PRASAIN
KATHMANDU, APR 12 -
The BBC and CNN have agreed to cut their advertising tariff in response to Nepal’s plea that it lacked adequate funds to promote Nepal Tourism Year in the international market.
The BBC has slashed the rate to Rs 24 million from Rs 44 million for its four-month package while CNN has also agreed in principle to reduce the tariff. “CNN is also positive about reducing the tariff,” said Ranjit Acharya, a member of the NTY international promotion committee. The promotion committee had allocated Rs 36 million for CNN and it has requested that the price be decreased to Rs 16 million. The committee said that it would receive confirmation from CNN on Monday. Earlier, both networks had proposed Rs 80 million for the purpose.
The government has allocated a budget of Rs 130 million to publicise the NTY campaign at the international level. Of which, Rs 60 million has been set aside for India, Rs 30 million for China and the rest for other source markets. The government has allocated the funds for the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) strategy promotion, which means going through the media and other means of communication.
With the budget being short to carry out the promotion programme in other source markets, particularly in Europe and the US, the committee had requested the BBC and CNN to reduce the tariff. “The BBC has already prepared an advertisement of Nepal,” Acharya said. The BBC had also broadcast the inauguration of NTY without charge for seven days, Acharya added.
The NTY promotion committee plans to use the allocated funds for international promotion in three sections. The promotion in India will be held during the summer (April-June) targeting the Indian holiday season. The package named “Summer spender” will be launched through TV, newspapers, hoarding boards and online media. As of now, the committee has received proposals from India Today, a weekly newsmagazine in English, and Dainik Jagaran, a newspaper published in Hindi.
Similarly, advertising agencies Triton, Series, Om Tourism and Agencies and Digitainment have submitted their proposals. The committee has planned the promotion programme in India from mid-May. To compete with other Asian countries and draw large numbers of Indian tourists during the summer, the NTY promotion committee is coming up with special packages.
Climate-wise, the best time to attract Indians is during the summer. According to the UN World Tourism Organization, India is one of the fastest growing outbound tourist markets and will account for 50 million outbound tourists by 2020.
Currently, 12 million Indians travel to different countries annually. Nepal had received 104,470 Indian visitors among 448,769 visitors from around the world last year who came here by air. The number was up 20 percent against the corresponding period last year. Indian arrivals in the first three months of NTY have reached 26,144, up 34 percent against the same period last year. The promotion in China will be held during June-July. For NTY promotion in China, two Nepali and three Indian advertising agencies have submitted their proposals. Chinese arrivals to Nepal increased 22 percent in the first three months of 2011. The country received 10,293 tourists as of March.
Though international promotion had been slated to start before the launch of NTY, late budget allocation delayed the plan. Similarly, the government’s long bidding process as per the Public Procurement Act to obtain the TOR had delayed the promotional campaign, said an NTY member.
