PATA Gold Award in community-based tourism goes to Nepal Tourism Board

Nepal Tourism Board has received the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Award in the category of Sustainable Tourism for Livelihood Recovery Project (STLRP). This is the third time NTB has received a PATA award in community-based tourism. The award recognizes the project’s efforts in creating tourism employment opportunities and enhancing sustainable tourism development in all seven provinces of Nepal.

NTB’s STLRP previously won the PATA Gold Award in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, it was recognized for Tourism Destination Resilience, and in 2023, for its initiatives in women’s empowerment through tourism, sustainability, and social responsibility. This Community-based tourism project has generated short-term employment for around 10,000 tourism workers and provided capacity-building training for 4,000 individuals since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, Kerala Tourism of India has won the PATA Gold Award 2024 in the Digital Marketing category. Kerala’s Department of Tourism online contest of Holiday Heist was a winning entry in this category.

All award recipients were honoured at the PATA Gold Awards Presentation on August 28 in Bangkok, Thailand. The Pacific Asia Travel Association is a not-for-profit membership-based association that acts as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia Pacific region.

By Sweta Singh (Kathmandu)