Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Bhaktapur to start ‘night heritage walk’

Bhaktapur Tourism Development Committee – in association with Visit Nepal Year 2020 (VNY2020) secretariat – has taken a new initiative to start ‘night heritage walk’ beginning from Thursday evening to promote the historic city of Bhaktapur and its heritage sites for the Visit Nepal 2020.
The night-walk is the first of the initiatives – by the tourism development committee – in anticipation of the tourism year starting in a few weeks. The government is expecting to welcome some two million tourists in the Visit Nepal Year 2020. “We have chosen Bhaktapur for the new move because there are many new and unique things to offer the tourists during night time,” according to chief executive officer (CEO) at Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) Deepak Raj Joshi. “Gradually, we will be launching the programme in Lalitpur and Kathmandu as well because all of them are historic and cultural cities.”
The committee has – for the night-walk – especially hired 10 city tour operators, who will be informing the visitors regarding the lifestyles of people and their cultural processions. The city hosts various cultural activities during the night time to lure tourists. “This is going to be a new practice in the tourism sector to attract more tourists,” he added.
Welcoming the drive, the Mayor of Bhaktapur municipality Sunil Prajapati termed it a milestone to promote the historic city of Nepal. “The municipality is working to install street lamps in all the alleys,” he said, adding that they are almost in the last phase of laying stones in each and every alley to make the tourists walk a joy and easy.
Officials at the committee also claimed that the night heritage walk will help tourists understand the lifestyle and activities of local Newar communities.
Bhaktapur – also known as the ‘city of devotees’ – is located in the eastern corner of the Kathmandu Valley, which is half an hour ride from Kathmandu Durbar Square. A stronghold of the Newar community, Bhaktapur also has Durbar Square, like in the other city in the Valley, Lalitpur.
Bhaktapur is also one among the seven most famous UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Valley. The city – among the three cities in the Valley – is famous for traditional arts, architecture, wooden craftworks, pottery, culture as well as stone-carved temples dating back to the Malla era.

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