Kathmandu:
After roping in cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar to promote tourism, Nepal is set to appoint 'Indian Idol 2008' Prashant Tamang as its goodwill ambassador as it aims to bring in one million tourists, a major chunk from India.
Tamang, who is an Indian of Nepali ethnicity, will arrive in Kathmandu from Darjeeling on Friday and will be given the title of goodwill ambassador of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) at a press conference, a board official said.
Gavaskar was appointed Nepal's tourism ambassador in 2005. Earlier, NTB had appointed 22-inch-tall teenager Khagendra Thapamagar as its brand ambassador and 19-year-old Miss Nepal 2010 Sadichha Shrestha as goodwill ambassador to promote tourism.
Nepal aims to bring in one million tourists including 268,000 Indian tourists under the 'Nepal Tourism Year 2011' campaign to revive its tourism sector that was hit hard by decade long Maoist insurgency.
Miss Nepal Sadhichha will leave Kathmandu on October 1 towards Shania, China where she will participate in Miss World beauty contest.
Before leaving for China she told reporters on Thursday that she will promote tourism in China during the Miss World contest. Nepal has lots of things including its unique culture, Mt. Everest, Lumbini, the birth place of Lord Buddha to promote tourism, she said.
She said she will ask all other participants of Miss World to visit Nepal next year with their family members during her visit to China.
Similarly, Miss Nepal first runner up Sahana Bajracharya and second runner up Sanyukta Timsina will participate respectively in the Miss Earth (Vietnam) and Miss International (China) contests later this year.
They said that they will also make efforts to promote tourism for Nepal while participating in the contests.
Nepal has recently opened three new community based trekking trails with Hi-Fi Internet facilities and also launched home stay schemes for the promotion of tourism in the rural areas.