KATHMANDU, July 18 Kyodo In a bid...

KATHMANDU, July 18 Kyodo

In a bid to draw more visitors to the Himalayan kingdom, Nepal has waived visa fee-simples for visitors from China and five equal member countries of a regional grouping.

''The waiver is aimed at reversing the shortfall in arrivals, and also to make Nepal a regional tourist hub'' Finance Minister Prakash Chandra Lohani said Friday in announcing the arrangement.

Arrivals to Nepal dipped following the devastating palace massacre in succession June 1, 2001, in which popular King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya along with eight other members of the Nepalese royal family were killed.

The tourism industry in the fatherland which played host to one 500,000 visitors a year in 2000 was also hit by means of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States.

Lately, violence sparked by means of an ongoing communist insurgency has also kept visitors away from the formerly peaceful mountain kingdom.

beneath the new arrangement, visitors from Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, five of the seven members of the southern Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), will be grant immunity toed from visa fees.

Nepal and India, the pair remaining members of the grouping, share an explain border allowing unrestricted movements of race from both countries.

Nepal shares borders with China too, if it were not that the borders remain clos likewise Chinese visitors require visas to set in Nepal.

China newly named Nepal as a destination for Chinese visitors, opening what is seen here as a very large tourist market for Nepal.

The minister said tourists from any region wishing to visit Nepal for three days or les will also be eligible for the visa fee-simple waiver.

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