Covid-19 and subsequent lockdown in Nepal and abroad have pushed for digital solutions for a wide range of daily experiences. One of the biggest casualties of the lockdown has been the tourism industry which will need great efforts in the coming months to recover from the aftermath of the global crisis.
Nepal Tourism Board as part of its campaign “Enhancing Online presence” with a collaborations of the British Council, Story Cycle and Local Bodies to harness the power of digital narratives to support youth engagement with community gains is initiating this call. The proposed activity will be preceded by calls and capacity building to curate quality media assets to form the exhibition. Enhancement of the online presence of domestic locations in the tourism market is always crucial. To enhance the online presence of Dharche as it possesses tremendous potential for tourism development because of its unique natural and cultural heritage, we are asking to submit photos for an upcoming photo exhibition hosted through the platform of Nepal Tourism Board.
This program is also a part of StoryCycle’s on-going collaboration with the British Council, called Our Dream City (ODC). ODC’s Virtual Heritage Tours (VHT) which were launched as a digital response to the pandemic and subsequent lockdown will be the main vehicle to facilitate the processes. VHTs aim to provide national and international audiences with the opportunity to sample the culture and landscape of domestic locations from the comfort of their homes. It also supports the digital storytelling abilities of the tour leaders and creates video documentation for the lasting presence of the toured spaces.
Dharche Rural Municipality, located in Gorkha District, is considered by many as an open museum of nature and culture with a variety of endangered species, birds and enormous wild habitat. Similarly, with naturally gifted aesthetics, it is rich with natural and historical landmarks, making the tourism industry a possible economy booster. Dharche has tremendous potential for tourism development because of its unique natural and cultural heritage. The tourism industry, despite opening up for a few decades now, has not had the kind of growth we all hoped it can achieve. In an effort to increase and enhance the digital presence of Dharche, we are announcing a photo exhibition which will be hosted in Nepal Tourism Board Platform from 01 -10 December, 2020. Photos have been submitted from a number of participants of the digital storytelling and mapping workshop where they learned how to tell a story on social media platform, photography and videography lessons and to put their places in the google maps.
For more about the campaign, please visit www.dreamcities.org
