News Summary
Reviewed.
- Following the Nepal government’s declaration of 2027 as the ‘Year of Health,’ the Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) has initiated the ‘Arogya Khana’ campaign at star hotels.
- The campaign aims to include nutritious traditional health foods on the menus of star hotels to attract tourists visiting for health tourism.
- HAN continues training and collaboration to promote health foods and has formed an expert task force to position Nepal as an international health tourism destination.
May 12, Kathmandu – A campaign targeting the institutionalization of health tourism and the ‘Arogya Khana’ (health food) initiative has been launched across star hotels in Nepal.
With the approval of the National Tourism Strategy 2026–2035 and its Action Plan 2026–2030, the Nepal government has declared 2027 as the ‘Year of Health.’ In this context, the Hotel Association Nepal (HAN), in collaboration with Nepal in Business, organized the Nepal Health Food Orientation and Promotion Program to institutionalize health tourism promotion and the health food campaign at star hotels.
HAN President Vinayak Shah highlighted the vast potential for health tourism in Nepal during the event held on Friday. He emphasized that star hotels must take a leading role in this campaign.
President Shah stressed that including health foods in hotel menus to meet the needs of tourists arriving for health tourism is a timely necessity.
He further explained that the program was organized to provide chefs working in star hotels with practical knowledge regarding the importance of health foods, preparation methods, nutritional aspects, and their inclusion in regular hotel menus.
Shah expressed confidence that this program will play an inspiring and crucial role in further strengthening the health tourism promotion campaign.
According to him, considering diet and lifestyle, and analyzing factors like timing, season, Nepali culture, and nutrition, the aim is to develop and expand more refined, specialized, and internationally competitive health foods using the integration of Ayurveda and modern physiology in the coming days.
This initiative is expected to result in qualitative growth in the number of tourists visiting Nepal for health tourism, their length of stay, and their spending, positively impacting the overall tourism industry.
Executive Director of Nepal Tourism, Hotel and Mountaineering Institution, Divyaraj Pokharel, remarked that skilled manpower, research, and innovation are essential for developing health tourism, and that the hotel industry should take a leadership role in this sector.
Similarly, Indu Ghimire, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation, noted that the Nepal government has prioritized health tourism as a focal area for tourism development and stressed that collaboration between public and private sectors will be vital to the success of this campaign.
LP Bhanu Sharma, a guru of life sciences, detailed the relationship between human health, lifestyle, and nutrition, stating that health foods significantly contribute to physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. He added that there is potential to integrate Nepal’s indigenous food culture and Ayurvedic knowledge with modern tourism to gain global recognition.
Following the training, the participating chefs and trainers presented a variety of health food dishes in an exhibition program designed to enhance the effectiveness and experiential learning of the campaign.
HAN has committed to continuing various programs, training, research, and collaborations to promote health tourism and health foods, aiming to establish Nepal as an international health tourism destination. An expert task force has also been formed to support this mission.
