A delegation of Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal (TAAN), led by its General Secretary Karna Bahadur Lama, on Tuesday, met with the General Manager of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), Devananda Upadhyay, on Tuesday and apprised him of the problems that TAAN member agencies were facing while welcoming and seeing off guests at the country’s only international airport.

“Our member agencies are facing difficulties after the airport authorities scrapped the Golden Gate entry pass. Representatives of our member agencies are often stopped at the Golden Gate itself. As a result, they are unable to welcome or see of their guests,” Lama said in the meeting, adding: “This often sour business relation between our member agents and clients.”

He also requested the airport management to reintroduce Golden Gate entry pass or put in place other mechanism to ensure smooth entry of tourism entrepreneurs at the airport so that they can welcome and see off their clients without any hassles.

Lama also drew the attention of the airport management toward difficulty in sending cargoes to different domestic destinations. “Staffers of our member agencies aren’t allowed to enter into the check-in area while delivering cargoes at the airlines’ counters. Our cargoes remain unattended when airlines cancel their flight. This is creating difficulties to our member agencies,” he said, urging the airport management to address the issue.

Responding to the delegation, Upadhyay said the Golden Gate entry pass was scrapped as a new arrival lounge was being built near the Golden Gate itself. “Construction of the new lounge was delayed due to the earthquake and border obstructions. You won’t have to face any problem once the new lounge comes into operation,” he said, adding that the airport management will explore other alternatives to facilitate tourism entrepreneurs until then. “We will correspond to the police to allow ID card holders of your organization to enter Golden Gate without any hassles,” he assured. He also said tourism entrepreneurs will not have to face problem of cargo mishandling at the new domestic terminal which opened recently.

Sarita Lama, coordinator of TAAN’s International Affairs Department, and Surya Bahadur Ghimire, coordinator of TAAN’s Media and Communications Department, as well as TAAN staffers Bishnu Bhattarai and Devendra Dangol were present in the delegation.

source by TAAN