INTRODUCTION:

Nepal has high prospects of tourism and the expansion of tourism provides an opportunity of employment. Tourism is regarded as one of the largest industries in Nepal. It contributes 7.87 percent on GDP (WTTC, 2019).

Despite Nepal's high potential in attracting a large number of tourists, the results have been less than satisfactory. There are many areas to be improved upon as per the changing time and changing needs of tourists. Because of developments in technology and busy lifestyle of people, demand and expectation of the tourists are changing day by day. In this competitive edge, tourists are demanding better service at their price (Bhote, 2019).

According to Tourism Vision 2020 of Nepal of May, 2009, tourism is valued as the major contributor to a sustainable Nepalese economy, having been developed as an attractive, safe, exciting and unique destination through conservation and promotion, leading to equitable distribution of tourism benefits and greater harmony in society (UNCTAD, 2011).

In general, an advertising agency is an establishment or company, primarily engaged in preparing advertising materials such as writing copy, artwork, graphics, and other creative work and placing such advertising in periodicals, newspapers, radio and television, internet, and other advertising media for clients on a contract or fee basis(CBS, 2015). Alongside its importance as a field of cultural and consumer studies, advertising is a major field of promoting business. It has assumed particular significance as the major element of brand marketing. Marketing communications in general and advertising in particular are now seen as a major, and possibly the major source of competitive advantage in consumer markets (Shimp, 1997). The business in this century can be promoted by advertisement. Advertising alone does not make the brand but the successful consumer brand is, nevertheless, inseparable from its portrayal in advertising and other marketing communications media (Hackley, 2005).

Nearly everyone in the modern world is influenced to some degree by advertising and other forms of promotion. Organizations in both the private and public sectors have learned that the ability to communicate effectively and efficiently with their target audiences is critical to their success. Advertising and other types of promotional messages are used to sell products and services as well as to promote causes, market political candidates, and deal with societal problems such as alcohol and drug abuse. Consumers are finding it increasingly difficult to avoid the efforts of marketers, who are constantly searching for new ways to communicate with them (Belch,2003). Advertisement of tourist places creates an influence to the audience and persuades them to visit different places which are shown in the advertisement. Nepal Tourism Board also floats its advertisement in CNN and BBC media to persuade foreigners to visit Nepal. So in this age of information technology we can float advertisement to influence the people. If we observe the web site of Tourism Board, we can see advertisement regarding tourist places and promotion video about Visit Nepal 2020 (www.welcomenepal.com).

INTRODUCTION TO STUDY LOCATION:

This study has highlighted on the role of advertisement agencies to promote tourism in Nepal. So this study is mainly based on the Central Bureau of Statistics study on advertising agencies. The researcher conducted interview with 50 tourists in Basantapur Durbar Square Area and asked them how they came to know about Nepal and attempted to trace out the role of advertisement to promote tourism. The researcher also asked them how they came to know about Basantapur Durbar Square. The researcher also had interview with Tourist Information Officers placed in the location by Nepal Tourism Board to know about the channel of information circulation to the tourists. The researcher also collected some tourist information booklets developed by Nepal Tourism Board. The researcher visited the website of Nepal Tourism Board to observe the advertisement regarding tourism promotion through the advertisement. The study was mainly based on the interview with the tourists in Basantapur area. The study attempted to trace out the creativity of advertising agency to create the brand of the product in connection with tourism promotion in Nepal.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

The role of advertising is not limited to stimulating visits to a destination; rather, it includes exposing the destination to potential travelers, creating a positive image of the destination, and stimulating a preference for the destination that would eventually lead to an actual visit in the long run (Bendixen, 1993). The advertisement should create an image regarding the destination and persuade the possible visitor to visit places. So, in context of Nepal as well it is necessary to generate advertisement which create an inerasable picture in the mind of the targeted tourist and influence them to visit Nepal.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

Television appears to be more effective in stimulating top-of mind awareness and advertisement awareness, whereas print media are more closely linked to requesting travel information. Furthermore, newspaper advertisements appear to be a relatively effective channel when successfully evoking top-of mind awareness and information requests, whereas evoking information requests through television appears not to be an effective tourism promotion strategy. Thus, it is confirmed that these specific interactions represent the most effective routes to influencing destination choice (Kim andFesenmaier, 2005). This article highlights on the mode of advertisement for effective communication to tourists. It concludes that the print media is an effective way of communicating which can provide information for the tourist which can be kept with him/her while conducting the tour.

Tourism is a part of the infrastructure of any country’s economy the growth and development of tourism is of great importance. Advertising plays a vital and is a crucial tool in developing the countries tourism by attractively presenting the nations points-of-interests, historical and cultural. Advertising has a central role in expanding this industry, generating economic growth in this area, as well as creating direct and indirect employment, but most importantly a creative innovating competition in the national and international travel industry (Salehi and Farahbakhsh, 2014). This article highlights on the importance of advertisement to promote tourism locally and globally. The advertising agency should be creative to produce effective advertisement for the promotion of tourist points and establish image in the mind of the tourists.

DATA AND METHOD:

The study is based on secondary data of CBS regarding advertisement agencies and it also uses survey approach of the research. The study is based on the response provided by 50 tourists in Basantapur Durbar Square area and the response provided by tourist officer in the area. To select the sample respondent a random sampling method is adopted. The study is also based on the observation of some printed media published by Nepal Tourism Board regarding the promotion of tourism. The researcher visited the website of Nepal Tourism Board to observe the advertisement regarding tourism promotion through the advertisement. To conduct study both primary and secondary data are used in this study. Necessary primary data are collected through structured questionnaire and personal interview. The researcher collected secondary data from Nepal Tourism Board and CBS survey regarding advertising agency.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

Nepal’s first printed form of advertisement in Nepali language was published in a cover page of a book called Mokshashiddi, by Krishna Giri in 1919 BS. This advertising announced another book being brought out by Nepal Manoranjan Press, which is the only authentic document on advertisement of Nepal. The formal advertising agencies are not enhanced since long time. The advertising agencies registered as private limited are very low. The following figure will show the situation of the advertising agencies as per the ownership in Nepal. The individual ownership of advertising agency is high in comparison with the formal private ownership. There are 127 advertising agencies which are registered as private limited. This data indicates that the presence of advertisement agencies as formal sector is in the phase of development. The advertisement agencies registered in the name of individuals cover the large number in comparison with the formal sector.

Source: CBS

Figure 1: Number of Advertising Agency by ownership

Out of 235 agencies 89 agencies which is 37.9% is owned by individual. This informal existence of advertisement agencies shows the situation of lack of professionalism in advertisement sector. The advertisement is the creative process which helps the observer to generate picture regarding the matter and make decision about the matter. The following table will show the establishment of advertising agencies and majority of the advertising agencies are based on province 3. It indicates that the majority of advertising agencies are based on the capital of the nation.

Table 1: Distribution of Advertisement Agency

S. No	Province	Frequency	Percentage
1	Province 1	18	7.66
2	Province 2	1	0.43
3	Province 3	180	76.60
4	Province 4	12	5.11
5	Province 5	8	3.40
6	Province 6	7	2.98
7	Province 7	9	3.83
	Total	235	100

Source: CBS

Table: 2 Impact of advertisement on tourists

S.N	Age group	Adverti sement	Information by friends	Other sources	Total
1	20-30	4	5	1	10
2	31-40	3	7	0	10
3	41-50	2	7	1	10
4	51-60	1	6	3	10
5	above 61	1	8	1	10
Grand Total		11	33	6	50
Mean		2.2	6.6	1.2	10
Standard Deviation		1.16619	1.019804	0.979796	0

Source: Survery

The situation of advertising agencies in province 2 is very poor. For the promotion of the tourist area in Province 2, there should be large number of advertising agencies which help to promote tourism via advertisement.

The researcher attempted to trace out the role of advertisement in tourism and conducted the interview with tourists in Basantapur Durbar Area. The summary of the response are as follows.

The above table indicates that about 22 percent of the tourist comes to Nepal after observing advertisement through different sources either print media or visual media. Majority of the tourist visit Nepal by getting information by their friends or relatives. The information provided by friends and relatives is one of the effective ways to establish tourism in Nepal. But we should also focus on the advertisement of our tourist places and attempt to create pictures on the mind of tourists. Despite of the natural and environmental beauty we are not being able to attract large number of tourist to visit Nepal as set in our targets via different periodic plans and yearly plans. The advertisement market in Nepal is really limited if we observe the above table number 1. The low presence of the advertisement agencies indicates the low publicity of the tourism sector. In 2017, the number of tourists visited Nepal was 9,40,218 (Nepal Tourism Statistics, 2017).

Table 3: Purpose of tourist to visit Nepal

S.N	Purpose	Number	Percentage
1	Holiday/Pleasure	6,58,153	70.1
2	Pilgrimage	1,41,033	15.1
3	Trekking and Mountaineering	75,217	7.9
4	Others	65,815	6.9
	Total	9,40,218	100

Source: Nepal Tourism Statistics 2017

If we observe the flow of tourist to visit Nepal, they have different purpose to visit Nepal. Majority of the tourist visit Nepal for holiday and pleasure. This large group can be influenced by the advertisement to visit different places which expand their stay in Nepal finally helping to enhance economy of the nation. In present context there is the lack of advertisement about different tourist places of Nepal. Majority of the tourists come to Nepal with reference of the friends and they normally visit the places recommended by their friends and family. The above table shows that the number of tourists for the purpose of trekking and mountaineering is comparatively low and there is the chance to enhance this sector by advertisement and different promotional activities. About 15.1 percent of the tourist visit Nepal for the purpose of pilgrimage. This figure indicates that there is high chance to enhance tourism in this sector as well because Nepal has lots of pilgrimage places for Hindus and Buddhist. So, targeting on the tourists from India and other countries which follow Buddhism, we can develop different packages and make effective advertisement to promote this sector. The advertisement agencies with the help of government can make effective as well as creative advertisement of the tourist places of Nepal. These industries should be able to establish image of the places in the mind of people and persuade them to visit Nepal. Ifwe think about the provision of other countries of Asia, we clearly make pictures and these pictures will persuade us to visit these places. For example, if we are interested to visit Dubai, we make the image of Burj Khalifa, Deserts, Burj Al Arab Hotel and Pam Jumeriah. These places are highly advertised by different media. The government is also aware about the promotion of these places and it is being able to persuade large number of the people to visit Dubai. On the other hand, if we think to visit Malaysia, we can make the picture of twin tower in our mind. Likewise, in context of Nepal as well we should be able to create picture in the mind of the people and create favorable environment for tourists. So, advertisement agencies have great role to show their creativity to make effective and touchy advertisement for the promotion of tourism in Nepal. The following table show the number of tourists in 2017 by age group.

Table 4: Age group of tourists

S. No	Age group	Number	Percentage
1	0-15 years	35,332	3.75
2	16-30 years	2,17,143	23.09
3	31-45 years	2,92,827	31.14
4	46-60 years	2,44,342	25.98
5	61+ years	1,41,316	15.04
	Total	9,40,218	100

Source: Nepal Tourism Statistics 2017

If we overserve the table it is clear that the large number of tourists fall under the age group of 31 to 45 which indicates that young people are interested to visit Nepal, so the advertisement agencies should make attractive advertisement with collaboration with tourism industry to promote tourism activities among this group. If we observe the table, we can see that the people in old age are also interested to visit Nepal for different purpose. About 15.04 percentages of the old aged people above 61 have visited Nepal in 2017.

The above table indicates that there is possibility of tourism in Nepal. Even the old aged people are interested to visit Nepal. So the government should focus on the package related with all age group of the people and develop packages with the help of marketing experts and promote these packages through the help of advertisement. So, advertisement of the tourist areas plays vital role for the development of the tourism sector in Nepal. Nepal in lack of low publicity is not being able to promote tourism as targeted. Nepal is prosperous in tourism having diverse environmental calamities and different terrain; it can attract tourists in all seasons. The government should focus on the promotion of tourism and pay attention towards the facilities to tourists and enhance tourism sector.

CONCLUSION:

Advertising agencies play vital role for the promotion of the goods and services. In context of Nepal advertising agency are centered in Kathmandu Valley and their presence in the remote area is really very low. Advertisement agencies make a type of image in the mind of the people about the tourism destination. Creating image in the tourism sector is one of the effective ways to attract tourists. With the image we can create mental attraction towards the turist destination. So, advertising agencies play vital role to build that image in the mind of possible targets for the tourism sector. So, with the expansion of advertising agencies in Nepal, we have large prosperity for the development of the tourism sector. The government should focus on the promotional advertisement of the tourism sector especially different tourist locations. With the expansion of creative advertisement of different tourist location, we can establish image on the mind of the targeted tourist which persuade them to make image in their mind. One of the effective ways for the advertisement is the advertisement of the destination by tourist themselves to their circle of friends and neighbours. This type of advertisement is one of the remarkable ways to expand tourism sector. To enhance image in the mind of tourist we should focus on the quality of service delivery, effective destination management and infrastructure development as well as connectivity development. In context of Nepal, the tourists are increasing day by day and the government should focus on the different programs to promote the sector.

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Received on 11.06.2019 Modified on 15.09.2019

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2020; 11(1):14-18.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2020.00003.0