Tranquility Spa hosts wellness tourism programme in Bhairahawa; Minister Paudel pledges to operate GBIA

BHAIRAHAWA: Tranquility Spa recently organised a Wellness Awareness and Wellness Tourism Promotion programme in Bhairahawa. The event was held in association with Spa Association Nepal and with endorsement from the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) at Siddhartha Vilasa on June 19 to promote healthy living and wellness tourism in Lumbini Province.

The programme, held as part of Nepal’s Wellness Tourism Year activities, aimed to raise public awareness of wellness tourism’s potential as a driver of regional tourism growth. Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Khadak Raj Paudel, formally inaugurated the event and spoke about the links between travel, wellbeing and happiness.

Minister Paudel said Nepal’s tourism sector must embrace wellness tourism if it is to progress, and he pledged that the government was working to bring Gautam Buddha International Airport into full regular operation as soon as possible. He noted the country’s target of attracting 10 million tourists and said operationalising both Bhairahawa and Pokhara international airports was essential to reach that goal. He attributed past delays to policy-level shortcomings that were now being addressed and called for stronger tourism promotion to realise the target.

Industry leaders and officials at the inauguration included Suresh Puri, president of Spa Association Nepal; Bhuwan Phaiju, chair of the organising committee; Chandra Prakash Shrestha, president of Siddhartha Hotel Association and a central executive committee member of Hotel Association Nepal (HAN); Deepak Raj Joshi, former CEO of NTB; Narad Gautam, secretary at the Lumbini Province Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Transport; Laxman Neupane, founder and chairman of Siddhartha Hospitality Group; and Nisha Shrestha, co‑chair of the organising committee.

Spa Association Nepal President Puri highlighted the potential of wellness tourism in Nepal and urged greater emphasis on prevention through exercise, yoga and meditation as tools for stress management. He raised concerns that spa and wellness training institutes in Nepal lacked proper government affiliation, arguing that official accreditation would ensure standardised training and government‑verified certification for graduates, improving their competitiveness in the global hospitality sector.

Tranquility Spa said it was now operating at full capacity at Siddhartha Vilasa in Bhairahawa. The company, which began in Lazimpat, Kathmandu, more than 18 years ago, partners with hotels in Kathmandu, Chitwan, Pokhara and in Malaysia. Tranquility Spa reported it employed over 300 professionals and that its training division, Tranquility International Beauty and Spa Academy, had trained more than 3,500 people in certified wellness skills.