Kathmandu, August 10th, 2026
More than 40 leaders of the tourism industry of Nepal participated on the first Meaningful Tourism & AI workshop on August 10th, 2026, organised by the MTIL Meaningful Tourism Innovation Lab Nepal.
They listened to presentations by the co-directors of the MTIL Nepal, Prof Dr Wolfgang Georg Arlt and Suman Baral, and discussed in workgroups the practical application of the Meaningful Tourism tools for their own companies and organisations and for the whole country.
Co-director of MTIL Meaningful Tourism Innovation Lab Nepal, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt, is the Executive Director of the MTC Meaningful Tourism Centre, living since two years in Nepal. MTC, registered in London, agreed on a cooperation with I.Stem Lab, based in Lalitpur. He brings international tourism working experience of more than four decades and more than 50 countries to the table.
MTIL Meaningful Tourism Innovation Labs are existing in a growing number of countries in Africa and Asia. They are all promoting the development of a Meaningful Tourism Economy, providing practical tools for companies and organisations to create the official vision of PATA Pacific Asia Travel Association: A Meaningful Pacific-Asia Tourism Economy.
On August 10th, 2026, the workshop laid the foundation for this process, providing the tools of Meaningful Tourism, based on the insight that all stakeholders from host communities to the environment, need benefits and satisfaction from tourism to be able to provide quality and to attract the right kind of international customers.
Co-director and AI expert Suman Baral added valuable information on how Artificial Intelligence can be integrated into a Meaningful Tourism approach to guarantee visibility in the international market, quality control and more efficient ways of work and promotion.
The participants had to exercise not only their ears, but also their brains in four different workgroups creating practical solutions with the help of Meaningful Tourism tools for topics ranging from luxury to wellbeing tourism and from rural development to effective application of AI instruments.
The dates for the next workshops in September, November and December 2026 are already fixed. Several participants were interested to go further in the practical application of the Meaningful Tourism approach for their companies and business projects.
Prof. Dr. Arlt: “A 1,000 mile journey starts with the first step. Nepal’s tourism can use the opportunity to leapfrog directly from old-fashioned sightseeing packages to transformational customised experiences. Meaningful Tourism can offer jobs and can support local cultures in rural areas, reducing the movement of young people away from the countryside and out of the country. Nepal is currently using just 3% of its tourism potential, this can be changed with the right strategy.”
For further information, photos, interview requests etc., please contact us at
info@meaningfultourismcentre.org, or by telephone 976 856 6567.