Nepali and French tourism entrepreneurs have said Nepal has good potentials to develop canyoning as attractive new tourism product.

French Ambassador to Nepal, Michel Jolivet (second from right) at the press conference organised to promote adventure sports like Canyoning in Nepal, Friday, Mar 02 07. nepalnews.com/rh

In a press conference organised by Nepal Canyoning Association (NCA) in the capital Friday, French envoy to Nepal Michael Jovilet said Nepal had good prospects in promoting canyoning as adventure and sports tourism. France is one of the world-renowned countries for canyoning where the sport was introduced in late 19 th century.

President of the NCA Tilak Lama informed that joint exploration team of Nepal and France had so far identified some 40 canyoning sites in Marshyangdi, Kali Gandaki, Sunkoshi, Bhotekoshi and Langtang areas.

He also said it might take well over two to three years to build up infrastructure, train the human resources and to promote this new product in the international market.

Canyoning consists of walking up the head of a canyon and going down the canyon along the spring, torrent and stream stepping across the blocks, sliding, jumping down the pool, swimming using equipment such as harness, decenter, jummer, carabineer and figure 8. canyoning can be done in dry seasons when rivers, streams or water current goes down.