Having over three decades in the hospitality industry, Shreejana Rana, the executive director at Hotel Annapurna, becomes a first woman to elect president of Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN).

Having started at the ITC Welcome Group in the 1980s before joining Hotel Annapurna, Rana was unanimously elected by the 46th annual general meeting of HAN. The meeting also unanimously elected a new executive committee under the presidency of Rana, executive director of Hotel Annapurna.

The HAN AGM also elected Binayak Shah to the post of senior vice president and Prabeen Bahadur Pandey as second vice president. Sajan Shakya was elected as general secretary and Vishal Kumar as treasurer, along with 25 executive members.

The members of the board are; Amarman Shakya immediate past president of Amar hotel , Dinesh Bahadur Bista of Soaltee Hotel Limited, Bidhata Shrestha of Oriental Hotel Ltd/ Radisson Hotel, Dinesh Tuladhar of Hotel Himalaya, Binod Shankar Shrestha of Hotel Shankar, Biplav Poudel of Barahi resort, Gopal Rana of Dreamland Gold resort, Tseten Tsatultsang of Shambala Hotel , Ram Kumar Puri of Hotel Kamal Pvt.Ltd, Youbraj Shrestha of Hotel Crown Plaza, Thakur Prasad Pokharel of Hotel Gansh Himal, Rajendra Bhatta of Hotel Yambu, Gyandra Kimar Bist of Hotel rainforest, Rajan Shrestha of Hotel Swagatam, Rahul Shakya of Club Himalaya , Hem Bahadur Gurung of Manang Hotel, CP Shrestha of Siddhartha Hotel Association , Asit Shamsher Janga Bahadur Rana of Sneha Hotel, Rahul Choudary of Meghauli serai C G Safari and tours/ travels, and Bhataraj Parajuli of RHAN Pokhara.

Follower of Sri Sadguru and Sri Sri Ravi Shanker, Rana expressed her commitment to work for betterment of hospitality sector and the entire tourism sector of the country.

Started her career in the hospitality industry with ITC Welcome group in the 1980’s, she worked with them for seven years. After returning to Nepal, she married Kapil SJB Rana, the current Chairman of Hotel Annapurna, whose family has over 50 years of experience in the hospitality industry. She joined Hotel Annapurna in 2008.

An active social worker, Rana has worked for many years for the empowerment of women. She was a member of Women Entrepreneur Association, member of the SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneurs Council (SCWEC) for 12 years and is a member of the Association of St. Mary’s Alumnae Nepal (ASMAN). Besides, she also served the Executive Member of Nepal-India Chamber of Commerce & Industry (NICCI).

Rana was born to late Kiranendu Malla and late Kendra R L Malla, she trained in Hotel Management and Tourism with ITC Welcome Group for six years after completing A level.

She is also the Vice Chairperson of Jayanti Memorial Trust which is working to make cardiac care available to all Nepalis. HAN newly elected President Srijana Rana pledged to come up with programmes to coordinate efforts with the government to make Visit Nepal 2020 a success. The government aims to attract 2 million tourists in 2020 under the campaign.

Deputy Prime Minister Ishwor Pokharel has said the government has accorded special importance to the development of tourism, an important base for the country's economic prosperity. "Infrastructure construction will be prioritised for tourism development,"

According to RSS, Deputy Prime Minister Pokharel said while inaugurating the 46th annual general assembly of the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN. Promotional activities would be initiated in collaboration between the government and private sector to make the government's 'Visit Nepal Year, 2020' a success, he said. DPM Pokharel said that budget for the new fiscal year would be made in accordance with the policy and programmes for the fiscal year 2019/20.

According to him, the proposed policy and programmes had attached priority to development of physical infrastructures, tourism, agriculture and energy. Acting Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Suresh Acharya shared that managerial works relating to enhancing capacity of the Nepal Aviation