Nepal, June 8 -- Nepal has spent decades defining itself as a country that others should want to engage with on account of its mountains, its geography and its spiritual heritage. That representation isn't incorrect; however, it has been passive. When a country solely relies on its geographic attributes to entice visitors, it remains at the mercy of how others choose to value those attributes. It is time to focus on the ability to oversee and leverage the conditions that determine who arrives, from where and to what end.

At the heart of this transformation lies the integration of tourism, trade logistics and connectivity into a unified national framework. Diplomacy in trade and tourism implies going beyond standard bilateral agreements a...