Tourist arrivals silghtly down

The arrival of tourists from the countries other than India via the transit point of Belahiya of Rupandehi slightly declined in the first seven months of this year as compared to the same period last year. Altogether 66,128 tourists other than the Indians came through the transit point from January to July this year. The number stood at 66,524 during the same period last year. The main destination of the tourists coming via this route was Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Budhha. The record of tourists´ arrival via this route shows decrease this year after a steady rise in the recent years, according to officials. An immigration officer at Belahiya Ram Prasad Gyawali said that the recent blast at Bodhagaya in India, the place where Lord Buddha attained his enlightenment, was also responsible for the decrease in the tourist arrival. Mostly the Buddhists from Sri Lanka, Thaliand and Myanmar visit Lumbini. Thai visitors top the number of country-wise visitors from this route. Altogether 19,729 Thai nationals entered Nepal this year vias Belahiya route. The number of tourists from Sri Lanka stood 15,442. Likewise, 12,796 Burmese and 3,428 Koreans also came through this route. Number of Dutch and British tourists arriving through this route stood at 1,030 and 976, respectively.