Tourist Arrival Up by 5pc in August

Tourist arrivals to Nepal in the month of August grew by five percent as compared to the arrival figure of same period last year, reflecting marginal recovery in world economy in recent months.

According to figures compiled by Immigration Office at Tribhuvan International Airport and disseminated by Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), a total of 27,676 foreign visitors came to Nepal via air in the month of August. Arrivals from Canada and China rose by 88 and 87 percent to 512 and 1,031 respectively. India, Japan, South Korea, France, Italy, Spain, UK and USA were the major tourist drawing countries for Nepal in the month of August, with India and Spain being the largest and the second largest tourist generating countries for the month of August respectively.

NTB has attributed the rise in tourist arrival for the third consecutive months to marginal improvement observed in some economies across the world.

Among the SAARC countries, arrivals from Bangladesh and Pakistan increased by 23 and 22 percent to 950 and 372 respectively. However, arrivals from India, the largest tourist generating market for Nepal, and Sri Lanka decreased by 10 and 1 percent to 7,145 and 142 respectively.

The overall arrivals from the SAARC countries in the last eight months of 2009 rose by 32 percent to 70,365 as compared to the data of same period last year.

Arrivals from Japan, Singapore and South Korea improved by 27, 44 and 21 percent to 1,521 and 234 and 1,052 respectively. The number of visitors from European market recorded an increment of 11 percent from 8,682 visitors recorded in August last year. Arrivals from France and Italy increased by 9 and 13 percent to 1,116 and 1,296. Likewise, arrivals from Spain and the Netherlands also recorded an increment of 9 and 20 percent respectively.

However, number of tourists from the United Kingdom dipped by 24 percent to 1,637 during the month as compared to arrival figure of same period last year. Arrivals from Europe in the first eight months of 2009 recorded a marginal increment of 0.9 percent to 62,105, compared to the figure of same period last year.

Visitors from the US in the month of August increased to 1,599 from 1,593 in August last year.