Nepal : International tourist arrivals up in September

Kathmandu ,October 1 : International tourist arrivals to Nepal have risen by 15.2 per cent to 426,118 during January-September period of 2012.The upward trend continues in the nine month of the year 2012 showing clearly the rising travel demand towards the destination.

Nepal has enjoyed a sustained positive growth in the international visitor arrivals since June 2009.

The figures released by Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) reveal that visitor arrivals in the month of September 2012, compared to the same month last year, have increased by 7.2% to 49,075.

All regions have shown positive growth in this month of 2012. The arrivals from South Asian region, have gained overall positive growth of 2.4 per cent to 13,528.
India which constitutes the major market of Nepal, has recorded robust growth of 13.1 %.to 11,671.The total number of tourists from India during January-September is 138,143.

Visitor arrivals from Sri Lanka have gained positive growth with 28.5%. However, visitor arrivals from Bangladesh and Pakistan have shown negative growth.
India, which is the largest source market for Nepal, has been increasing since the very beginning of 2010.

A robust growth of 19.7% ( 156,007)has been observed in the arrivals from the South Asian region during the first nine months of 2012, in comparison to the same period last year.

Arrivals from Asia (other than South Asia) have also recorded positive growth of 19.3% in aggregate. Visitor arrivals from China, one of the fastest growing tourist markets for Nepal, have sustained the remarkable growth of 17.1% to 5881, compared to the figures in same period.

A total of 37085 Chinese tourists have visited Nepal during nine months of this year.

Similarly, other Asian countries maintained the upward trend of previous months with Malaysia (136.6%), South Korea (26%) and Singapore (2.9%). However, arrivals from Japan and Thailand have witnessed negative growth.

An overall positive growth of 2.6% has been observed from the European markets with arrivals from France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Russia up by 8.8%, 23.4%, 2.5%, and 3.3% respectively. However, the arrivals from Spain, Switzerland and Italy have declined by 7.8%, 7.6% and 30% respectively compared to the same month last year.

According to a release of Nepal Tourism Board ,tourist arrivals from Australia, New Zealand, USA have increased by 39.8%, 4.2%, and 3.8% respectively.

A total of 43,689 foreign tourists departed from TIA in September 2012. The number of Nepalese arrivals stood at 61,369 while 65615 Nepalese departed from TIA in September 2012.