Tourist arrivals down in Nepal
TBN ————-
Kathmandu: Tourist arrivals in the month of December 2013 by air have decreased by 4.9 per cent, compared to the same month last year.
According to the figures released by the Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport, a total of 42,601 international visitors arrived in Nepal in the month of December 2013 which is less by 2,173 tourists over December 2012. In December 2012, a total of 44,774 tourists have entered Nepal by air.
The SAARC Market has shown a positive growth by 1.6 percent with a total of 13,521 international visitors, who visited Nepal in December 2013 as compared to the total arrival figures 13,302 in December, 2012.
The increment in SAARC region is basically observed in Bangladesh by 40.3 per cent and Sri Lanka by 49.4% as compared to the figures of 2012 of the same month. The negative growth has been recorded in India market by 1.0% and Pakistan by 67.2 % in the figures of December, 2012.
Even though the Asia segment other than SAARC has shown a negative growth by 3.1 % in total, but still some positive indicators of growth have been observed in Malaysia by 10%, Chinese Taipei by 3.2 % and Thailand by 3.3 % with a significant decrease on Chinese arrivals by 9.3 % compared to the figures of December, 2012.
European segment has posted weaker arrival figures and have registered overall negative growth by 8.7 per cent. Arrivals from Belgium, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, and Sweden, have posted positive growths. However arrivals from Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherland the UK, Oceania and America have shown negative growth.
Nepal observed a sustained growth in international tourist arrivals since June 2009 but suffered a decline in the second half of 2013 , NTB release states.
Experts suggest that the decrease in arrivals in November might be due to the inconsistent air fare to and from Nepal to major gateways. Such decline reflects the volatile nature of international tourist’s movement which is easily affected by factors such as cost of traveling, travel season and many other internal and external issues.
