Tourist arrivals from South Asia declines by 23 percent

Travel BizNews—-
Kathmandu: Around 553,430 tourists visited Nepal in the last 11 months of 2012 via air. This is a growth of 10.4 percent compared to last year. Altogether 501,264 tourists had visited Nepal during January-November of 2011.
According to the figures released by Immigration Office at theTribhuvan International Airport (TIA), visitor arrivals in the month of November 2012, compared to the same month last year, have increased by 2.2% to 59,411 visitors.
Tourist arrivals from South Asia have declined by 23 percent compared to the same month last year. Indian market, considered as a major market, has declined by 21 percent.
A total of 153,318 tourists from India have visited Nepal during January-November this year, whereas the number of Chinese tourists is 48,379 during the period.
Similarly, arrivals from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have witnessed negative growths but Pakistan has registered a positive growth.
Arrivals from Asia (other than South Asia) have recorded a positive growth of 20.9 percent in aggregate. Visitor arrivals from China, one of the fastest growing tourist markets globally and for Nepal, have sustained the growth of 9.6%, compared to the figures in same period in 2011. Similarly, Malaysia (151.4%), Thailand (97.6%), Singapore (31.3%) and Japan (12.5%) have maintained the upward trend. However, arrivals from South Korea (12.2%) have witnessed a negative growth.
European markets have registered overall growth of 3.1%. Arrivals from UK, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Russia have increased by 18.3%, 14.7%, 2.0% and 17.7% respectively. Arrivals from France and Spain have declined by 7.1% and 22.6% respectively compared to the same month last year.
Arrivals from Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America have registered positive growth NTB release states.
A total of 84,729 foreign tourists departed from TIA in November 2012. The number of Nepalese arrivals stood at 72,735 while 68,977 Nepalese departed from TIA in November 2012.