Sustained Increase in Tourist Visitor to Nepal

Press Release
May 2, 2010

The figures released by Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) reveal that visitor arrivals in the month of April 2010, compared to the same month last year, have increased by 2.3% to 38,694.

The arrivals from South Asian region, except for the arrivals from India and Sri Lanka, have gained overall positive growth of 4.9% with Bangladesh (71.2%) and Pakistan (35.1%) registering positive growth. Visitor arrivals from India, which is the largest source market for Nepal, which registered sustained growth since the beginning of 2010, witnessed soft decline by 2.6%. Visitor arrivals from Sri Lanka have declined by 21.5%. A robust growth of 15.9% has been observed in the arrivals from the South Asian region during the first four months of 2010, in comparison to the same period last year.

In April 2010, there has been sustained growth of 45.3% in visitor arrivals from China which is one of the fastest growing tourist markets for Nepal. Similarly arrivals from Asia (other than South Asia) have maintained the upward trend. Visitor arrivals from Malaysia and South Korea, have registered a positive growth of 14.2%, and 20.3% respectively. Visitor arrivals in the first four months of 2010 from Asia (other than South Asia), as compared to the same period last year, have grown by 32.4% in aggregate.

The figures also show increasing trend in the visitor arrivals from the United States of America and Canada with a growth of 3% and 8.3% respectively. However Australia and New Zealand have registered negative growth by 15% and 9.3% respectively.

European markets registered negative growth of 5.5% with major destinations showing mixed reaction in terms of visitor arrivals. Arrivals from Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Poland and Russia are up by 5.7%, 61.4%, 4%, 15.5%, 67.2% and 11.6% respectively.

However, other destinations in Western Europe have posted weaker arrivals figures.
Arrivals from the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands have declined by 15.1%, 3.9%, and 11.2% respectively.

This is the eleventh consecutive month Nepal has witnessed growth in the international tourist arrivals and this confirms the improved prospects for Nepal in the year 2010 with rising business and consumer confidence. In the first four months of 2010 a robust 21% of cumulative growth has been observed in comparison to the same period last year.

A total of 49,096 foreign tourists departed from TIA in April 2010.The number of Nepalese arrivals stood at 50,672 while 66,757 Nepalese departed from TIA in April 2010.