Tourist arrival up by 12.5pc in first 6 months this year

Kathmandu / June 21: The Department of Immigration says a total of 68,825 international tourists visited Nepal in May 2018, with a healthy increment of 9.6 per cent as compared to the arrival figures of May 2017.

With this, the arrival figures in the period of January to May reached 454,855, an increase of 12.5 per cent over the same period last year.

The arrivals from India grew by 8.6 per cent in May in comparison to the figures of the same month last year. Similarly, the overall arrivals from the SAARC countries registered a positive growth of 2.2 per cent. However, the number of visitors from Bangladesh has decreased by 49.3 per cent.

Visitor arrivals from China continue to soar as in the previous months and grew by 25.2 per cent in May in comparison to the same month last year. Arrivals from Asian countries other than SAARC have also recorded positive growth of 14.2 per cent. Likewise, the visitors from Thailand and Singapore to Nepal also increased by 62.1 per cent and 11.3 per cent respectively.

An overall decrease of 18 per cent in May has been recorded in the European market as compared to the same month last year. However, France and Germany gained 26.8 per cent and 49 per cent of increment respectively, while the arrivals from the UK slightly declined by 7.4 per cent.

Tourist arrivals from Australia and New Zealand in May 2018, have also increased by 10.4 per cent and 28.7 per cent respectively in comparison to last year. Likewise, visitors from USA and Canada have also grown by 7.4 per cent and 5.3 per cent respectively. RSS