Foreign tourist arrival increases

Kathmandu / May 2: Domestic tourism sector is gradually recovering from the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis.

The available data suggests that touristic activities have increased lately. Tourist arrivals from outside the country are on the rise since the beginning of 2022.

According to data from the Nepal Tourism Board, 58 thousand 348 foreign tourists arrived in Nepal alone in April and the figure is 160 per cent more than the corresponding period last year.

Likewise, the country recorded 52, 633 exits during the period. The data shows that 22,450 people visited the country in April 2021.

Lately, the rate of tourist arrivals has reached more than half of the tourist arrivals figure in 2019.

Board director Mani Lamichhane said 109,299 tourists had visited Nepal in April 2019 and since the beginning of 2022, the arrival graph is gradually increasing after a significant fall in the two previous years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The arrival reached 53 per cent of the figure before the pandemic. In the previous month, the country welcomed 42,006 tourists from various countries and it was 16,975 in January followed by 19766 in February.

The Board’s strategic marketing in the international source market and the initiatives of tourism entrepreneurs have contributed to reviving the tourism sector, he argued. RSS