Nepal bucks slowdown trend, sees growth in tourist arrivals

Despite the global economic slowdown, Nepal has enjoyed a sustained growth in the international tourist arrivals, since June 2009. Compared to the same period last year, tourist arrival during May 2010 has increased by 6 per cent to 26,634.

A total of 34,964 foreign tourists departed from the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in May 2010. Arrivals from Nepal's major source markets India and China have registered a double-digit growth. Time and again, this underscores the importance of neighboring and regional markets in terms of increasing the number of visitor arrivals.

Immigration Office at TIA reveals that arrivals from the South Asian region, except for arrivals from Sri Lanka, have gained an overall growth of 6 per cent. Arrivals from Bangladesh stood at 30 per cent and Pakistan at 26.3 per cent. Visitor arrivals from India have increased by 4.3 per cent which showed sustained growth this year, except soft decline in April. Only Sri Lanka recorded a negative growth of 53.7 per cent in its tourist arrival to Nepal.

China, another major source market, also recorded a double-digit growth of 35 per cent. Visitor arrivals from Japan have registered a growth of 13.9 per cent. However arrivals from Asia (other than South Asia) have marginally declined in May 2010 by 3.7 per cent. Visitor arrivals from South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand have registered a negative growth of 14 per cent, 30.3 per cent, 32.7 per cent, and 50 per cent respectively.

European markets registered an overall growth of 10.8 per cent with major source markets showing a positive trend. Markets in the Western Europe have also contributed positively. Arrivals from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Czech Republic and Poland are up by 4.9 per cent, 14.2 per cent, and 47.5 per cent, 12.3 per cent, 20.9 per cent, 75 per cent and 278.6 per cent respectively. However, visitor arrivals from France and Italy have marginally declined by 0.7 per cent and 1.9 per cent respectively while Spain and Sweden are down by 18% and 17.7 per cent respectively.

Arrivals from USA are up by 10.4 per cent but the figures from Australia, New Zealand and Canada have shown a negative growth of 9.8 per cent, 2.9 per cent and 3.2 per cent respectively.