Around 40 per cent tourists enter Nepal from India

According to a survey, 429,455 tourists entered Nepal from India using various means of surface transportation in 2009. With the assumption in the survey that only Indians crossing the border by vehicle are to be counted as tourists and also taking into account the third country tourists, it has been estimated that there were at least 298,821 Indian tourists coming to Nepal via land in the year 2009. "The number of third country tourists entering into Nepal from India stood at 130,634," said the recently conducted survey by the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) titled 'Survey of Indian Visitors to Nepal by Land 2009'. The survey has come out with the number of Indian tourists entering Nepal in 2009 from eight major entry points along Nepal-India -- Birgunj, Kakarbhitta, Rani (Biratnagar), Belihiya (Bhairawa), Nepalgunj, Dhangadi, Janakpur (Vittamod), Gaddachowki (Mahendranagar) for an overnight stay or longer. However, it does not include the data of Indian tourists entering Nepal through Tatopani ( Kodari) entry point.

Among the various border points, Belihiya (Bhairawa) was found to have the highest traffic flow of 29 per cent followed by Vittamod (Janakpur) with 20 per cent, Kakarbhitta with 15 per cent, Birgunj with 14 per cent and Kanchanpur with 12 per cent. While the trend for Jeep/Cars was the simlar, Belihiya (Bhairawa) was found to occupy a high share of the Bus traffic with over two-third (68 per cent) of the total Bus traffic. Comparatively, Belihiya (Bhairawa) ranked number one position in terms of flow of visitors volumewith one-third (33 per cent) of the Indian visitors coming into Nepal via land followed by Vittamod (Janakpur), Birgunj and Kakarbhitta with 19 per cent, 17 per cent and 14 per cent respectively. Two-fifth (41 per cent) of the Indian visitors coming via land were found to be using Bus as their mode oftransportation, another 38 per cent were found to be using theirpersonal mode of transportation like Jeeps and Cars. Among Indian visitors coming via land, Belihiya (Bhairawa) accounted for over half (56 per cent)of the Bus traffic followed by Birgunj (15 per cent) and Vittamod (Janakpur 14 per cent). Excluding Kakarbhitta(seven per cent) and Rani (Biratnagar three per cent), there was very little or almost no Bus traffic in the other threeborder points. "So far, the tourism statistics included only the Indian tourists entering Nepal by air and third country tourists entering by air and overland, completely excluding the Indian tourists entering Nepal through the various entry points along Nepal-India broader," it said, adding that as Indian tourists entering Nepal via land are not required to register or go through frontier formalities, the large number of Indian tourists visiting Nepal via land has never been accounted in the available tourist arrivals data. India is one of the fastest-growing outbound travel markets in the world with more than 1.1 billion inhabitants and GDP increasing by more than eight per cent every year and the country offers enormous potential for future growth in outbound travel. "With robust economic growth and impressive developments in Indian tourism in recent years have brought the country as a major force in the world tourism market – both for inbound and outbound tourism," the NTB added. According to United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), in 2007 the total number oftourist arrivals to India was five million and the number of outbound trips byIndian nationals increasedby 17 per cent over 2006 reaching an estimated 9.8 million. Thus, outbound tourism has already overtaken inbound tourism during the same period and is expected to expand further in the coming years. "The average annual growth rate in terms of number of international trips made by Indians during theperiod 2000-2007 was at 11 per cent," according to the UNWTO that has predicted that by 2020 India will account for 50 million outbound visitors, continuing to maintain its growth momentum. Nepal currently receives over half a million visitors in a year of which Indian visitors account for alion’s share with a market share of approximately 20 to 23 per cent.