Tourist arrival posts sustained growth

A robust arrivals from South Asian region and China pushed the total tourist arrivals up in August.
"A growth of 20 per cent has been observed in the arrivals from the South Asian region during the first eight months of 2010 compared to the same period last year," reveals Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) data. "There has been substantial growth of 68.3 per cent in visitor arrivals from China."
Tourist arrival for the month of August observed an increment of 24.3 per cent compared to same month last year. According to the Immigration Office, TIA, the number of tourist has increased to 34,415 during August.
The arrivals from South Asian region have gained overall positive growth of 34.9 per cent with Bangladesh (51.6 per cent), India (35.1 per cent), and Sri Lanka (57 per cent) registering positive growth. Visitor arrivals from Pakistan have declined by 20.2 per cent.
The visitor arrivals from Asia (other than South Asian region) have maintained the upward trend. The region has recorded double digit growth of 27.7 per cent. There has been substantial growth of 68.3 per cent in visitor arrivals from China which is one of the fastest growing tourist markets for Nepal. Visitor arrivals from Malaysia (85.7 per cent) and South Korea (28.6 per cent) have registered positive growths. However arrivals from Japan, Singapore and Thailand have registered negative growths of 5.3 per cent, 32.9 per cent and 9.7 per cent respectively.
Meanwhile, among the long-haul markets, Europe registered overall positive growth of 18.9 per cent with major source markets showing positive trend in terms of visitor arrivals. Arrivals from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, UK up by 2.6 per cent, 22.3 per cent, 18.1 per cent, 41 per cent, 101.3 per cent, 106.6 per cent, 15 per cent, 71 per cent, and 15.5 per cent respectively. A growth of 18 per cent has been observed in the arrivals from the European region during the first eight months of 2010, in comparison to the same period last year.
The data reveals increasing trend in the visitor arrivals from Australia and New Zealand with a growth of 16.8 per cent and 28.1 per cent respectively. Similarly the United States of America has registered positive growth of 16.8 per cent while Canada posted negative growth of 17.8 per cent.
A total of 40,908 foreign tourists departed from TIA in August.The number of Nepalis arrivals stood at 49,379 while 63,173 Nepalis departed from TIA in August, states the TIA data.