October sees record tourist arrivals

At a time when Nepal Tourism Year 2011 is only two months away, October tourist arrivals have seen a record high for this year.

October remained the strongest of all in first 10 months of this year with a total 62,712 arrivals, ahead of March (44,431), September (41,331) and April (38,694) on a month-by-month basis, according to the figures released by Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) here today.

"The visitor arrivals totalled 364,115 between January and October, up by 18.4 per cent, compared to the same period last year," the data reveals, adding that Nepal witnessed a sustained growth of 21.9 per cent in the arrivals from the South Asian region during the first ten months of this year compared to the same period last year.

South Asian arriavls growth has boosted the overall visitor arrivals by air to 12 per cent to 62,712 in October compared to the same month last year.

"The arrivals from South Asian region have shown positive growth of 13.7 per cent with Bangladesh (34.7 per cent) and India (17.1 per cent) while arrivals from Pakistan and Sri-Lanka declined by 39.2 per cent and 36.8 per cent, respectively," according to the data.

However, Asia -- other than South Asian region -- saw overall decline of 2.3 per cent in October. Except for Japan (up by 9.2 per cent) and South Korea ( up by 26.1 per cent), almost all the markets declined with China (down by 8.7 per cent), Malaysia (down by 8.9 per cent), Singapore (down by 24.5 per cent) and Thailand (down by 22.4 per cent) compared to the same month last year.

Regarding long haul markets, Europe registered overall positive growth of 14.5 per cent compared to the same month last year with total visitor arrivals of 29,681, highest of all on month-by month basis in 2010, according to the data. "Arrivals from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and UK were up by 29.6 per cent, 56.7 per cent, 18.8 per cent, 19.3 per cent, 42.6 per cent, 7.7 per cent, 19 per cent and seven per cent, respectively," the data reveals.

The figures show increasing trend in the visitor arrivals from Australia ( up by 6.8 per cent) and New Zealand (up by 10.6 per cent) as well. Likewise, the US and Canada, both the markets have registered positive growth of 32 per cent and 28.5 per cent respectively.

A total of 57,663 foreign tourists departed from the TIA in October, whereas 73,868 Nepalis arrived and 51,177 Nepalis departed from TIA in October.

Overall growth

India -- up by 18.1 per cent

China -- up by 44.8 per cent

Germany -- up by 21.8 per cent

France -- up by 18.3 per cent

UK -- up by 7.1 per cent

US -- up by 17 per cent

(Country-wise from January to October)