Tourist arrivals continue to grow

Propelled by the strong growth from India, February has maintained the sustained positive growth in the international visitor arrivals that Nepal has enjoyed since last June.
Data released by Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), revealed that visitor arrivals in February have increased by 12.2 per cent to 37,584, compared to February 2010.
Between January and February, international tourist arrivals to Nepal have risen by 18.4 per cent to 70,498. India recorded a positive growth of 39.9 per cent along with Bangladesh at 14.4 per cent. However, the arrivals from Sri Lanka and Pakistan have declined by 27 per cent and 7.1 per cent, respectively, according to the data compiled by Nepal Tourism Board (NTB). In aggregate, the South Asian segment has registered a positive growth of 31.8 per cent.
Arrivals from Asia -- except South Asia -- have also recorded a positive growth of two per cent in aggregate with mixed performance from individual countries. Visitor arrivals from China have increased by two per cent, whereas Japan, South Korea and Thailand have also recorded an increase of 5.2 per cent, 29.9 per cent and 39.6 per cent, respectively.
However, the arrivals from Malaysia and Singapore declined by 36 per cent and seven per cent, respectively.An overall positive growth of 6.3 per cent has been observed from the European markets with arrivals from major markets such as UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Russia up by 20.1 per cent, 10.6 per cent, three per cent, 44.3 per cent, 71 per cent, 6.9 per cent and 83.8 per cent, respectively.
However, the arrivals from France, Italy and Denmark have declined by 16.2 per cent, 35.8 per cent and 2.8 per cent, respectively, compared to February last year.
The data revealed that the tourist arrivals from Australia and Canada have also increased by 11.4 per cent and 22.4 per cent, respectively, whereas the arrivals from USA and New Zealand saw negative growth of 4.5 per cent and 27.4 per cent, respectively.
A total of 38,183 foreign tourists departed from TIA in February, whereas as many as 54,262 Nepalis arrived in the country and 56,625 Nepalis departed from the TIA in February.

Travel earnings drop
KATHMANDU: Though tourist arrivals have seen a continuous growth, the travel earnings have dropped to Rs 13.51 billion in the first six months (mid-January) of the current fiscal year, compared with the same period last fiscal, when the tourism earnings stood at Rs 16.51 billion.