South Asian arrivals propel tourist inflow up

Propelled by the strong and sustained South Asian arrivals by air, the country witnessed a sustained tourist inflow in April.
"Visitor arrivals by air in April have increased by 14.3 per cent — to 59,415 — compared to the same month last year, according to the figures released by Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).
The arrivals from South Asian region have shown positive growth of 35.4 per cent with mixed performance. "The arrivals from India and Pakistan went up by 44.5 per cent and 14.8 per cent, respectively whereas arrivals from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka dropped by 12.9 per cent and 41.2 per cent, respectively," the data compiled by the Nepal Tourism Board revealed, adding that a sustained growth of 36.8 per cent has been observed in the arrivals from the South Asian region
during the first four months of this year compared to the same period last year.
Similarly, Asia — except South Asian region — saw overall rise of 16.7 per cent. Except for Thailand — that dropped by 14.7 per cent — almost all the markets have shown positive trend with China (up by 42.9 per cent), Malaysia (up by 16.8 per cent), Singapore (up by 5.7 per cent) and Japan (up by 13.1 per cent) compared to the same month last year.
"Between January and April, the arrivals from Asia rose by 21.1 per cent compared to the same period last year," it added.
As far as the long haul markets, Europe registered overall positive growth of 3.2 per cent compared to the same month last year with total visitor arrivals of 19,286. "Arrivals from Denmark, Germany, Italy, Russia and Sweden were up by 4.9 per cent, 5.5 per cent,115.8 per cent, 83.1 per cent and 4.7 per cent, respectively," it said, adding that the Netherlands, France, UK were some of the major markets to register negative growths in April.
The figures show increasing trend in the visitor arrivals from Australia ( up by 4.7 per cent) whereas the arrivals from New Zealand dropped by 9.5 per cent. However, the US and Canada, both the markets have registered positive growth of 9.8 per cent and 39.1 per cent, respectively.
Overall in the four months period of January-April, India grew at an average of 43.9 per cent, China (up by 38.3 per cent), Germany (40.3 per cent), France (up by 8.4 per cent), UK (up by four per cent) and US (up by 10.7 per cent).
The visitor arrivals totaled 207,961 between January and April, up by 23.1 per cent compared to the same period last year as the country received a total of 39,003 more tourists between January and April this year in comparison to the same period last year.
A total of 67,810 foreign tourists departed from the international airport in April, whereas some 58,483 Nepalis arrived and some 72,726 Nepalis departed from the Tribhuvan International Airport in April.