Friday, June 1, 2012

Bandhs could not deter tourist arrivals


Though upward trend of visitor arrivals by air, which has seen sustained growth has slowed down due to disturbances in the country in May, the country witnessed a growth of 9.3 per cent to 42,820 in May compared to the same month last year, according to the figures released by Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).
The South Asia maintained a sustained growth of 13.9 per cent due to growth from India in the month, though the country observed a growth of 30 per cent in regional arrivals during the first five months from January to May compared to the same period of the last year. Similarly, between January to May, the total international tourist arrivals by air increased by 20.5 per cent — compared to the same period last year — to 250,781.
India, which constitutes the major market of Nepal, has recorded robust growth of 16.1 per cent to 20,138 visitors compared to the same month a year ago, whereas visitor arrivals from Sri Lanka gained six per cent and Bangladesh 1.1 per cent, while arrivals from Pakistan declined by 32.5 per cent, the data revealed.
Similarly, one of the fastest growing tourist markets for Nepal, China also sustained a growth of 10.2 per cent compared to the same period last year.
Asian countries — except South Asia — also maintained the upward trend with Japan (26.8 per cent, Malaysia (31 per cent), but South Korea, Singapore and Thailand registered negative growths in April leading to negative growth of 2.2 per cent in aggregate.
An overall positive growth of 8.3 per cent has been observed from the European markets with arrivals from UK, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Russia and Czech Republic up by 9.2 per cent, 17.9 per cent, 11.2 per cent, 8.5 per cent, 5.1 per cent, 104.1 per cent, 24.8 per cent and 41.2 per cent, respectively. However, the arrivals from Switzerland, Italy, Norway and Austria have declined marginally compared to the same month last year.
Tourist arrivals from Australia and USA posted growth of nine per cent and 12.3 per cent, respectively while arrivals from New Zealand and Canada declined compared to the same month last year.
A total of 56,363 foreign tourists departed from the international airport in May, whereas some 52,591 Nepalis arrived and 73,359 Nepalis departed from the Tribhuwan International Airport in May.

The arrivals via air
January — 42,031
February — 42,716
March — 63,799
April — 59,415
May — 42,820
(Source: Nepal Tourism Board)

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