Indian visitors lead tourist inflow

Propelled by Indian visitors, tourist arrivals by air recorded a robust growth in the first seven months of 2012.
"Out of the total 332,472 visitors in the seven months of this year, Indian visitors numbered 112,165, which is one third of the total tourist arrivals," revealed the figures released by Immigration Office at Tribhuwan International Airport here today.
Total visitor arrivals by air posted a growth of 18.5 per cent on aggregate to reach 332,472 for the period between January to July, as compared to the same period the previous year, according to the data compiled by Nepal Tourism Board
Similarly, July also recorded a 9.2 per cent growth — 38,453 — as compared to the same month last year, it said, adding that arrivals from the South Asian region had an overall positive growth of 18.3 per cent with mixed performance.
"Arrivals from India and Pakistan increased by 24.3 per cent and 27.1 per cent, respectively, whereas arrivals from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka declined by 34.2 per cent and 44.6 per cent respectively," it said.
Visitor arrivals from Asia — except South Asia — also recorded a positive growth of 8.5 per cent, with China at 27.2 per cent, Japan 28.4 per cent and Malaysia 19.4 per cent.
However arrivals from Singapore, South Korea and Thailand registered negative growths of 23.2 per cent, 9.1 per cent and 58 per cent, respectively.
Among the long-haul markets, Europe registered an overall positive growth of five per cent with major source markets showing a positive trend in terms of visitor arrivals.
"Arrivals from Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Spain recorded a positive growth of 35.1 per cent, 43.7 per cent, 7.8 per cent, 5.1 per cent and 3.5 per cent, respectively," according to the data. "But arrivals from the UK, Italy and Belgium were down by 5.6 per cent, 14.9 per cent and 2.1 per cent, respectively."
Similarly, arrivals from Canada and the US also registered a positive growth of 9.2 per cent and 4.5 per cent, respectively, but Australian visitors decreased by 5.4 per cent, though New Zealand posted a positive growth of 50.6 per cent.
A total of 43,969 foreign tourists departed from Tribhuwan International Airport in July, whereas some 73,193 Nepalis departed and 50,862 arrived through the international airport, it added.