Thursday, December 13, 2018

Nepal sees record 1 million foreign tourists in a year

Nepal witnessed a record tourist arrival this year. The country hosted over the much awaited mark of one million annual arrivals in the 11 months of 2018. "The foreign tourists by air touched 1,001,930 with cumulative increase of 17 per cent over the same period in 2017," according to Nepal Tourism Board (NTB).
According to the board, for the first time in history foreign tourist arrivals from January to November in 2018 has crossed over a million. "The figures do not include the number of overland international visitors to Nepal in October and November this year."
Nepal saw arrival of 940,218 foreign tourists in 2017.
NTB chief executive officer Deepak Raj Joshi remarked that the image of Nepal as one of the most preferred tourist destinations has been reinforced with an extraordinary growth in the visitor arrivals to Nepal, according to a press note issued by the board.
It is a good news as the country is starting Visit Nepal Year 2020 campaign, he said, adding that India and China – the largest source markets for Nepali tourism industry as always in last some years – led in terms of sending more tourists in Nepal. Nepal welcomed a total of 260,124 Indian visitors during the 11 months of 2018 while Cina sent 134,362 visitors during the same period.
The US, Britain and Germany came third, fourth and fifth in terms of sending tourists as of November in 2018. Likewise, the number of American Tourists, which stood at 73,650 in 2017, surged to 82,870 in 11 months of 2018. Tourists from the UK increased to 57,555 from 50,652 in 2017, while German tourists visiting Nepal also grew to 34,479 from 28,702 in 2017. The number of Australians visitors to Nepal in January-November period stood at 33,528.
"Even if overland arrival figures of last year are assumed to be constant, overall growth in January-November period has been 23 per cent,” the NTB press note reads, adding that the arrival of European tourists has also surged in 11 months of 2018. "The total European arrivals in January-November period in 2018 reached 224,206."
"It can also be attributed to the concerted efforts of the government, NTB, private sector and media towards promotion of overall tourism sector in the international tourism arena," Joshi added.
The government targets to bring two million foreign tourists to the country by the Visit Nepal Year 2020.
Though the government is yet to come out with Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), the travel and tourism sector alone contributed about 7.8 per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP) last year.

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