Tourism arrival records growth

Strong South Asian visitor arrivals, especially Indian visitors, pushed the overall international tourists arrival by 13.7 per cent to 42,716 by air in February.
The arrivals by air enjoyed a sustained positive growth in the international visitor arrivals, according to the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB).
According to Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) data, all the regions have shown positive growth in the second month of the year. "India that constitutes the major market of Nepal, has recorded a positive growth of 28.8 per cent," it added.However, the arrivals from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have declined by 12.4 per cent, 16 per cent and 23.8 per cent respectively. In aggregate the South Asian segment has registered a positive growth of 20.4 per cent.
Arrivals from Asia (other than South Asia) have also recorded positive growth of 4.3 per cent in aggregate with mixed performance from the individual countries. The visitor arrivals from Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand have increased by 33.2 per cent, 19.8 per cent 31.5 per cent and 7.9 per cent respectively. However the arrivals from China and Singapore declined by 23.1 per cent and 25.3 per cent in February compared to the last February, respectively.
An overall positive growth of 17.5 percent has been observed from the European markets with arrivals from major tourist generating markets like the UK, France, Germany, Italy Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Russia up by 9.8 per cent, 8.8 per cent, 3.0 per cent, 31.2 per cent, 87.9 percent, 42.4 per cent, 34.3 per cent, 35 per cent and 6.8 per cent respectively.
However, the arrivals from the Netherlands and Norway have declined by 20.1 percent and 6.7 per cent respectively compared to the same month last year.
Tourist arrivals from Australia and USA have increased by 18.5 per cent and 10.4 per cent respectively whereas the arrivals from Canada and New Zealand saw negative growth of 5.2 per cent and 34.2 percent respectively. In January-February period of 2012, international tourist arrivals to Nepal have risen by 20.2 percent to 84,747.
A total of 46,499 foreign tourists departed from the international airport in February, whereas some 61,409 Nepalis arrived and some 67,238 departed from the TIA in the month.