Nepal deports 'The Serpent'

Nepal today deported the French national Charles Sobhraj, who is notoriously known as 'The Serpent' or 'bikini killer'.

Amid tight security, the Immigration Department saw Sobhraj off at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) as he boarded Doha-bound Qatar Airways flight QR 647 at 6 pm to fly back to France. 

The French Embassy in Kathmandu provided necessary travel documents for the deportation of the 78-year-old Sobhraj, who was freed from the Central Jail at Sundhara in Kathmandu today afternoon, after serving 19 years behind the bars.

He is scheduled to land in Doha at 9:30 pm, from where he will fly to Paris on another Qatar Airways flight QR41 at 1:25 am to land in Paris at 6:35 am on Saturday morning. "I will celebrate Christmas in France," he is quoted saying to the immigration officials.

Sobhraj will be barred from entering Nepal for the next ten years, according to joint secretary and spokesperson of Home Ministry Fanindra Mani Pokharel.

The septuagenarian was taken to the TIA immediately from the Immigration Department after getting travel document from the French Embassy in Kathmandu. Though, the Supreme Court, on Wednesday, has ordered the government to deport him within 15 days, the Home Ministry today directed the Immigration Department, that was preparing to keep him in Dillibazar Prison in case his paperwork delayed, to deport Sobhraj immediately today, due to security threat.

The Central jail that had planned to release him yesterday had also postponed it for today saying that some official procedures were not complete to set him free from prison, and there is no secure place in Immigration Department to keep him.

According to Wednesday's Supreme Court order, Charles Sobhraj needs to be sent back to his country in the next 15 days. Sobhraj, also wanted to spend some more time in Kathmandu and undergo medical treatment for his heart problems. "But due to security reasons, we could not fulfil his wishes," a source at the Home Ministry said.

After being released from Central jail and handed over to the Immigration Department today afternoon, he refused to meet anyone, including journalists, his lawyer Sakuntala Thapa and alleged wife Nihita Bishwas, who had been trying to get him out of the jail from the beginning.

Sobhraj’s lawyers had long been demanding the court’s intervention for clemency. In different petitions they had demanded a waiver of his jail sentence, citing provisions of Clause 12 (1) of the Senior Citizens Act 2063. According to Nepal law, inmates, who have shown good character and completed 75 per cent of their jail term to be released.

A joint bench of Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla and Til Prasad Shrestha hearing a habeas corpus petition lodged by Sobhraj ordered his release on Wednesday, if he need not be jailed for another case, and added that arrangements be made to return the French citizen back to his country within 15 days.

Sobhraj pointed in his petition that he has already served 19 years and is 78 years old.  

Kathmandu and Bhaktapur district courts had found him guilty in murder of American and Canadian citizens in 1975. He was ruled to have murdered American citizen Connie Jo Bronzich in Manohara of Kathmandu and then Canadian national Laurent Carrière two days later in Sanga of Bhaktapur in December 1975.

The Supreme Court in 2010 had endorsed the life sentence slapped on him by the Kathmandu District Court. The Bhaktapur District Court had then sentenced him for the murder of Canadian national in 2014. He has been at the Central Jail in Sundhara, Kathmandu since his arrest in Kathmandu in 2003.

Sobhraj, who was freed after the Supreme Court ruled in favour of his age and good behaviour, was arrested in Kathmandu in 2003 on charges of traveling with a false passport and also for the murders of American tourist Connie Jo Boronzich (29) and Canadian Laurent Carrière (26) in 1975. But he had been denying the charges and threatening to sue international media including BBC and Nepal government for falsely implicating him.

Linked to a string of murders throughout Asia in the 1970s, the son of Indian and Vietnamese parents, Sobhraj has been charged to more than 20 killings between 1972 and 1982, in which the victims were drugged, strangled, beaten, or burned, across many countries, including Thailand and India, in Asia.

Before his two convictions in Kathmandu, Sobhraj had already spent two decades in jail in India for poisoning a busload of French tourists.

October sees 10 per cent growth in tourist arrival

Fuelled with strong Chinese arrivals, a total tourist arrivals increased by 10 per cent in October compared to the same month last year.
“A total of 143,870 tourists arrived in the country in October, whereas the number stood at 130,745 last year,” according to Nepal Tourism Board (NTB). “A total of 975,557 visitors arrived in Nepal in the first ten months of 2019,” it informed, adding that of which, some 123,267 visitors entered the country by air and 155,058 came overland.
Likewise, Chinese tourists have the biggest share occupying 10.45 per cent of the total arrival followed by Indian with 8.83 per cent share. The tourist arrival from India increased by 9.1 per cent and reached 12,707 compared to the figures of last October. But the number of tourists from South Korea decreased by 20.1 per cent during the review month as only 3,032 South Koreans visited Nepal compared to a total 3,793 last October.
Likewise, some 2,786 tourists from Bangladesh visited Nepal in October, which is 58.6 per cent more than the arrivals last year. The overall arrivals from SAARC countries recorded a growth of 7 per cent in October in comparison to last October. “A total of 169,952 Indians and 19,279 Bangladeshi nationals visited Nepal in the first ten months of 2019,” the board press note reads, adding that the total arrival of Chinese tourists stood at 134,281 in the first ten months. “Some 122,986 Chinese visited Nepal in the 10 months of last year.”
A total of 21,720 visitors from SAARC countries and 28,789 from Asia visited in the 10 months of the 2019. “Likewise, the European arrivals also surged with sustained growths from the key markets with 42,297 total arrivals in October,” it informed, adding that arrivals from the United Kingdom, Germany and France in October 2019 were 8,672, 7,308, and 6,777 respectively. “Total European visitors in first ten months of 2019 reached 199,003.”
Similarly, the total number of American visitors to Nepal in October stood at 12,109, whereas a total US arrival reached 77,798 – an increase by 5 per cent compared to the figures of last year – in first ten months from January to October of 2019. “The numbers of Australian and Canadian visitors to Nepal in October were 5,625 and 2,624, respectively.”
Nepal has been carrying out promotional activities for the Visit Nepal Year 2020 campaign aiming at hosting 2 million guests. But the two-day state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Kathmandu in October has lifted the hopes of the tourism industry which expect a surge of Chinese tourist arrivals to Nepal in the days ahead. Foreign tourist arrivals in Nepal crossed the 1 million mark in 2018 for the first time with 1.17 million tourists streaming into the country.

Nepal plans to sign ASA with Australia, Canada

Nepal and Australia are planning to sign an air service agreement (ASA) at the ongoing 40th session of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Assembly in Montreal of Canada, permitting domestic code sharing in Nepal and direct flights between the two countries.
Under the domestic code-share agreement, Australian carriers will be free to enter into code-share agreements with Nepali domestic carriers to any point in Nepal, according to Tourism Ministry. The cabinet – last Thursday – had approved the Tourism Ministry's proposal to sign the air service agreement with Australia. “The government is also planning to sign ASA with Canada.”
The Australian government has expressed willingness to permit seven weekly flights to key cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, according to the Tourism Ministry. “But the Australia has proposed providing unlimited flights to other destinations.”
Nepal will also allow seven weekly flights by Australian carriers to Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the ministry informed, adding that Australian carriers will be permitted to operate another 28 weekly services to new airports in Bhairahawa and Pokhara.
Nepal is the third largest source of foreign students to Australia after China and India. Kathmandu is currently Sydney’s largest unserved market globally, with 93,000 people travelling between Nepal’s capital and Australia's largest city annually. But Nepalis are flying via somewhere else. Thus Nepal has been making efforts to sign an ASA with Australia for the last three years. The Tourism Ministry had requested the Australian government to allow 14 weekly flights with any type of aircraft. Sydney-Kathmandu is 5,253 nautical miles or 9,728 kilometres.
Nepal Airlines is also planning to fly to Australia after acquiring two long-range Airbus A330-200s as the current aircraft will not be able to fly non-stop to Australia. “But Nepal Airlines can fly to Australia through a third party code-share agreement,” the Ministry added. “The third party code share is rights granted through a bilateral agreement under which the code is shared between an airline of the bilateral partners and an airline from a country other than the bilateral partner.”
The preferred route between Nepal and Australia is through Guangzhou, China.
The direct flight will also help bring more Australian tourists to Nepal. Nepal received 38,429 Australian visitors last year, up from 33,371 in 2017, according to the data. “In 2014 before the earthquake, some 24,516 Australian tourists visited Nepal.”
Since 1963, Nepal has signed air service agreements with 39 countries, with Cambodia being the latest signatory. On Saturday, tourism minister Yogesh Bhattarai and UAE Minister for Economy Bin Saeed Al Mansoori signed the revised ASA on behalf of their respective governments in Canada on the sidelines of the 40th session of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Assembly being held in Montreal.
Nepal and the UAE had signed the ASA in 1999 for the first time.
Likewise, the government is also in the process of negotiating with the Thai government to revise the old ASA, which was signed in 1971 to operate daily flights to Thailand. 

Nepali team departs to China for revision of ASA

Nepal and China is scheduled to hold discussions – on Thursday and Friday – on revising the air services agreement (ASA).
A Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) team – led by joint secretary Suresh Acharya – left for China today to hold discussions on revising the ASA, according to the ministry that has prepared to ask the northern neighbour to allow Nepali airliners to fly to Chinese cities.
Currently, Chinese airlines have direct flights to Nepal, whereas not a single Nepali airline flies to China directly, though the number of Chinese flights coming to Nepal has reached 70 per week. Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has started the process to operate flights to China, whereas Himalaya Airlines also unveiled its plan to fly to China. Howvere, they have not got any slots to fly to China against the ASA between the two neighbours.
Earlier, the two countries had signed bilateral ASA in 2014, under which both countries were allowed to operate 56 flights a week in any airport of the respective countries. Due to the agreement, Chinese airline companies including Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, Sichuan Airlines and Tibet Airlines are operating direct flights to Nepal from China, but Nepali Airlines have been ‘barred’ technically to fly to China.
The national flag carrier – a month ago – had submitted all the required documents to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to operate direct flights to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in China. But the Chinese authorities had mentioned that they will first need to conduct a safety audit before permitting NAC to operate flights to the northern neighbour.
The NAC is ready for safety audit as a Chinese team is coming to Kathmandu in October for the safety audit.
Though, China is a very significant market for the Nepali tourism industry, failure of the Nepali Airlines to fly to China has hit the number of Chinese tourists – who are the second largest travellers to Nepal – also in the wake of Visit Nepal 2020.

Himalayan Airlines to begin Kathmandu-Dhaka flight from tomorrow

The Himalayan Airlines – one of the private carriers in the country – is going to start its Kathmandu-Dhaka flight from tomorrow.
The Airlines, which has a fleet of three new Airbus 320-200, will start its direct flight in the route to facilitate the influx of Bangladeshi tourists visiting Nepal. According to Himalaya Airlines' vice-president Bijaya Shrestha, there would be three Kathmandu-Dhaka flights in a week.
According to him, the Himalayan Airline's aircraft with H9 678 call sign will fly from Kathmandu at 11:10 am local time and will land at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 13:10 pm according to their local time.
The same day aircraft with call sign H9 679 will fly from Dhaka at 2:10 pm local time of Bangladesh and will land at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) at 3:20, he said, adding that the Airlines will operate its A320-214 narrow-bodied aircraft in the Kathmandu-Dhaka route with 150 economy class and eight premium economy class seats.
The airlines have offered 25 kg of free checked-in baggage allowance in the economy class and 20 kg in the premium economy. It is currently operating regular flights to three destinations in Qatar as well.
A total of 26,255 Bangladeshi tourists visited Nepal in 2018 while the number of Bangladeshi tourists visiting Nepal in 2017 stood at 29,060, according to the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB).

Tourist arrivals up, income down

Income from the travel sector under the service account increased by 9.7 per cent in the first 11 months of the last fiscal year 2018-19, but the tourist arrivals has increased by more than the income.
According to central bank, Nepal earned a total of Rs 68.63 billion from the travel industry against Rs 62.57 billion in the same period of a fiscal year ago. In 2018, a total of 1.17 million tourists visited Nepal via both air and land routes while a total of 585,531 tourists have visited Nepal in first half of 2019.
Though, the tourist income has been increasing, the average length of stay of tourists and their per day spending has declined. According to the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) statistics 2018 published by the Tourism Ministry, the average length of stay stands at 12 days, while the average per day spending per tourist has dropped to $44.
The average spending of tourists in the country has also dropped by 22.73 per cent in 2018, the data revealed, adding that the three-year development plan (2016- 2018) had aimed to increase the length of stay of foreigners to 14 days by 2018, which ranged from eight to 13.5 days in the past. “However, the government has failed to achieve that target as well.”
The plan has also targeted to raise the contribution of travel in the country’s GDP to 10.3 per cent, while the current contribution stands at 3.5 per cent.

Asia Pacific to welcome close to 900 million international visitor arrivals

The overall annual growth rate for international visitors into 40 Asia Pacific destinations is estimated to have been around 7.8 per cent in 2018, generating an inbound volume of around 688 million for the year, almost 50 million more foreign arrivals than in 2017.
According to the executive summary of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), ‘Asia Pacific Visitor Forecasts 2019-2023’ released today, 40 destinations within Asia Pacific collectively are predicted to show an average growth rate of 5.5 per cent per annum between 2018 and 2023, to host close to 900 million foreign visitor arrivals in 2023.
Asia will continue its strong growth momentum with an expected annual average growth rate for foreign visitor arrivals of 6.2 per cent between 2018 and 2023, while the Pacific and the Americas follow with average growth rates of 4.4 per cent and 3.1 per cent per year respectively, over the same period.
Driven by its strong average annual growth rate, Asia will receive the bulk of the foreign arrivals between 2018 and 2023, it reads. After capturing a relative share of close to 74 per cent of foreign arrivals in 2018, the proportion into Asia is expected to increase to over 76 per cent by the end of the forecast period till 2023. The impact on the Americas and the Pacific is a slight contraction in their respective relative shares from 22.4 per cent in 2018 to just under 20 per cent in 2023 for the former, and from four per cent to 3.8 per cent for the latter, even as their respective numbers of foreign arrivals increase.
Asia will also be the strongest generator of foreign arrivals into Asia Pacific over the forecast period, improving its relative share of arrivals from 63.9 percentage points in 2018, to over 66 percentage points in 2023. Intra-regional travel flows remain important for both the Americas and Asia, with the former destination region seeing over three-quarters of its foreign arrivals originating within that region in both 2018 and 2023.
Similarly, for Asia, where intra-regional travel flows will increase in relative terms, from almost 94 per cent in 2018 to over 94 per cent by 2023.
The Pacific destination region differs, in as much as more than half of its inbound international visitor arrivals originated in Asia in 2018 with that proportion forecast to increase to around 57 per cent by 2023. Even so, the intra-regional flows from the Pacific to the Pacific remain significant at over 30 per cent in 2023.
PATA chief executive Dr Mario Hardy points out that 'Asia continues to be the engine of growth for foreign arrivals into Asia Pacific, with intra-regional flows in particular, remaining important.'
The intra-regional activity is true for the Americas as well, but less so for the Pacific which is rapidly becoming more popular with Asian markets, he said, adding, "once again, we need to be mindful of the fact that in delivering positive and memorable experiences to a rapidly changing inbound market mix, we need to maintain a service ethic and mind-set that is consistently superior and at the same time, tailored to the very different needs of an increasingly diverse range of visitors."
"In developing a service mindset, we need to ask ourselves are we preparing to welcome 898 million foreign arrivals into Asia Pacific in 2023, or should we think of that instead, as one very special visitor, 898 million times. Your perspective on that can make all the difference," Dr Hardy added.

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.