Tourists visiting Lumbini up during Lumbini year

The number of tourists visiting Lumbini has increased by 29.09 per cent in 2012 compared to 2011. Tourist arrivals increased after the government declared 2012 as the Visit Lumbini Year with the objective of publicizing the birthplace of Gautam Buddha across the world.

Public Relations Officer of the Lumbini Development Trust, Haridhwoj Rai, said that a total of 758,000 domestic and foreign tourists visited Lumbini in 2012, which is more by 170,731 compared to the tourist arrival figure the previous year. A total of 578,269 tourists had visited the Lumbini in 2011.

Five hundred nine thousand and seventy-three domestic tourists, 113,195 Indian tourists and 136,001 tourists from other countries visited Lumbini in 2012.

The Trust said that the highest number of tourists visiting Lumbini was from Sri Lanka. The number was 52,671.