Foreign visitors up by 8 pc in April

The tourist arrivals in the month of April has increased by 8.9 percent to 54,119 compared to the same month last year.

However, aggregate visitor arrivals decreased by 5.3 percent to 197,014 for the period between January-April compared to the same period last year.

According to figures released by Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the visitor arrivals from the SAARC segment showed 21.6 percent decline compared to the same month last year. Indian market, considered as a major market, also declined by 25.3 percent. Similarly, arrivals from Pakistan and Sri Lanka have witnessed negative growth of 10.9 percent and 3 percent, respectively. However, only Bangladesh has registered a positive growth of 16.6 percent.

However, arrivals from Asia (other than South Asia) have recorded positive growth of 18.1 percent in aggregate. Visitor arrivals from China, one of the fastest growing tourist markets for Nepal, have recorded the growth of 26.6 percent, compared to the figures in same period. Similarly, Malaysia (158.3 percent) and Thailand (15.3 percent) have maintained the upward trend. However, arrivals from Japan (9.6 percent), South Korea (5.8 percent), and Singapore (4.5 percent) have witnessed negative growth.

European markets have posted weaker arrivals figures and have registered overall negative growth by 14.3 percent. Visitor arrivals from France, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and Sweden have registered positive growth of 0.4 percent, 9.9 percent, 7.6 percent, 1.1 percent, and 20.7 percent respectively. However, arrivals from the UK, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain and Russia have declined by 14.8 percent, 23.1 percent, 49.2 percent, 22.8 percent, 29.5 percent and 8 percent, respectively compared to the same month last year.

Likewise, arrivals from Australia, New Zealand and USA also posted positive growth of 6.7 percent, 5.2 percent and 2.3 percent respectively. Canada showed decrease in arrival figure by 35 percent.

A total of 66,107 foreign tourists departed from TIA in April 2013. The number of Nepalis arrivals stood at 62,488 while 75,323 Nepalis departed from TIA in April 2013.