News and Events

Nepal welcomed record 73,264 foreign tourists via air in October. According to statistics released by Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) Immigration Office, total arrivals in October saw a rise of 16.8 percent when compared to arrival figures of the same period last year. Similarly, total arrivals over the first 10 months of 2011, which is being celebrated as Nepal Tourism Year (NTY), have increased by 21.7 percent to 443,108. Arrivals from China recorded the highest growth of 66.7 percent during the period, followed by India (42.4 percent). A total of 121,962 Indian tourists visited Nepal during the first 10 months of 2011, whereas as the number of Chinese tourists during the period stood at 34,897. Total arrivals from South Asian segment in October showed a positive growth of 19.4 percent, thanks to healthy rise in arrivals from India (26.2 percent) and Pakistan (11.3 percent). However, arrivals from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka declined by 10.2 and 13 percent respectively. Arrivals from South Asia recorded strong growth of 33.7 percent over first ten months of NTY 2011. Asia (other than South Asian region) saw overall increase of 40 percent during the month. Almost all the markets recorded positive growth with China at 105.9 percent, Japan at 7.3 percent, Singapore at 5.7 percent, South Korea at 29.4 percent and Thailand at 23.6 percent. The statistics further shows that European market registered overall positive growth of 15.1 percent during the month. Arrivals from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Israel, Spain, Switzerland and UK increased by 18.2 percent, 48.8 percent, 19.3 percent, 22.5 percent, 88.3 percent, 20.7 percent, 15.8 percent and 7.3 percent respectively. However, arrivals of France and the Netherlands went down by 3.9 and 17.1 percent respectively. Though arrivals from US increased by 5.4 percent, number of visitors from Canada and Australia declined marginally by 0.2 percent each during October.