KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 4

A total of 473,563 foreign tourists visited Nepal in the first 10 months of this year, showing a strong recovery in the country's tourism sector compared to the 230,085 tourists who had arrived in the country in 2020 and 150,962 in 2021. However, the arrivals are yet to recover to the pre-pandemic level.

As per the latest data unveiled by Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) today, the country welcomed a total of 88,582 tourists by air in October, a drop of 62 per cent compared to same month in 2019, when 143,870 has visited Nepal.

According to NTB CEO Dhananjay Regmi, Nepal's tourism is nearing normalcy after being battered by the COVID pandemic as the message that Nepal is open to tourists has now spread globally.

'The tourist arrivals in October, which show almost 70 per cent recovery compared to corresponding period of 2019, is a positive sign,' Regmi told The Himalayan Times.

He opined that the Nepal's tourism could rebound even more strongly if tourism packages were promoted effectively.

'Our promotional packages are very generalised at the moment. If the travel agencies promote location specific packages, more tourists would be keen to visit Nepal.'

Senior Vice-President of Hotel Association Nepal Binayak Shah, however, claimed that hotel sector is still in critical phase despite gradual revival of tourism.

'While hotels are doing better nowadays, we have not been able to breakeven.

The average hotel occupancy in Nepal is just 25 per cent,' Shah said.

'However, hotels have been receiving many inquiries lately and we are hopeful of better days ahead.'

Because of the NTB's promotional events in India and Bangladesh, the number of tourists from these nations increased significantly in Nepal, Regmi informed.

A total of 16,910 Indian tourists entered Nepal last month. Similarly, the country received 2,720 tourists from Bangladesh, 901 from Sri Lanka, 365 from Pakistan, and 345 from Bhutan.

Of the total international tourists who entered Nepal last month, 21,241 were from the SAARC countries, as per the NTB.

Similarly, 30,490 of total visitors in October were from European countries.

Of them, 7,117 were from the United Kingdom, 4,935 from Germany, and 4,929 from France, and 2,096 from Spain.

The country also received tourists from Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Den-mark, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Switzerland, Russia, Ukraine, and Sweden in October.

From Oceania, 3,946 were Australian nationals while 356 were from New Zealand.

At the same time, 1,682 Canadian tourists and 11,859 American tourists came to Nepal.

From other countries in Asia, 946 tourists were from China, 841 from Japan, 1,590 from Malaysia, 735 from Singapore, 1,371 from South Korea, 1,296 from Thailand, and 102 from Myanmar.

Meanwhile, a total of 10,141 tourists visited Nepal in October from countries categorised as 'others'.

A version of this article appears in the print on November 5, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.