Kathmandu, August 17 Hinting at positive vibes in the domestic tourism industry, the country witnessed exponential growth in the arrival of international visitors in the month of July. The inflow of foreign tourists to Nepal (via both land and air routes) last month surged by a whopping 73.5 per cent as compared to the arrival figures of the corresponding period last year, according to Nepal Tourism Board (NTB). Issuing a press statement today, the board has revealed that a total of 73,285 international tourists visited Nepal in July. With this, the arrival figures in the January to July period reached 593,299 — an overall increase of 18 per cent over the same period in 2017. Tourist arrivals from India grew by 80.4 per cent to 18,385 last month when compared to the figures of the same month in 2017. Similarly, the overall arrivals from SAARC region registered a growth of 66.1 per cent to 21,649 over the same month of last year. However, tourist arrivals from Bangladesh declined by nine per cent. Arrivals from China soared by an eye-popping 125.4 per cent to 13,123 against arrivals in the corresponding period last year. Arrivals from Asia (other than SAARC) also recorded strong growth of 86.2 per cent to 20,082. Likewise, visitors from Japan and South Korea also went up by 36 per cent to 1,284 and 21.9 per cent to 2,415, respectively. The NTB’s press statement, which is based on the foreign tourist arrival figures maintained by the Department of Immigration (DoI), shows that the inflow of foreign tourists from European nations rose by 54.1 per cent to 14,689 in July. The arrival figures from Australia and New Zealand also reveal impressive growth — of 113.9 per cent to 1,741 and 75.2 per cent to 205 in July as compared to the figures of 2017. The number of visitors from the United States and Canada surged by 79.6 per cent to 6,957 and 73.3 per cent to 921, respectively, in the review period. According to Deepak Raj Joshi, CEO of Nepal Tourism Board, the strong growth in international arrivals to Nepal can be attributed to many reasons, including increased focus on travel and trade-related activities carried out by NTB and tourism stakeholders in major source markets. “Promotional programmes targeted at the consumers and trade fairs have been regularly organised in India and China,” he said, adding that destination promotion, travel marts, sales missions, business to business (B2B) and business to consumers (B2C) are the major programmes that have been continuously organised in major source markets.