Kathmandu, May 18

Indian nationals are increasingly enquiring about Nepal and different destinations in the country hinting towards a possible increment in the flow of Indian tourists to the country in the days ahead.

As per a survey of Google India unveiled on Wednesday, travel query of Indians about Nepal increased by a whopping 64.8 per cent in the period between February and April this year as compared to the same period last year.

According to the report, queries related to Nepal were basically related to planning, transport, vacation packages, accommodations, required travel documents and different destinations in the country.

Similarly, the survey report also states that this surge in travel-related queries of different countries indicates that huge numbers of Indians have planned for summer holidays earlier this year. Besides Nepal, Indonesia and Bhutan have also witnessed high growth of travel queries by Indians, according to the survey report.

Meanwhile, stakeholders of domestic tourism industry have said that inflow of Indian tourists is rising in recent times.

“Nepal is one of the highly preferred destinations for Indians in terms of pilgrimage tourism. They prefer to visit Nepal for pilgrimages like Pashupati Temple and Muktinath Temple,” Rajendra Sapkota, executive committee member of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), said.

Similarly, Mount Kailash, Lumbini and Janaki Temple have also witnessed droves of Indian tourists in recent days, according to him.

As per NTB, more than 15 per cent of the 750,000 foreign tourists that visited Nepal in 2016 were Indians. More than 118,000 Indian tourists had visited Nepal in 2016. However, the figure is based on Indians who travelled by air-routes. As Nepal shares an open border with India, a huge chunk of Indian tourists come to Nepal via land routes, which is out of the government record.

Sapkota also said that Indian tourists are increasingly coming to Nepal to spend holidays during summer because of the pleasant climate in Nepal. “We have seen an upsurge in the number of Indian youths visiting cities like Pokhara and Lumbini during summer in the past few years,” he added.

As per Google, it is the increase usage of mobile phones among Indians that has encouraged them to explore about various travel destinations around the world and plan their itinerary.