Kathmandu, June 2;

May turned out to be a mild dampener for the tourism industry as the positive trend in the arrival of international visitors by air maintained till March registered a decline. According to the figures released by the Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the past month clocked a five per cent decline in tourist arrivals by air in comparison to last May.

Nevertheless the last five months together maintained an eight per cent growth as compared to the corresponding period last year.

Despite Nepal Tourism Board’s (NTB) street shows and participations in various tourism mart in India, a major decline was witnessed in this lucrative market by 14 per cent followed by UK and USA at — two per cent and one per cent, respectively. “However, Japan saw a 45 per cent growth in arrivals,” according to a press release issued here by NTB.

The SAARC segment showed a 10 per cent decline compared to last month. Interestingly, the Indian market was the only SAARC country which showed a fall, others like Bangladesh showed a growth of 28 per cent, Pakistan 40 per cent and Sri Lanka 90 per cent.

The other markets that registered a decline were China by a 37 per cent fall and Singapore by 14 per cent, Thailand by 46 per cent and ROC Taiwan by 48 per cent. European arrivals from UK and Germany dipped by

two per cent each, while Italy showed a sharp decline of 47 per cent.

However a significant growth was witnessed from Spain (73 per cent) followed by Austria (12 per cent) and Belgium (18 per cent).

The decline of tourists visiting Nepal can be attributed to the volatile political situation of the country, stated the release. The temporary ban on Kailash Mansarovar trip by the Chinese government could be another reason for the declining traffic of Indian tourists, as they use Nepal as a transit point to enter Tibet for the Mansarovar pilgrimage.