KATHMANDU, MARCH 3
Nepal's tourist arrivals surged by a whopping 116 per cent year-on-year last month, according to the Nepal Tourism Board.
A total of 19,766 tourists visited Nepal in February this year compared to just 9,146 foreigners entering the country in the corresponding period of last year. It was also an improvement from nearly 18,000 visitors who chose to travel to Nepal in January. As per NTB, a total of 37,741 tourists have visited Nepal in the first two months of this year.
The upsurge in numbers, however, is far below that of the pre-pandemic level, according to NTB CEO Dhananjay Regmi.
"The arrival figures of 20,000 is paltry compared to around 100,000 foreign tourists that used to visit the country during the spring season before the coronavirus pandemic struck," he said. "We have a long road to recovery, but the progress so far can be considered satisfactory."
Owing to difficulty in attracting tourists from faraway destinations, the NTB is primarily focusing on the South Asia region - especially India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Consequently, the highest number of foreign visitors in the review month were Indian nationals - 5,998.
"We have been deploying our staff for the promotion of tourism in West Bengal of India and Bangladesh. Compared to yesteryears, we've focused our tourism campaign more on the sub-continent," he said.
The United States was the top second source country for tourists last month, with 3,614 Americans visiting Nepal. The United Kingdom secured the third place with 2,217 British tourists, while Australia came in fourth position, with 1,052 Australians making Nepal their travel destination.
Due to strict policies put in place by the northern neighbour in a bid to control the possible spread of the COV- ID-19, only 205 Chinese visited Nepal in February.
It is also to be noted that Nepal had just commenced its vaccination drive in January last year and many travel restrictions put in place had not been eased to control the spread of the coronavirus.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 4, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.