KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 2
A total of 326,667 foreign tourists visited Nepal in the first eight months of 2022, showing a strong recovery in the country's tourism sector compared to the 230,085 tourists who arrived in the country in 2020 and 150,962 in 2021. However, the arrivals are yet to recover before the pandemic struck.
As per the data unveiled by Nepal Tourism Board today, the country welcomed 41,304 by air in August, a drop of 44 per cent compared to same month in 2019, when 73,814 tourists had visited Nepal.
A total of 16,147 Indian tourists entered Nepal last month, which was a drop of 35.8 per cent compared to the number of Indian nationals who had visited Nepal in August of 2019. Similarly, the country received 1,751 tourists from Bangladesh, 429 from Pakistan, 232 from Sri Lanka, and 293 from Bhutan.
Of the total international tourists who entered Nepal last month, 45.6 per cent were from the SAARC countries, as per the NTB.
Similarly, 19.1 cent of total visitors in August were from European countries. Of them, 2,826 were from the United Kingdom, 809 from Germany, and 655 from France. Similarly, tourists from Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Den-mark, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Switzerland, Spain, Russia, Ukraine, and Sweden also arrived in Nepal in August.
From Oceania, 1,210 were Australian nationals while 116 were from New Zealand. Over the same time, 552 Canadian tourists and 4,066 American tourists came to Nepal.
From other countries in Asia, 1,289 tourists were from China, 541 from Japan, 960 from Malaysia, 377 from Singapore, 574 from South Korea, 284 from Thailand, and 66 from Myanmar. Meanwhile, a total of 4,093 tourists visited Nepal in August from countries categorised as 'others'.
India contributed to the highest number of foreign tourists who visited Nepal, with a total of 130,759 Indian nationals arriving in the country in the past eight months followed by the USA, UK, Bangladesh, and Australia respectively.
A total of 44,164 American nationals, 24,702 British nationals, 14,811 Bangladeshi nationals, and 11,902 Australians visited Nepal in the first eight months of 2022.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 3, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
