Kathmandu, December 2:

The global recession, especially in US and Europe, has not hit tourists arrivals to Nepal by air.

UK, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and Sweden has maintained increasing trend in the arrival figures, whereas arrivals from the US and Canada has also seen an increasing trend, said Nepa Tourism Board.

The figures released by Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) reveals that arrival figures in November compared to the same month last year, have increased by 6.6 per cent to 36,851. The total number of visitors till November has reached 3,44,599, representing an increase of 4.3 per cent in comparison to same period last year.

The entire South Asian region has gained overall positive growth except for arrivals from India. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have registered growth by 81.3 per cent, 59.1 per cent and 29.5 per cent respectively. India witnessed negative growth of 9.5 per cent in the current month. Similarly, Th-ailand and Malaysia have maintained upward trend with 45.7 per cent and 34.5 per cent of growth respectively. However, arrivals from Japan, South Korea, Singapore and China witnessed negative growth.