Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, May 3:

With negative portrayal of Nepal by the foreign media following the imposition of emergency, tourist arrivals by air witnessed a sharp decline of 38 per cent in April 2005, as compared to corresponding period last year.

According to figures, a total of 18,879 tourists arrived in Nepal during the month. Altogether 30,402 had come to Nepal during April 2004 by air.

Although overall arrival of tourists dropped heavily, figures in April show a continual softening in decline in Indian visitor’s segment, which comprises almost two third of total tourist arrivals in Nepal.

Tourists arrivals from India went down by 33 per cent whereas third country arrivals went down by 40 per cent compared to the same period last year.

On the other hand, visitors’ arrival in the second half of the month improved tremendously as the first half was down by more than 50 per cent.

Also compared with arrivals in the first quarter of 2003, arrivals during the same period in 2005 seem almost equal. The encouraging growth in the first half of 2004 led to a high base figure for comparison for 2005, thus the decline appears to be very high over the past few months.

The decline in April came from UK with 29 per cent, USA 33 per cent, Germany 30 per cent, Japan 45 per cent and Australia 30 per cent. Arrivals from Dutch, Spanish and Italian markets came down by 35 per cent, 26 per cent and 36 per cent.