Kathmandu, June 5:

Despite restoration of democracy and the ceasefire announced by both the government and Maoists, prevailing uncertainty has taken its toll on the tourism industry in Nepal.

The number of tourists arriving in Nepal via air dropped by 10.9 per cent during the month of May 2006 compared to the same period last year.

A total of 18,550 tourists came to Nepal during the month against 20,816 foreign visitors in May 2005. The number of Indian visitors dropped by 3.3 per cent,, while non-Indian arrivals declined by 18.1 per cent during the month, according to the ministry of culture, tourism and civil aviation, quoting Immigration Office at Tribhuvan International Airport.

Indian arrivals has shown a sign of recovery, as the number of visitors coming to Nepal improved fairly from the last month’s huge fall of about 24 per cent. However, third country arrivals, which had about six per cent growth last month, failed to sustain the growth trend.

A total of 9,828 Indian visitors came to Nepal in May 2006 against 10,163 tourists last year. Non-India arrivals stood at 8,722 tourists during the month, while the figure was 10,663 in May 2005.

Overall tourist arrivals, especially Indian tourists, started picking up after the restoration of democracy last month and in the second half of the month, it observed a remarkable increase in arrivals. The arrivals particularly from short haul markets like SAARC and South East Asia is expected to increase in the coming months.

Arrivals from the SAARC region went down by 8.32 per cent while the other Asian markets have decreased by 47.25 per cent too. Arrivals from Japan, Malaysia and Singapore came down by 22.8 per cent, 82.8 per cent and 92.8 per cent while Taiwan (China) remained as the only Asian country to grow by 31.1 per cent.

From among European markets, Austria, Norway and Spain showed some growth, although their combined market share contributed to less than 10 per cent.

Other markets to rise were Australia and Canada among the long haul tourist markets. Negative growth came from major markets like UK, USA, Denmark, France, Germany and Switzerland.

Arrivals from Australia increased by 18.1 per cent, while arrivals from UK and USA went down by 36 per cent and 8.6 per cent respectively. The total tourist arrivals for the first five months of 2006 is satisfactory, although it is lower than anticipated.

Total arrivals from January to May 2006 registered a growth of 7.8 per cent to 100,151 tourists against 92,885 arrivals during the same period last year.