Kathmandu, December 3:

Encouraging trend of tourist arrivals has continued for yet another month, as November witnessed a growth of 17.6 per cent tourist arrivals compared to the same period last year.

The total tourist arrivals in November by air touched 34,580, an increment by 17.6 per cent from 29,407 visitors last year, stated ministry of culture, tourism and civil aviation, quoting the data provided by Immigration Office at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).

Although the Indian tourist arrivals posted a negative growth, the third country arrivals registered a healthy growth of 28.7 per cent. A total of 29,129 tourists from different countries came to the country during the month, while the Indian arrivals dropped to 5,451. One of the major reasons for decline in arrival from India is lack of air seats, as most of the seats are now being filled by European visitors coming to Nepal via India. Another major reason is infrequent service of Nepal Airlines Corporation, the national flag carrier on Indian routes due to technical hitch. The third country arrivals for the same month last year stood at 22,639 and the Indian arrivals were at 6,768.

Major European markets like UK (66 per cent), Germany (42 per cent), France (50.6 per cent), Italy (19.8 per cent) and Spain (27.9 per cent) registered healthy growth during the month. A double-digit growth by all the European countries indicates the growing confidence of the tourists from long-haul markets on Nepal.

The arrivals from SAARC region as a whole recorded a decline due to the fall in arrivals from a major market — India by 19.8 per cent.

Other Asian markets like China, South Korea and Singapore have shown robust growth of 85.7 per cent, 5.2 per cent, and 73.7 per cent respectively. However, the arrivals of one of the major markets — Japan — dropped by 11.7 per cent, as only 2,878 Japanese tourists came to Nepal against 3,258 visitors last year. The US, Canadian and Australian markets also recorded strong growth of 25.7 per cent, 32 per cent and 44.4 per cent respectively, with a total of 4,372 tourist arrivals from these countries.

Contemplating the figures of the first 11 months of this year, the total arrivals grew on an average of 28.6 per cent to 330,455 visitors, compared to 267,084 arrivals during the same period in 2006. It can be noted that the Chinese and Korean markets are getting stronger and their arrivals during the first 11 months have grown up by more than double compared to the same period last year.