KATHMANDU: Visitors’ arrival in Nepal in the month of July 2009 in comparison to same month last year has increased by 10%. A press statement released by Nepal Tourism Board on Sunday states that Nepal has witnessed positive growth of Indian visitors by 5% and 4% for Pakistanis. Though the arrival from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka visitors has witnessed negative growth, the SAARC segment shows a 4% increase as compared to same month last year. The Asian visitors registered a positive growth of 16% with the hike in Chinese visitors by 16%, Japan by 16%, Thailand 94%, South Korea 3% and Singapore 4%. Similarly, arrival of tourists from European countries registered an overall positive growth of 26% with UK by 42%, France 14%, Germany 13% and Netherlands 62%. But Italy recorded 16% decrease in arrivals. Though Nepal observed a remarkable growth of 15.8% in April 2009 it observed a decline of 16%. Tourist arrivals from Australia, Canada and United States of America have registered robust growth of 28%, 34%, and 13% respectively. All major market segments: Asia (SAARC), Asia (Other), Europe, Oceania and North America have registered positive growth trends.

A total of 26,167 foreign tourists departed from TIA in July 2009. The number of Nepalese arrivals stood at 41,790 while 46,843 Nepalese departed from TIA in July 2009.