Tourist arrivals increased by 9% in July:
Total tourist arrivals in Nepal via air increased by 9.2 percent in July, compared to arrival figures in the same period last year. According to statistics compiled by Tribhuvan International Airport and released by Nepal Tourism Board, a total of 38,453 tourists entered the country through air route during the review month. Arrivals from the South Asia region gained overall positive growth of 18.3 percent with mixed performance. Number of visitors from India and Pakistan increased by 24.3 percent and 27.1 percent respectively, whereas arrivals from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka declined by 34.2 percent and 44.6 percent respectively.
Visitor arrivals from Asia (other than South Asia region) also recorded positive growth of 8.5 percent with China 27.2 percent, Japan 28.4 percent and Malaysia 19.4 percent posting healthy growth rates. However, arrivals from Singapore, South Korea and Thailand declined by 23.2 percent, 9.1 percent and 58 percent respectively.From long-haul markets, Europe registered overall positive growth of 5 percent with major source markets showing positive trend. While visitor arrivals from Denmark (35.1 percent), Germany (43.7 percent), France (7.8 percent), the Netherlands (5.1 percent) and Spain (3.5 percent) recorded positive growth, number of visitors from the UK, Italy and Belgium were down by 5.6 percent, 14.9 percent and 2.1 percent respectively.Likewise, arrivals from Canada and the US also registered positive growth of 9.2 percent and 4.5 percent respectively. Though number of visitors from Australia dropped by 5.4 percent, visitor arrivals from New Zealand grew by 50.6 percent during the month.Total arrivals over the first seven months of 2012 increased by 18.5 percent to 332,472 compared to arrival figures in the same period of 2011.