Lumbini sees rise in visitor numbers

By Laxman Poudel,Bhairahawa, Jan. 6:The subside of the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have brought tourists back to Lumbini. According to the Lumbini Development Trust (LDT), 23,992 tourists from 96 countries visited the birthplace of Buddha in 2022. This is a 95 per cent increase from 2021. 

For most of 2020 and 2021, tourist arrivals in Lumbini were near zero due to the global coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent travel restrictions.

As per the data maintained by the LDT, a very high number of visitors, 230,413, came from India in 2022. “We have never seen such a massive number of Indians visit Lumbini before,” said Mukunda Gautam, tourist guide officer at the Trust. “The visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last Buddha Jayanti appears to have helped brand the place among the citizens of our southern neighbour.”

Similarly, 6,673 tourists came from Vietnam, 4,380 came from Thailand, 1,885 from Sri Lanka, 1,495 from Myanmar, 950 from Germany, 661 from France, 617 from South Korea, 479 from the Netherlands, 432 from China, 373 from Spain, 240 from Australia, 205 from Italy, 193 from Japan, 139 from Belgium, 128 from Canada and 100 from Denmark. Twenty people came from Ukraine too, which is currently engaged in a war with Russia. 

The farthest country to send tourists to Lumbini in 2022 was Chile. LDT figures show that 23 citizens of the South American nation, located 17,579 kilometres from Nepal, came last year.

Meanwhile, in the seven months it has been in operation, Bhairahawa’s Gautam Buddha International Airport has hosted only 150 international flights. 

According to the airport’s General Manager Govinda Prasad Dahal, this low number is partly due to a lack of labour processing at the local level. 

“Migrant workers have to go to Kathmandu to get their documents processed and come back to board their flights,” he said. “This is a hassle that few want. This has limited the number of passengers flying from here.”

Presently, even those few international flights do not take place due to bad weather.