Nepal achieves tourism target, but yet to reach pre-COVID level

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Jan. 4: Nepal met its target of bringing 1 million tourists into the country in 2023 but failed to surpass pre-COVID numbers. As per a statement issued by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) on Tuesday, Nepal welcomed 1,014,871 foreign tourists from January to December last year. This is more than the numbers Nepal recorded in 2020, 2021 and 2022 combined. 

In 2020, the year the coronavirus outbreak hit Nepal and much of the world, 230,085 foreigners visited the country. This number dropped further in 2021 when only 150,962 foreign nationals came. In 2022, the figure rose to 614,869. 

Last year though, tourist arrivals shot up by 65 per cent and crossed the 1 million mark for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. In the same period, Nepal welcomed an all-time high number of Indian tourists. As per the data compiled by the Department of Immigration, over 319,000 Indians came to Nepal by air. Indians coming by land are not counted as tourists. This number is well over the 254,000 Indian nationals that came four years earlier before the world knew COVID.

In its statement, MoCTCA called it an important achievement for Nepal's tourism sector and attributed the "success" to efforts made by the government, the private sector, the Nepali embassies abroad and all the concerned stakeholders. 

Furthermore, the ministry informed that its minister Sudan Kirati had written to heads of Nepal's missions in various countries, asking them to support the Visit Nepal Decade 2023-2032 and help the country attract 3.5 million tourists from across the world.

But, as encouraging as 2023's tally is, it is still, when viewed as a whole, below the 1,197,191 visitors Nepal received in 2019. The total tourist arrival the country saw last year is 15 per cent less than the arrival it witnessed in the year immediately before countries across the globe closed their borders due to the novel coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the Bagmati Province government has launched the Visit Bagmati Year (VBY) 2024 campaign. Informing about the commencement of the campaign on Monday, the province's Minister for Culture, Tourism and Co-operatives Pukar Maharjan said that various programmes would be held in Bagmati throughout this year to attract visitors. 

He also added that the goal of VBY was to exploit the province's tourism potential and establish the sector as a strong source of income. 

Stating that the province government would make the required policies and infrastructure for tourism promotion, Minister Maharjan said that the VBY had been announced to identify tourist destinations of the province and publicise places of religious, historical and natural importance. 

Also speaking at the event, Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Co-operatives Gobinda Prasad Rijal informed that the provincial government had allocated Rs. 10 million to conduct various tourism-related activities this fiscal year.