Tourists visiting ABC increase

By Santosh Subedi,Kaski, Mar. 16: The number of domestic and foreign tourists visiting the Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) area has increased. According to the traders, the months of March and April are considered the tourist season, and at present most of the destinations on the trekking route have been crowded with domestic and external guests.

As per the entrepreneurs, the occupancy ratio of hotels along the ABC trekking area is around 90 per cent. Kisam Gurung, the hotel entrepreneur of Ghandrak, said that there has been a flood of domestic tourists to Ghandruk. 

He said that there are guests in almost all the hotels in Gandruk. "There are a lot of domestic tourists. There is now a rush of domestic and foreign guests up to the base camp above Ghandruk, which is considered to be the gateway to the ABC trekking route," he said.  

Dr. Rabin Kadariya, Project Chief of the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), the flow of foreign tourist arrivals in the region is good. According to him, 8,492 tourists visited the area in December/January and 6,179 in January/February, even though the months are considered as off-season for tourists.

The number of tourists visiting the area increases during the two main tourist seasons of September to November and February to April months. 

According to him, 15,369 foreign tourists visited the Annapurna area in February/March alone. Although the arrival of tourists has decreased in winter and rainy season, the number of tourists increases in the Annapurna area in March, April and May, he said.

According to him, 28,705 tourists visited the area in September/October, the beginning of the tourist season. A total of 24,416 tourists entered the Annapurna area in October/November and 11,928 in November/ December. 

According to the project office data, the highest number of foreign tourists entered the Annapurna area in 2023. A total of 191,558 tourists from 173 countries visited the area. 

In 2019, 181,000 tourists visited the Annapurna area. 

With the end of the pandemic, tourism in the Annapurna region has regained impetus. Tourist arrivals had dropped drastically during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 16,105 tourists visited Annapurna in 2021 while 129,733 tourists visited the area in 2022.