Over 720,000 tourists arrive in first eight months of 2024

Kathmandu, Sept. 3: More than 72,500 foreign tourists have entered Nepal in the month of August 2024. According to the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), a total of 72,719 tourists entered Nepal in the month of August, this year.

This is 8.29 per cent higher than the tourist arrival during the same month of last fiscal year 2023 but 23.85 per cent lower as compared to the same month of 2019.

A total of 67,153 tourists arrived in Nepal in the month of August 2023. Similarly, around 94,750 tourists visited Nepal in the month of August in 2019.

“The present growth of tourist arrival in the country is not satisfactory. The tourist arrival increased in the month of August this year compared to last year, but it is not expected growth. The revival of tourist arrival in the country has not taken place as expected compared to 2019,” said Mani Raj Lamichhane, Director of Nepal Tourism Board.

Stating that tourist arrival was only 76.5 per cent in the month of August compared to 2019, he said that frequent air accidents in the country had become a challenge in increasing tourist arrivals. 

Specially, the number of American and European tourists entering Nepal has decreased during the review period.

Lamichhane said that the number of American and European tourists entering Nepal had decreased due to air and road security. 

Top 10 tourist generating markets 

The highest numbers of tourists arrived in Nepal from India in the month of August. Around 25,832 tourists have come from India while 6,614 tourists from China and 5,614 tourists from United States of America have visited Nepal, according to the NTB.

Similarly, 4,851 tourists from Sir Lanka, 3,077 people from Bangladesh, 2,764 people from the UK and 1,881 people from Japan visited the country.

A total of 1,736 tourists arrived from Australia, 1,615 from Italy and 1,602 tourists from South Korea have come to Nepal in the month of August this year.

The share of India in the total tourist arrival in the month of August is 35.5 per cent while the share of China 9.1 per cent, U.S.A 7.7 per cent, Sri Lanka 6.7 per cent and Bangladesh 4.2 per cent.

Of the total tourist arrival, share of tourists from Asia (SAARC) stood at 48.4 per cent, Asia (others) at 17.34 per cent, Europe at 13.7 per cent, Americas at 8.8 per cent, Oceania at 2.9 per cent and others at 8.4 per cent in the review month. The revival of tourism across the world is encouraging after the COVID-19 pandemic but in Nepal it could not happen, he said. 

He said that it seems that the NTB and the private sector should make their efforts for marketing to bring more tourists from America and other countries.

Lamichhane said that it was a must to improve the air and road safety as well to encourage foreign tourists to come to Nepal.

“One plane crash after another has discouraged foreigners to come and visit Nepal. So, air safety should be first and foremost priority of the government to improve the revival of tourism and tourist arrival in Nepal,” he said.

About 720,300 tourists arrived in Nepal during the eight months since January of the year 2024.  Around 601,000 tourists arrived in Nepal during the eight months of last year 2023.

The highest number of tourists of 128,176 entered Nepal in the month of March 2024.

Similarly, about 79,100 tourists came in Nepal in the month of January, 97,426 in February, 111,376 tourists in April, 90,2111 in May, 76736 in June and 64,600 in the month of July this year.

The COVID-19 affected tourism sector is getting momentum from the fiscal year 2022/23.

About 1.01 million tourists had arrived in Nepal in the last fiscal year 2023/24 while the number was 614,000 in 2022/23. 

Nepal received 1.19 million foreign tourists in fiscal year 2019/20, which plunged to 230,000 in fiscal year 2020/21 in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. The number declined further to 150,700 in the fiscal year 2021/22 as the virus gripped the entire world.