KATHMANDU: There is a piece of good news for Nepal Tourism Year-2011 that the country has received almost half a million tourists by air alone in 2010. NTY-2011 aims at receiving one million tourists this year.
Propelled by robust growth from South Asian market, Nepal received a record-high tourist arrivals by air in 2010. The country witnessed 448,769 arrivals in 2010, 18.5 per cent higher compared to 2009.
Similarly, the month of December also witnessed a sustained growth in visitor arrivals. The figures released by Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), reveal that visitor arrivals in the month of December 2010 increased by 15.7 per cent to 36,323 compared to December 2009. The SAARC region registered a robust growth of 26.1 per cent in the month of December and 24.7 per cent in the year 2010 compared to 2009. Visitor arrivals from India (19.5 per cent), Bangladesh (42.4 per cent), Pakistan (94.3 per cent) and Sri Lanka (148.3 per cent) have registered positive growth in December.
Similarly, December registered a robust growth of 24.4 per cent in visitor arrivals from China. Except Japan, arrivals from Asia — other than South Asia — also recorded positive growth. Visitor arrivals from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and South Korea have registered a positive growth of 41 per cent, 26.4 per cent, 4.4 per cent, and 22.3 per cent, respectively. However Japan has suffered a soft decline by 0.4 per cent. In an aggregate the Asian segment — other than South Asia — registered a positive growth of 14.3 per cent in the month of December and 17.7 per cent in 2010.
The European markets witnessed a soft decline of 0.2 per cent in the month of December but it also posted a positive growth of 14.4 per cent in an aggregate in 2010.
In December, the arrivals from the Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Sweden and UK were up by 57.3 per cent, 37 per cent, 26 per cent, 17.4 per cent, 75 per cent, 43.9 per cent, 2.1 per cent, 30.5 per cent and one per cent, respectively whereas Belgium, France, Germany and Italy declined by 20.1 per cent, 8.7 per cent,13.4 per cent, 0.2 per cent, respectively. Similarly, tourist arrivals from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and USA also registered positive growth of 8.5 per cent, 57.9 per cent, 1.2 per cent and 14.4 per cent, respectively in December.
A total of 44,019 foreign tourists departed from TIA in December whereas it recorded 57,661 Nepalis arrivals. Some 77,230 Nepalis departed from TIA in December alone. |
