Tourist arrivals up in March

The third month of 2011 did not look promising for Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) 2011 campaign, as the country witnessed slow growth of 4.6 percent in tourist arrivals via air in the month of March.

Tourist arrivals in January and February had increased by 26.2 percent and 18.4 percent respectively. By the first three months of 2011, Nepal received a total of 118,000 tourists - a rise of 12.5 percent as compared to arrival figures of same period last year.

According to figures of Immigration Office at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), a total of 46,491 visitors flew into the country in March. Arrivals from India -- the largest tourist generating market for the country -- recorded a positive growth of 28 percent during the period.

Similarly, arrivals from Sri Lanka and Pakistan increased by 38.3 percent and 6.8 percent respectively. However, arrivals from Bangladesh dropped by 2.5 percent during the month.

Total arrivals from Asia (excluding South Asia) increased by 15.1 percent, with growth from China (15.2 percent) and Japan (9.6 percent). Similarly, arrivals from South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore also increased by 12.1 percent, 51.9 percent, 16.2 percent and 10.8 percent respectively.

However, the European market observed negative growth of 12.6 percent. Though arrivals from France, Italy, Russia, Sweden and Denmark recorded positive growth, arrivals from major markets like UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland declined.

While arrivals from US increased by 22.7 percent, the number of visitors from Australia declined by 3.7 percent.Nepal targets to welcome one million visitors in 2011, 700,000 of which are expected to enter the country via air.

Source = myrepublica