Tourist arrivals up 20pc in Sept

SANGAM PRASAIN

OCT 02 -

Tourist arrivals in September 2010 jumped by 20.6 percent to 41,331 from 34,281 during the same month last year.

The figures released by the Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) said that arrivals from the South Asian region witnessed a robust growth of 49.1 percent with Bangladesh up 79.5 percent, India up 40.9 percent and Pakistan up 43.9 percent.

However, arrivals from Sri Lanka have declined by 10.6 percent. A sustained growth of 22.8 percent has been observed in arrivals from the South Asian region during the first nine months of 2010, in comparison to the same period last year.

Asia (other than the South Asian region) has continued to maintain an upward trend with a double-digit growth of 15.2 percent in September 2010.

China, emerging as the major tourist generating market for Nepal, has recorded a growth of 19.7 percent. Similarly, visitor arrivals from Malaysia (up 68.5 percent), South Korea (up 52.1 percent), Singapore (up 3.7 percent) and Thailand (up 8.9 percent) have also registered growth. However, arrivals from Japan declined by 7.7 percent compared to the same month last year.

Regarding the long-haul markets, Europe registered an overall positive growth of 9.4 percent with arrivals from Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Denmark up by 33 percent, 5.1 percent, 8.4 percent, 8.2 percent and 45.1 percent respectively.

The markets that could not show positive results in September 2010 were the UK (-5.6 percent), Norway (-23.9 percent) Switzerland (-4.6 percent) and Czech Republic (-32.9 percent).

However, a sustained growth of 16.9 percent has been observed in arrivals from the European region during the first nine months of 2010 in comparison to the same period last year.

The figures show an increasing trend in visitor arrivals from New Zealand with a growth of 38.5 percent while Australia posted a negative growth of 0.2 percent. Likewise, the US and Canada have registered growths of 7.4 percent and 9.6 percent respectively.

A total of 36,921 foreign tourists departed from TIA in September 2010. The number of Nepali arrivals stood at 55,936 while 58,190 Nepalis departed from TIA.

Month Arrivals (2009) Arrivals (2010) Change (%)

Jan 21,944 26,071 18.80

Feb 25,181 33,492 33.00

Mar 33,005 44,431 34.61

Apr 37,819 38, 694 2.31

May 25,129 26,634 5.98

June 23,222 26,997 16.30

July 23,266 29,338 26.09

Aug 27,676 34,415 24.30

Sept 34,281 41,331 20.60

Total 189,566 266,988 40.84