Tourist arrivals up by 9.6 pc

Tourist arrivals up by 9.6 pc
eKantipur.com, 5-Jul-2007

Tourist arrivals rose by a modest 9.6 percent in June, signaling a cooling down in robust growth, caused by the fall in the number of Indian visitors.

The rise is far too below the average growth of 37.5 percent in the first six months of the year 2007.

A total of 23, 502 tourists visited the country during the period, up from 21,444 tourists in the same month last year.

The tourism industry reported a robust growth from the European market. The number of European tourists increased by a staggering 39 percent.

The country registered whopping rises of 137 percent, 47.3 percent, and 82.2 percent in tourist arrivals from Sweden, Britain and Denmark. Some 756 Swedish, 11,536 British and 1,011 Danish tourists came to the country.

Likewise, the number of German tourists went up by 52.2 percent to 6,877. The tourism industry recoded a rise of 46.7 percent rise in arrivals from France. A total of 6,296 French tourists visited the country.

However, India, the main market of Nepali tourism industry, showed a very poor scenario. The number of tourists from India, which made up around 50 percent of tourists visiting the country, fell by 12.8 percent to 12,379.

On the slowdown in overall tourists arrivals, the NTB said frequent strikes, street protest and demonstration, hurdles in vehicle movement in the country, mainly in the terai region are some of the factors contributing indirectly to retard the healthy growth of tourism.

The NTB, in a statement, blamed the decline for air-accessibility. Moreover, the surge in air ticket cost in flying between India and Nepal is also one of the greatest reasons for the fall in the arrival figures from India, it said.