KATHMANDU: As many as 1 million foreign tourists have visited Nepal in the last 10 months of 2019, according to the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB).

The exact number of external tourists coming to Nepal between January 1 to October 31 this year is 975,557 of the 820,499 arrived came through air route while 155,058 arrived through road, an 8 percent rise to the corresponding period last year.

The number of tourists from European countries visiting Nepal during this 10-months was 199,000, up by 20.4 percent in comparison to the corresponding period while Nepal saw 92,272 American and Canadian tourists coming during this period.

The number of Asian tourists visiting Nepal is growing gradually. Thai and Chinese Taipei’s tourists’ arrival has been boosted by 31.9 percent and 39.5 percent from the beginning of January to October end in comparison to the corresponding period.

Nepal saw 25.65 percent of the increase in the arrival of Indian, Chinese and Bangladeshi tourists in Nepal this year over this period.

More tourists from China visited Nepal in October this year compared to the corresponding period last year. The Nepal Tourism Board said in this period, 15,037 Chinese tourists had arrived Nepal which is 11.5 percent more than the number of Chinese visitors coming to Nepal the same period last year.

The Board statistics showed Nepal had witnessed the arrival of around 1.2 million tourists in 2018 and of them, 160 thousand were from China.

Similarly, Nepal welcomed 12,706 people from India in October this year and this figure is nine percent more than of the corresponding month last year.

However, in overall, India is in the topmost position among the top source countries of tourists visiting Nepal and it is followed by China. In 2018, 243 thousand Indians had been in Nepal for touristic activities.

Chinese President Xi Jinping had arrived here on the two-day State visit on October 12-13. Following the President’s visit, the number of Chinese tourists here is found to be increased.

Although the Chinese have been one of the most outbound tourists in the world, with their number standing at around 150 million in 2018, Nepal has not been able to attract the desired number of Chinese tourists to Nepal.
China, however, has consistently been the second-largest source market for Nepal’s tourism in the last several years, after India. As Nepal is launching Visit Nepal 2020 campaign in 2020, aiming to attract as many as 2 million tourists to Nepal, the government is also gearing up to bring in at least 500,000 tourists from China alone that year.

NTB’s CEO Deepak Raj Joshi reasoned the increase in the arrival of foreign tourists to Nepal to the activeness of government, private sector, Nepali diplomatic missions abroad, media and stakeholders.