KATHMANDU: Around 1,000 foreign tourists in Nepal are waiting for flights to take them back to their homes as Nepal is currently under lockdown to cope with the global pandemic of novel coronavirus.
They arrived in Nepal for mountain climbing, trekking, and other purposes in the spring season, and are seeking the help of their respective embassies and tourism-related organizations to return homes.
Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) chief executive officer Dr Dhananjay Regmi said that such a number of foreign tourists from around 60 countries, including China are currently stuck in Nepal due to lockdown.
Some of them have requested the NTB for help.
On Sunday, some 19 Chinese tourists reached the NTB urging the tourism body to help them to go back to their country.
Likewise, a total of 4,532 tourists, mostly from the European countries- France, Germany, as well as from other countries such as New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Maldives, Russia, America, Czech Republic and Britain returned home amidst the period of lockdown which has been in force since March 24 and the NTB had facilitated for so.
According to Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA)’s chief immigration officer Sagar Acharya, a total of 35,023 tourists, including Indians had entered Nepal via air routes in May this year.
Currently, no foreign tourists remain in quarantine. Those put in quarantine earlier were freed with the completion of a 14-day stay.
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