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Tourism sees steady growth

Thanks to relative peace in the country, the tourism industry is rebounding with a notable 25 percent growth in tourism arrivals by air in last month.

Figures released by Immigration Office at the Tribhuvan International Airport shows 25 percent growth in tourist arrivals in July as compared to the same period last year. A total of 26078 foreigners arrived in Nepal by air in the moth.

According to the Immigration Office, the European market as a whole showed a remarkable growth of 45 percent with encouraging figures from major markets. The United Kingdom with the largest share of the total European arrivals increased by 30.8 percent, Germany 33.4 percent, France 65.7 percent, Spain 65.8 percent, the Netherlands 21.6 percent and Belgium 75.1 percent.

Arrivals from the Australia and USA markets grew by 53.9 percent and 82.9 percent respectively. However, arrivals from Austria and Norway were down by 34.2 and 21.2 percent respectively.

Some regional and emerging markets like Korea, China, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand also depicted upward trend. Korean and Chinese markets grew by staggering 180.4 percent and 90 percent establishing their prominence with 4 percent and 3.8 percent respectively in total arrivals.

The arrival figures from some neighboring countries could not gain the momentum, except for Bangladesh (94.8 percent up). Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan arrivals were down by 4.4 percent, 7.6 percent and 8.8 percent respectively.

”The situation manifests that not a single country records negative growth in its total arrivals till July, which means the prospect and the trend of tourist arriving is on the rise for the days to come,” Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) said. nepalnews.com mk Aug 02 07