Tourist arrivals up by 4 pc in 2008

Year 2008 saw 4 percent growth in tourist arrivals by air compared to the previous year.

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) citing statistics released by the Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), said altogether 374,661 visitors landed in Nepal in 2008. Arrival figures in the month of December increased by 0.6 percent compared to the same month in 2007.

The South Asian region gained overall positive growth except for arrivals from Sri Lanka. The number of visitors from Bangladesh and Pakistan increased by 37 percent and 23.4 percent respectively while India, the largest market for Nepal, witnessed positive growth of 1.9 percent in the
month of December.

In 2008, the total arrivals from South Asian countries registered positive growth except India.

European countries such as UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden have also maintained the increasing trend in the arrival figures in December compared to the same month last year. UK, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, France and Denmark registered positive growth in comparison to the previous year.

Arrivals from the United States of America, Australia and Canada have also increased in December. Similarly total arrivals in 2008 from the United States of America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have also increased compared to 2007, NTB said. However France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland have registered negative growth in the current month.

However, other Asian countries did not show healthy trend. Malaysia has maintained upward trend with 21.9 percent growth. Arrivals from China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, witnessed negative growth in the arrival figures by 25.9%, 3.6%, 2.8% and 9.5% respectively in the month of December. Arrival figures for year 2008 show upward trend

A total of 33,554 foreign tourists departed from TIA in December 2008 while the total number of international visitor departure till December 2008 reached 405,223, representing an increase of 11.24 percent. The number of Nepalese arrivals stood at 41,333 while 48,982 Nepalese departed from TIA in December 2008.

"Since August as global economy faced meltdown following the hike in oil prices and the consequent cuts in airline capacity and increasing transport cost travelers trim down their length of stay and their consumption in terms of type of accommodation and other activities," NTB said, "Against continuing downward revisions in macro-economic expectations overall 4 percent growth in international tourist arrivals in 2008 as compared for the full of 2007 can be considered as healthy increment." nepalnews.com mk Jan 01 08