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April sees 15.8 pc rise in air arrivals

Notwithstanding the fall in global tourist movements due to financial meltdown, tourists arrivals in Nepal via air increased by 15.8 percent in April.

According to Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), a total of 37,819 tourists visited Nepal via air, whereas the number during the same period last year stood at 32,665.

For the first time in 2009, April witnessed a positive growth in visitor arrivals to Nepal, in a way challenging the worldwide decline in tourist arrivals. The entire Asian region registered a positive growth except Japan, said NTB.

Visitor arrivals from every market in South Asia registered a positive growth. India - which occupies the largest share in visitor arrivals in Nepal - recorded a whopping 27.3 percent growth. Similarly, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh witnessed positive growths of 61.2 percent, 29.4 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively.

Other Asian source markets - China, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea and Singapore - regained the upward trend with 27.3 percent, 68.5 percent, 20.9 percent, 73 percent and 61.3 percent of growth, respectively.

However, arrivals from Japan witnessed a marginal negative growth of 1.3 percent. The entire Europe and Oceania region registered a robust growth of 23.3 percent and 16 percent respectively, in comparison to the same month last year. However, France and the Netherlands registered a negative growth of 3.7 percent and 9.4 percent respectively.

Arrivals from Canada and the USA also registered a positive growth of 20.2 percent and 5.8 percent respectively.

The increase in visitor arrivals reflects and reinforces the resilient nature of the tourism economy which can play a crucial role towards recovery of countries that are dependent on tourism.

The remarkable growth in visitors' arrival from India and China - Nepal's immediate neighbours - and other major players in the intra-regional tourism
underscore the need to focus on regional markets at a time of the economic crisis.

A total of 41,439 foreign tourists departed from TIA in April 2009. The number of Nepali arrivals stood at 43,444 while 45,886 Nepalese departed from TIA in April. nepalnews.com May 04 09