Number of visitors to Nepal by air sees a healthy growth

There has been a healthy growth of 27 percent in arrival of visitors to Nepal by air in the month September 2007, up by 6,847 compared to the corresponding month of last year.

According to visitors' arrival data released by Immigration Office, this growth in tourist arrival has been possible as the American and European markets have registered a robust growth of 33.1 percent and 38.5 percent respectively, followed by a significant growth in major tourist generating markets.

There has been a positive growth in visitors' arrival from UK (32.1%), Germany (25.2%), France (18.6%), Italy (33.6%), Spain (49.1%), Japan (29 %) and USA (38.5%), according to the data.

"What this connotes is a rebound in tourism industry. If this growth trend sustains for few more months, we are quite optimistic of imparting the renewed confidence amongst the industry for achieving our target to regain the lost image," said Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) in a press release issued Tuesday.

The release further adds - Chinese and Korean markets, up by 158.8 % and 98.4 % respectively, have been strengthened considerably after the operation of direct flights from these destinations.

The total arrivals in the last nine months have gone up by 32.3 % having 2,52,407 visitors by air in comparison to the same period last year with each country recording very optimistic growth.

However, the arrival figure from India has shown negative growth due to the fact that the Indian market is "very sensitive to negative news".

"But we believe that festival season which has just started will definitely entice more Indian tourists to Nepal in coming months," NTB said. nepalnews.com ag Oct 03 07