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Kathmandu Monday January 28, 2002 Magh 15, 2058.
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Tourist arrival via land dips
by 22 pc
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Jan 27:With a decline in the number
of incoming tourist via land during the last year by 22.90 per cent as compared to 2000,
the total plunge in number of incoming tourists touched 21.83 per cent during 2001 as
compared to the like year.
According to the statistics provided by the
Department of Immigration, a total of 66,863 tourists visited Nepal through entry points
at Bhairahawa, Kakarvitta, Birgunj, Mahendranagar and Tatopani. A total of 86,732 tourists
from other than India had come to Nepal through these points during the last year.
The incoming figures for tourist through the
above immigration points had been rising till 2000. The figure for the inflow of by-land
tourist had increased by 23.4 per cent during 2000 as compared to 1999. In the list of the
incoming tourists there is no such practice of including the Indian tourists, because of
the practical difficulty.
Statistics show that the total air tourist
inflow had gone down by 20 per cent last year. Now with the figures of the incoming
tourists through land, a total of 362,644 tourists came in the year 2000 while such inflow
for the previous year was 463,646.
The total plunge in tourist inflow for last year
is the highest in the tourism industry’s entire history. Major decline in the tourist
inflow was recorded in 1993 when the tourist figure for inflow went down by 12 per cent
and even earlier in 1989 when 9 per cent as compared to the previous year.
The current decline in the tourist inflow, the
tourism experts say, is the result of cumulative effect of several national and
international consequences that Nepal had to face during the past two years.
The tourism industry began to suffer since the
hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight 814 that took off from Kathmandu in December 1999
followed by the strikes of the hotel workers demanding a ten per cent service charge.
However, when the tourism industry had begun to
swing upwards, resulting in four per cent surge on the tourist inflow during the first
five months of the year 2001, the unexpected royal carnage of June 1 hit the Nepali
tourism industry hard. In the month of June alone, the country had to see a slump in
tourist inflow by 56 per cent.
It was not just the national events that plagued
the Nepali tourism industry. The unprecedented Sept 11 terrorist attack in the United
States also hit the Nepal’s major foreign currency earner.
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