Upward Trend in Visitor Arrivals

According to the Department of Immigration, a total of 287,380 international tourists visited Nepal in the first three months (January, February and March) of 2018, with a healthy increment of 12%.

The arrivals from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan recorded positive growths of 15.2 , 35.3, 3.6 and 20.5% respectively in January 2018 in comparison to the figure of same month in 2017. Similarly, the overall arrivals from the SAARC countries registered a positive growth of 18.1as compared last year. Although Indian and Sri Lankan arrivals decreased by 32.4% and 17.4 %, with an overall decrease of 17.9% in February 2018, the region witnessed a positive growth of 7.8 in March 2018.  The increase was due to the robust growth of 39.1 % in the Indian visitors to Nepal.

Visitor arrivals from China increased significantly by 23.6 %, 26.2% and 29.6% in January, February and March 2018 respectively as compared to the arrivals in the same months last year. Arrivals from Asia (other than SAARC) have also recorded positive growths of 22.2 %, 13.2 %  and 21.85 % in January, February and March of 2018 compared to the same months last year.  Likewise the visitors from Japan, South Korea and Thailand went up by 5.3 %, 32.7 %  and 24.9 %  in January respectively. However, the number of visitors from Malaysia declined by 12.3 %.  In February 2018, the arrivals from South Korea and Thailand declined by 27.4 % and 18.4 %.  Similarly, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, and Thailand all have recorded positive growths of 19.4, 19.2, 43 and 6.1 % respectively, as compared to the figures of March 2017.

As far as European source markets are concerned, an overall positive growth of 17.2% in January, 16.4 % in February and 35.9 %  in March were recorded as compared to the same months last year. However, the arrivals from the UK slightly decreased by 4.3 % in January but the number increased by 11.1 %and 21 % in February and March in 2018.

Tourist arrivals from Australia and New Zealand have also increased by 0.8 %, 8.2 % and 15.5 % respectively in January, February and March in 2018 as compared to the figures of 2017. Although tourist arrivals from USA and Canada have slightly decreased in January 2018, the upward trend resumed in February and March 2018.

Year 2017 witnessed an unprecedented growth in the visitors’ arrival and Nepal received almost a million visitors. The upward trend that took off in 2016 and its continuation in 2017 and 2018 disseminated a very positive message to the tourism sources markets abroad and entire tourism fraternity in Nepal.
–Department of Immigration