Tourist Arrivals decline for the first time in last 3 and half yearsMonday, February 4th, 2013

The figures released by Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) reveal that the tourist arrivals reached 35,330 with 15.9% of decline in January this year compared to the same month last year.
Major source markets have recorded negative growths in tourist arrivals in the first month of 2013. In the SAARC region only Pakistan has recorded positive growth of 5.8%. India which constitutes the major market of Nepal, has recorded negative growth of 26.1%. Arrivals from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have also registered negative growth by 62.6% and 42.6% respectively.
Arrivals from Asia (other than South Asia) have also recorded negative growth of 16.4% in aggregate with mixed results. The visitor’s arrivals from China have decreased by 40.3%. However, the arrivals from Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea have also increased by 16.8%, 10.3%, 4.3%, 42.6% and 11.2% respectively.
An overall negative growth of 15 % has been observed from the European markets with arrivals from major generating markets such as Germany, France and the Netherlands down by 12.2%, 38.2%, and 29% respectively. However, the arrivals from the UK has increased by 6.6% compared to the same month last year.
Tourist arrivals from Australia, New Zealand and USA have registered growths of 27.3%, 25%, and 13% respectively. A negative growth of 27.4% has been recorded from Canada in January 2013 compared to January 2012.
A total of 45,667 foreign tourists departed from TIA in January 2013. The number of Nepalese arrivals stood at 69,442 while 91281 Nepalese departed from TIA in January 2013.