Number of tourists up in Chitwan

SAURAHA (CHITWAN), Sept 16: The number of tourists visiting Chitwan National Park (CNP) for wildlife safari has almost tripled in five years, according to officials.



The Kasara-based headquarters of CNP stated that the total number of tourists visiting the CNP in fiscal year 2008/09 has reached 114,384, up by about 9,000 as compared to the number recorded during the same period last year. [break]



“The number recorded during the fiscal year 2008/09 is triple the number recorded in 2004/05,” Bed Bahadur Khadka, assistant warden, CNP, told Republica. During the fiscal year 2004/05, a total of 42,654 tourists had visited the national park, which has been recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage site. Khadka also said CNP mobilized revenue of Rs 62.7 million from wildlife tourism during the last fiscal year.



Chitwan -- the third most popular tourist destination in the country after Kathmandu Valley and Pokhara -- is mainly famous for one-horned rhino, Royal Bengal Tiger and scores of other endangered flora and fauna.



After nearly a decade of slackness, tourism in Chitwan is crawling back to recovery after the successful Jana Andolan II in 2006 and the subsequent beginning of the peace process and an end to Maoist insurgency.



“The rise in the tourist arrival in Chitwan is satisfactory,” said Hari Bhakta Ghimire, president, Hotel Association of Nepal, Chitwan Chapter. “The arrivals now meet capacity of local hotels. Some hotels are adding rooms and improving facilities, keeping in view the increasing number of visitors.”



Sauraha, the main entrance to CNP, welcomes about 75 percent of total tourists visiting Chitwan.

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