POKHARA, March 2:February is considered to be the season when foreign tourists start visiting Nepal after the off-season in winter.

The business of the tourism sector, which slows down from December to January, starts to pick up pace from February. The arrival of tourists in February has been encouraging, according to Nepal Tourism Board (NTB).

The board said that the increase in arrival of tourists shows that the tourism sector is returning to normalcy following the pandemic period.

A total of 73,255 foreign tourists entered Nepal in February, bringing relief to the tourism sector that has been badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Nepal Tourism Board, the number of tourists who entered Nepal this February increased significantly compared to last February. In February 2022, a total of 19,766 tourists entered Nepal. All these tourists who entered Nepal came by air route.

According to NTB Director Mani Raj Lamichhane, the arrival of tourists has improved by 72 percent in February this year compared to last February. In February 2019, altogether 102,423 foreign tourists had entered Nepal while 98,190 foreign tourists had arrived here in February 2020.

The tourism industry of Nepal was hard hit by Covid-19 pandemic since March 2020 with the state imposing lockdown and restrictions to curb the spread of the virus. As a result, the arrival of tourists began to decline until the infection  rate subsided recently 

“Compared to last year's arrival, the size of this year's arrival is much higher. It should be considered that the recovery is very good," Lamichhane said.

A total of 9,246 foreign guests entered Nepal in February 2021, the year when coronavirus affected the business the most. 

This February, most of the tourists arriving in Nepal were from India. The number of Indian tourists during the review month stands at 18,401. Similarly, the numberAmerican tourists visiting Nepal ranks second at 7,887 followed by tourists from Thailand (4,802), Britain (4,345) and South Korea (3,246).

Likewise, Australia ranks sixth in terms of tourist arrival with 2,969 visitors followed by guests from China (2,266), Myanmar (2,232), Sri Lanka (2,175) and Germany (2,188) completing the list of top ten countries.

According to Lamichhane, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Nepal has started to increase gradually.

Despite not being included in China's list of 20 countries open for travel, Chinese tourists have started to arrive here individually. While group travel has not yet resumed, Lamichhane noted that the size of Chinese tourists has been satisfactory. He attributed this to the availability of direct flights between Kathmandu and various cities in China, which has helped to facilitate individual travel. If group travel was to resume, Lamichhane believes that the number of Chinese tourists would increase further.

Lamichhane said that even though businessmen are complaining about the decline in arrival of foreign tourists after the plane crash in Pokhara on January 15, the figures show otherwise.

Instead, the number of foreign visitors to Pokhara may have decreased a bit, he said. 

 
• Pokhara
 
• Tourism