KATHMANDU, August 3: The average length of stay of the tourists visiting Nepal increased by around 19 percent, despite a fall in the number of tourists visiting Nepal due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The records with the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation show that the average stay of foreign visitors increased from 12.7 days to 15.1 days per individual tourist. This is the record high stay duration in the past two and a half decades. Along with the staying time, the average spending also went up from US $ 48 to US $ 65 per tourist.  

However, inflow of foreign visitors plunged by 80.8 percent to 230,085 individuals in the same year, shows the ministry’s records. Of the total number, 183,130 tourists visited the country via air service while 46,955 came by using land transport services.

The visitors from India were among the largest. Myanmar surpassed China and stood second in terms of arriving source. According to the ministry’s officials, the airlines companies increasing their flights to Myanmar helped increase the number of visitors from the country while China imposed restrictions on its air services citing the risk of the pandemic.

 
• tourism
 
• length_of_stay
 
• COVID-19