KATHMANDU (The Kathmandu Post/ANN) - Foreign tourist arrivals to Nepal rose 25.4 per cent year-on-year in January with the strongest growths recorded from India, China, the US, Thailand and Japan. 

According to the Nepal Tourism Board, 91,793 foreign visitors streamed into the country in January--77,300 individuals by air and 14,493 overland.

Arrivals from India grew 20.6 per cent to 14,650 individuals. Visitor numbers from the neighbourhood showed a respectable rise.

Arrivals from the member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation registered a growth of 11.6 per cent to 17,432 individuals.

Arrivals from China grew 14 per cent to 13,688 individuals, according to the board’s statistics. Visitors from Thailand, Japan and South Korea also increased significantly by 69.8 per cent, 38 per cent and 8.4 per cent respectively compared January 2018.

European outbound to Nepal surged with healthy growths. Arrivals from the UK, Germany and France rose 27.2 per cent, 19.7 per cent and 19.8 per cent respectively to reach 4,130, 1,549 and 1,375 individuals. Total European arrivals in January reached 11,966 with a regional aggregated growth of 20 per cent.

The number of travellers from the US to Nepal grew 28.1 per cent to 7,028 individuals in January. The number of Australian visitors to Nepal soared 31.3 per cent to 3,527 individuals. Deepak Raj Joshi, chief executive officer of the Nepal Tourism Board, said that the growth in foreign visitor numbers at the start of 2019 was a result of a sustained international publicity campaign.

Arrivals crossed the coveted one-million mark for the first time in 2018 with 1.17 million foreign tourists thronging the country. According to the Nepal Tourism Board, Nepal tourism reached the magic figure due to a jump in arrivals from India, China, the US, Sri Lanka and the UK.

The number of tourists visiting Nepal recorded a 24.77 per cent growth over last year. Among the total arrivals, 969,287 individuals came by air. Arrivals from Nepal’s southern neighbour grew 25.1 per cent to 200,438 individuals. Indian tourists who travel to Nepal overland are not included in the tourism statistics.

The board said that arrivals from China saw the strongest growth of 46.8 per cent to 153,602 individuals in 2018, largely due to increased flight frequencies between the two countries.

According to the statistics, 26,694 Chinese visitors entered Nepal through the Rasuwagadhi border point.

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