Seven lakh tourists visit Nepal in nine months

In the first nine months of 2023, nearly seven lakh foreign tourists visited Nepal via air route. According to the data published by the Nepal Tourism Board citing the Immigration Department, 6 lakh 92 thousand 372 tourists entered by air from January to September of the year. In the last month of September alone, 91 thousand 12 tourists have visited Nepal. Last year, only 58 thousand 314 tourists entered Nepal during the same period.

In the month of September alone, 28 thousand 694 tourists came from India, 8 thousand 174 from China, 7 thousand 364 from America, and 3 thousand 716 tourists from Bangladesh came to Nepal. Similarly, 3 thousand 685 tourists from Australia, 3 thousand 640 from the United Kingdom, 3 thousand 11 from Sri Lanka, 2 thousand 852 from Germany, 2 thousand 18 from South Korea and 1 thousand 734 from Israel have entered Nepal.

It is expected that the arrival of foreign tourists will increase in the coming days as the tourist season has just started in Nepal. The government has set a target of bringing in one million foreign tourists in 2023.

Nepal had received highest number of tourists in September 2019, before the outbreak of corona. During the period 92,604 foreign tourists visit Nepal by air. “We have achieved 98 percent recovery in tourist arrival in September this year, said Mani Lama, director at Nepal Tourism Board. Covid – 19 pandemic had badly hit Nepal’s tourism with just 584 arrivals registered in September 2020. The number gradually increased in the following years. Nepal received 9,907 tourists in September 2021 and the number increased to 58,314 in 2022 September, according to NTB.