500,000 foreign tourists visit Nepal in six months

The Himalayan Times, 21 July 2018

As many as 520,000 tourists visited the country in the first six months of the year 2018.

According to the Department of Immigration, this is 13 per cent increment in tourist arrivals compared to the number of tourists visiting the country during the corresponding period last year. During the same period last year, a total of 460,304 foreign tourists had visited the country.

The data shows that tourist arrivals were encouraging even during the rainy season. It may be noted that Nepal Tourism Board held tourism promotional programmes aimed at attracting more tourists to Nepal.

NTB Chief Executive Officer Deepak Raj Joshi said increase in the number of foreigners even during off season was good news for tourism entrepreneurs. The contribution of the private sector to the country’s tourism cannot be ignored, he added.

The latest data shows that 96,372 Indian tourists visited Nepal in the period while the number of Chinese was 71,379. The number of tourists from the United States of America was 43,816, while the number Japanese tourists stood at 13, 851.

Nepal welcomed tourists especially from South Asia and European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, among others.

Source: https://thehimalayantimes.com/kathmandu/500000-foreign-tourists-visit-nepal-in-six-months/