Kathmandu, Dec 1: In the past eleven months of 2024, the country registered the arrivals of over one million foreign tourists via flights. According to the Nepal Tourism Board, one million 55 thousand 533 tourists from outside the country visited Nepal between January and November 2024. They arrived by flight. The data shows that it has been challenging to meet the target of welcoming 1,315,000 tourists this year.
The NTB expects that around 70,000 foreigners will arrive in Nepal in the remaining one month as tourists and the number will be around 111,5000. However, in November alone, 114,000 tourists arrived in Nepal, and this figure is 5.40 percent more than the corresponding year in 2023. NTB Director Maniraj Lamichhane said the analysis of the data so far suggests that the tourist arrivals this year compared to the previous year are likely to go by around 10 percent. In 2023, 1014,871 tourists visited Nepal.
Earlier, the NTB hoped to witness the arrival of the highest number of tourists since 2019, the year before COVID-19 hit the tourism industry. In 2029, the arrivals were tallied at 1,197,191.
However, Nepal’s tourism is above the recovery line than in the Asia Pacific sector.
According to the data of the past six months of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, Nepal’s tourism industry recovered 96 percent globally. However, the target for tourist arrivals as projected in 2024 seems to be challenging to meet due to various reasons, he added.
