Kathmandu, January 11, 2019: In 2018, more than one million tourists from around the world visited Nepal with an increment of 24.77 per cent in comparison to 2017. As per the statistics of Nepal Tourism Board, 1,173,072 tourists arrived in the country out of which, 969,287 international visitors came by air and 203,785 came overland.
The overall arrivals from SAARC countries registered a strong growth of 26.4 per cent as compared to last year with 301,963 total tourist arrivals. Likewise, 153,602 Chinese tourists visited Nepal in 2018 with an increment of 46.8 per cent more than the arrivals in 2017. Similarly, visitors from Thailand, South Korea and Japan have also increased significantly by 36 per cent, 8.3 per cent and 8.9 per cent, respectively. Arrivals from the United Kingdom, Germany and France were 63,086, 36,833 and 31,653, respectively with 15.6 per cent, 23.1 per cent and 21.1 per cent growth rates.The total European arrivals in 2018 reached 243,284 with regional aggregated growth of 23.3 per cent.Total number of US visitors to Nepal in 2018 was 91,785, an increase of 16 per cent over the figures of the previous year. Likewise, the number of Australian visitors to Nepal in 2018 stood at 38,408, which is 15.1 per cent more than in 2017.
Rabindra Adhikari, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation mentioned that the remarkable growth in the eve of ‘Visit Nepal Year 2020’ has buoyed the spirit of the travel sector. He added, “The last two months of 2018 have alone recorded 47 per cent increase in tourist arrivals as compared to same months in 2017. This has prepared a sound and solid platform to achieve the target of Visit Nepal Year 2020 to welcome two million tourists.” On the other hand, CEO of Nepal Tourism Board, Deepak Raj Joshi expressed,” The successive growths of the last three years have instilled high confidence in the tourism stakeholders.Working closely with the private sector and media is the success mantra to take our tourism to a new height.”
