Sunauli-Belihiya entry point records 8.4pc growth in tourist arrivals

Bhairahawa: Tourist arrivals through the Sunauli-Belihiya point, the gateway of Lumbini, have increased 8.4 percent to 144,668 in 2012, according to the statistics of the Immigration Office Bhairahawa.

Sunauli-Belihiya—a major entry point among eight across the country—is used by more than 75 percent of the tourists visiting to Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha.

However, despite launching a campaign titled “Visit Lumbini Year 2012”, the government failed to achieve its target a million visitors (half of them foreigners) in Lumbini. Of those 758,269 that turned out, 136,100 were the foreigners with the Indians accounting for 113,195. Rests of them were the domestic visitors, according to the Tourist Information Service, Lumbini.

The number of visitors in 2012 grew by 29.9 percent compare to 2011. The government does not include Indian visitors entering overland on the tourist list.

Travel-trade entrepreneurs pointed out lack of promotional activities as the reason behind the government’s failure to achieve the target. The campaign is scheduled to conclude in mid-January.

“The growth in tourist numbers in 2012 was natural and the campaign lacked thrust to boost tourist numbers as expected,” said Yadav Raj Pandey, chief of the office.

A number of promotional activities were carried out in both national campaigns Nepal Tourism Year in 2011 and Visit Lumbini Year 2012 but without visible impact, Pandey observed.

Yet the arrivals through the Sunauli-Belihiya point for the past few years have increased gradually, according to him. A total of 89,880 foreigners—the majority of them from Buddhist countries—entered through the point in 2009, while 102,120 visited a year later.

According to the statistics, a total of 55,902 Sri Lankan visitors entered Nepal through the point, while the numbers of the visitors from Thailand and Myanmar stood at 31,815 and 21,158 respectively.

As much as 80 percent of the foreigners are found to have come in with the purpose to visit Lumbini. “The government did not devise any plan and strategy to prolong visitors’ stay in Lumbini,” Pandey lamented.

source: The Kathmandu post,3 jan 2013