Indians and Chinese remain top tourists

Indians continued to visit Nepal in large numbers, making our southern neighbor the top source-country of tourists between mid-December 2012 and mid-December 2013, according to the Economic Survey 2013/14 unveiled Thursday. Indian tourists, who have held the lead this last decade, made up 23 percent of all tourists visiting Nepal in the period.

Second among the top tourist source-countries for Nepal is China, making up 19.2 percent of all tourists visiting Nepal, followed by Sri Lanka with 7.5 percent, the United States of America, with 7.3 percent, and the United Kingdom, with 4.7 percent, according to the survey. Citizens of these countries have been on the list of top five countries for tourist arrival to Nepal for the last decade.

In the review period, construction started on the Visitor Information Center and an administrative building as per the Lumbini Development Master plan. Likewise, construction of road and green-belts are also taking place.

According to the report, in Fiscal Year 2012/13 849,273 tourists visited Lumbini. Of them 553,729 were Nepalis, 150,252 Indians, and 125,492 were from other countries.

In Fiscal Year 2012/13, the government sent 139 government officials on ´tourism visit leaves´ to promote domestic tourism. It had originally planned to send 360 government officials and their families, which would have accounted for 720 individuals, on ´tourism visit leaves´ in 2013/14.
The Great Himalayan Trail was been promoted in both domestic and international levels which helped in the promotion of tourism, thereby increasing the number of tourist, the survey said.

During the period, the 60-year anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest was promoted throughout the world and successful climbers felicitated. Likewise, a cleanup campaign was organized in the Everest region and 22,000 kg of waste collected.

In order to uplift the image of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), the government decided to buy two Airbus 320-200 narrow-body aircraft for international flights. These planes have already been ordered and one will arrive on February 2015 while the other is scheduled for an April 2015 delivery. Likewise, NAC has ordered two Modern Ark (MA) 60 planes and four Harbin Y12e planes for domestic operation, of which an MA60 and an Harbin Y12e have been delivered.

The number of mountain climbing groups decreased from 279 in the mid-December 2011 to mid-December 2012 period to 252 in the mid-December 2012 to mid-December 2013 period. However during the same period, the number of climbers went gone up from 1,971 to 2,455.The number of star hotels went up from 107 to 117 during the review period, according to the survey.

source: republica,11 july 2014