Fewer visitors entered Nepal in September

Fewer visitors entered Nepal in September

Number of visitors coming to Nepal by air in September 2006 fell down by 7.4% reaching a total of 25,484, compared to the same month last year. The decline was observed in both market segments, Indian (-17.4%) and non-Indian (-2.6%). This was stated in the figures released by Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation quoting Immigration Office Tribhuvan International Airport.
In terms of various originating markets, visitors coming from SAARC and Asia suffered losses during the month as arrivals from Bangladesh plummeted by 54.5% while Chinese arrivals went down by 13.8%. Except South Korea, which went up by 48.1%, rest of the Asian markets declined, viz., Japan (-0.6%), Malaysia (-11.5%), Singapore (-44.3%), Taiwan (-53%) and Thailand (45.6%).
Arrivals from the European generating markets showed marginal loss of 2.8%. The major contributors French, German and Spanish markets remained positive with gains of 4.3%, 2.2% and 19.5% respectively. The other major contributor from Europe, UK, however declined by 14.5% along with Italy (-9.9%) and the Netherlands (-5.5%).
The Australian arrivals on the other hand went up by 38.9% while the US market continued to perform positively showing an increase of 22.6%.
September 2006 marked a mixed performance in terms of arrival numbers to Nepal. Interestingly the long haul markets have gained substantially like US, Australia and Spain while the neighboring regional markets have registered negative growth. The mark up in long-haul segment is a clear indication of returning consumer confidence towards the destination. This is certainly contributed by the improvement of security and safety image of the country as well as absence of negative stories about Nepal. And despite the apparent fall in numbers hotels and airlines have reported high occupancy for the services and tourism attractions within Nepal have observed an influx of tourist after a long spell.