KATHMANDU: More than 600,000 tourists have entered Nepal in 2022. Based on the number of tourists who came to visit Nepal, the largest number of tourists came from the neighboring country India.
According to the statistics of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), more than 200,000 tourists from India entered Nepal in 2022 (January-December). Out of a total of 614,148 tourists who visited Nepal, 209,105 tourists entered Nepal from India alone. This is about 35 percent of the total number. The data includes the tourists via air only.
Similarly, the United States ranks second in terms of tourist arrivals. More than 77,000 tourists have entered Nepal in 2022 from the USA. This is 14 percent of the total number. After the US, the UK, Australia and Bangladesh are ranked third, fourth and fifth, respectively. 44,700 tourists from the UK, 26,800 from Australia, and 25,300 tourists from Bangladesh entered Nepal in 2022.
Nepal saw the highest number of tourists’ arrival in the month of October followed by November and December. In October, 88,582 tourists visited Nepal while 72,653 tourists came in November and 67,932 in December. However, in the beginning of 2022, there wasn’t much movement of tourists in the country. In January 2022, only 16,975 tourists arrived in Nepal followed by 19,766 tourists in February.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the arrival of tourists was stopped for almost two years. At the same time, 42,776 tourists entered Nepal in 2020. This shows that the number of tourist arrivals in 2022 is showing improvement.
Tourism arrivals, which have been slow for the past two years, are gradually returning to their rhythm since last year. Since the effects of the pandemic have been seen again in neighboring countries like China and South Korea for the past few weeks, the possibility of its impact on Nepal’s tourism will also increase sooner or later.