Friday, April 13, 2018
China has surpassed India, the longtime record holder as the leading source nation for tourists to Nepal with a 38.04% rise in tourist arrivals in the initial three months of the year according to the Department of Immigration.
As per the figures released by the department on Thursday, Nepal had welcomed 40,976 Chinese travellers, land as well as air routes from January to March. In the same period, number of Indians visiting Nepal had dropped by a marginal 0.98% to 34,133 individuals.
Indians arriving in Nepal through land route are not included as tourists.
Industry sources had attributed the substantial growth from China to its changed policy towards Nepal following the formation of the left alliance government. In addition, China currently has the most extensive air connectivity with Nepal.
Presently, five Chinese carriers including Sichuan Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern, Air China and Tibet Airlines operate flights to Nepal.
Presently, no Nepali air carrier serves China.
World’s most populous nation had become the second largest source of visitors for Nepal last year with arrivals totaling 104,664 individuals. As per the travel trade entrepreneurs, Chinese tourists were also the largest spenders. Chinese visitor arrivals to Nepal had shrunk to a great extent after the 2015 killer quake and India’s trade embargo that negatively impacted enthusiasm of tourism entrepreneurs who were hopeful to an extent due to the rapidly rising market.
The twin disasters arriving one after the other forced the arrivals from China dipping to a four-year low of 64,675 individuals in 2015, down 47.76% from the previous year.
Thereafter the Nepali travel traders about a probable sustained downturn in tourism.
In December 2015, Nepal had declared free visas for Chinese tourists offering them the same treatment as per the SAARC visitors in an attempt to revive the dropping visitor arrivals.
China’s tourists today are the largest group of travellers in any country. Every year, 120 million Chinese holidaymakers head to foreign destinations to witness the sights that makes China the biggest tourism source market in the world.
Monday, January 1, 2024
