NTB survey to find average expenditure of foreign tourists

KATHMANDU, Feb 27: The Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has started a study to obtain accurate data on the average expenditure of foreign tourists visiting Nepal.

The NTB has started a survey from Sunday with the aim of finding out the average spending rate of foreign tourists. Maniraj Lamichhane, director of the NTB, said that the study has been started with the aim of obtaining accurate data on how much foreign tourists spend in Nepal.

He said, 'Two thousand samples will be collected. Five employees appointed by the NTB will be able to complete this work within 40 days by filling 10 question forms every day. The students of Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM) are involved in this study under the coordination of the NTB.

Director Lamichhane mentioned that this study will help to get accurate data about how much foreign tourists spend in Nepal. According to him, in 2021, a foreign tourist spent an average of 48 US dollars per day.

In the year 2022, tourists are spending around the same amount. Director Lamichhane said that this rate will increase to 70 to 75 dollars in 2023.

He said that the study has been started on Sunday as the main tool of 'Tourism Satellite Account'. A study on the expenditure of tourists has been started in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Nepal Rastra Bank, National Statistics Office and NATHM.

In recent days, the number of foreign tourists has increased. According to the data of the NTB, in the month of January 2023, 55,074 foreign tourists entered Nepal, while last year, 6,14,148 foreign tourists entered Nepal.

Before the covid-19 pandemic, in 2019, 11 lakh 97 thousand 91 foreign tourists came, in 2020, the number of foreign tourists decreased by 81 percent due to the corona pandemic, and shrunk to 230 thousand 85 people. Similarly, in 2021, 150,962 tourists came to Nepal.