12,000 tourists came from Kakarbhitta

JHAPA, Jan 10:The number of tourists visiting Nepal via Kakarbhitta, the country's eastern border, has reached 11,756. According to the Immigration Office in Kakadbhitta, foreign tourists, including Nepali students, entered Nepal across the country's eastern border in 2024. The number of persons entering Nepal through Kakadbhitta in 2024 has grown by around 3,300 from 2023.

In 2023, around 8,400 persons visited Nepal, including 5,300 Nepali students. According to the office, from January to December last year, 5,655 Nepali students, 4,916 Bhutanese, and 1,185 nationals of other countries returned to Nepal via Kakadbhitta for education.

After Covid, the Indian Immigration Office stopped issuing visas to third-country nationals, and the Indian side only opened the border for third-country tourists on August 1, 2024, according to Udaya Kumar Shrestha, former president of the Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA) Koshi Province.

For a long time, the immigration 'check post' in Pani Tank, West Bengal, India, which is directly connected to Kakadbhitta, the far eastern gateway for citizens of third countries, Raniganj, did not issue entry permits to tourists visiting Nepal from third countries other than Nepali students and Bhutanese, causing tourism entrepreneurs to suffer due to a lack of tourists visiting Nepal from the eastern border.

He stated that the movement of third-country and Bangladeshi tourists visiting Nepal via the eastern border has been severely hampered by the closure of the tourism sector in Koshi Province, but expressed hope that the country's tourism sector, which has been weakened by COVID-19, will gradually return to its old rhythm. He stated that tourist arrivals in Nepal are gradually returning to normal, and that the next days will be more prosperous for Nepali tourism.

Former President Shrestha stated that the Nepal Government, Nepal Tourism Board should focus various efforts to boost the number of foreign tourists. 

NATTA According to Koshi Province General Secretary Nabin Kharel, tourist arrivals have reduced between 2020 and 2022 owing to Corona.

According to Kharel, the majority of Bangladeshi tourists travel through Kakarbhitta's eastern border and enjoy visiting religious and tourist destinations like as Kathmandu, Pokhara, Lumbini, Chitwan, Gorkha, and Manakamana.