Over 720,000 tourists enter Nepal in last eight months

KATHMANDU, Sep 05: Over 720,000 tourists have entered Nepal in the first eight months of the year 2024. 

According to the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB)'s data, 720,334 tourists had visited Nepal in the eight months from January to August of 2024. 

The arrival of foreign tourists has increased by 8.3 percent, the NTB sources informed. 

A total of 5,566 more tourists visited Nepal in August this year compared to the same reporting period last year. A total of 67,153 tourists had visited Nepal last year while it was 72,719 in August 2024. 

NTB Director Maniraj Lamichhane said the number of foreign tourists has been increasing in recent days.

He expressed the belief that a significant number of tourists would come from other countries including neighbouring countries in the coming days as a result of tourism promotion programmes. 

According to the board data, the highest number of 25,832 tourists came from India, 6,614 from China, 5,614 from the US, 4,851 from Sri Lanka and 3,077 from Bangladesh in August this year. 

A total of 41,304 foreign tourists had visited Nepal in August 2022, 6,093 in the same period in 2021 and 94,749 in August 2019. The highest number of 111,376 had tourists visited Nepal in March, while July received the lowest number of 64,599 tourists. 

A total of 79,100 tourists had visited Nepal in January; 97,426 in February; 111,03,076 in April; 90,211 in May, 76,736 in June and 72,719 in August. 

Foreign tourist arrivals have continuously increased after the COVID pandemic. A total of 1,014,885 tourists visited Nepal in 2023. 

The government has set a target of attracting 1.6 million foreign tourists in the current fiscal year's budget. 

The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has set a target of attracting 1.6 million tourists in the current fiscal year by implementing the Tourism Strategy Plan (2016-25) and the Visit Nepal Decade. The Department of Tourism is also constructing infrastructure by identifying 100 tourist destinations.