Tourist arrival up by 12.5 % in first six months this year

Kathmandu-The Department of Immigration says a total of 68,825 international tourists visited Nepal in May 2018, with a healthy increment of 9.6 % as compared to the arrival figures of May 2017. 
With this, the arrival figures in January – May period reached 454,855, an increase of 12.5% over the same period in 2017. 
The arrivals from India grew by 8.6 % in May in comparison to the figures of same month in 2017. Similarly, the overall arrivals from the SAARC countries registered a positive growth of 2.2 % over the same month last year. However, the visitors from Bangladesh decreased by 49.3%. 
Visitor arrivals from China continue to soar as in the previous months and grew by 25.2 % in May in comparison to the arrivals in the same month last year. Arrivals from Asia (other than SAARC) have also recorded positive growth of 14.2 %. Likewise the visitors from Thailand and Singapore to Nepal increased by 62.1 % and 11.3 % respectively. 
An overall decrease of 18 % in May has been recorded in European market as compared to the same months last year. However, France and Germany gained 26.8% and 49% of increment respectively. The arrivals from the UK slightly declined by 7.4 %. 
Tourist arrivals from Australia and New Zealand have also increased by 10.4 % and 28.7 % respectively in May 2018 as compared to the figures of 2017. Likewise, visitors from USA and Canada have also grown by 7.4 % and 5.3 % respectively in May 2018.