Visitor Arrival in June 2010

Nepal Tourism Board


Press Release

July 1, 2010

Visitor Arrivals Soar in June 2010

The figures released by Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) reveal

that visitor arrivals in June 2010, compared to the same month last year, have increased

by 16.3% to 26,997. This brought the cumulative visitor arrivals for the first six months

of this year to 196,319 18.1% more than in the same period last year.



In June 2010, all markets registered growth in visitor arrivals. The arrivals from South

Asian region, except for the arrivals from Sri Lanka, have gained overall positive growth

of 22.2% with Bangladesh (51.4%) and Pakistan (13%) registering positive growth. Visitor

arrivals from India have increased by 20.9% which showed sustained growth this year,

except soft decline in the month of April.



China, another major source market for Nepal, also recorded double digit growth of 13.5%.

As for other short-haul markets, Southeast Asia showed mixed reaction in terms of visitor

arrivals. Malaysia and Singapore witnessed dramatic growth, as visitor arrivals

registered positive growth of 59.6% and 100.4% respectively. Visitors from Japan have

registered a positive growth of 2%. However arrivals from South Korea and Thailand have

registered a negative growth of 35.3% and 26.5% respectively.



From long-haul markets, Europe registered overall positive growth of 6.2% with major

source markets showing positive trend in terms of visitor arrivals. Arrivals from

Austria, France, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Russia and Poland are up by 50.8%, 34.7%,

13.7%, 59.4%, 105.3%, 49.3%, and 19.6% respectively. However, visitor arrivals from UK,

the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland have declined by 2.4%, 15.4%, 9.1%, and 1.4%

respectively.



Likewise, arrivals from Canada and the United States of America also registered positive

growth of 21.1% and 16.7% respectively. However, Australia and New Zealand posted

negative growth of 4.2% and 12.9% respectively.



International tourist arrivals grew by 7% in the first four months of 2010 according to

the latest issue of the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. This growth confirms the recovery

trend beginning in the last quarter of 2009 and comes despite the challenging conditions

of recent months. While April's results were affected by the week-long closure of

European airspace, globally the pace of recovery is faster than initially expected,

driven largely by emerging markets. For the full year 2010, UNWTO forecasts international

tourist arrivals to grow by 3% to 4%.



A total of 31,987 foreign tourists departed from TIA in June 2010.The number of Nepalese

arrivals stood at 47,592 while 63,910 Nepalese departed from TIA in June 2010.