A total of 265,600 visitors arrived in Nepal by air in 2003, a growth by 23% in comparison to last year’s figure, a press release of Nepal Tourism Board said.
December 2003 observed a growth of 42% in visitors arrival by air in Nepal compared to same month last year. 25,995 visitors came to Nepal by air during the month which include 8,550 Indian visitors and 17,445 non Indians, which grew by 27% and 51% respectively.
Out of 24 countries listed in the data supplied by Department of Immigration, 22 (except Austria and Sri-Lanka) have shown remarkable growth in arrival numbers. Nepal’s major market; UK, Germany, Japan, USA and other European countries have all shown healthy growth in arrivals.
This makes a total of 265,600 visitors coming to Nepal by air in 2003, which is a growth by 23% in comparison to last year’s figure. Again the comparison of year on year basis with last year indicates an encouraging growth for all the countries. India market had an annual growth of 33% to 87,066 visitors and non Indian grew by 19% to 178,534 visitors in 2003.
Conducive government policies, programs to promote tourism in the national level, declaration of cease fire from January to August and collaborative marketing efforts of Nepal Tourism Board with airlines, associations and travel trade all led to the positive outcomes for the growth of tourist numbers in the country.
Destination Nepal Campaign 2002-03 launched by HMG to specially boost tourism and various events under the campaign helped to keep up the pace of marketing and promotional activities of the country. Mount Everest Golden Jubilee Celebrations was quite successful in adding a big milestone in enhancing the image of Nepal.
Besides, government decision to waive visa fees for SAARC and Chinese nationals, opening up of 123 new peaks for climbing, restricted areas for trekking and five new rivers for rafting created new avenues for tourism development and increase in tourist numbers.
The contribution of private sectors, airlines (specially RNAC, Indian Airlines and others) and associations to enhance the growth in 2003 were evident from success of Pashupatinath Darshan Package, sales missions to India & China and Five Star Summer Getaway Package (launched in association with RNAC and 5-star hotels) in India. These activities have all helped in adding more numbers.
With government commitment to promote regional tourism in 2004, and more liberal policies on airlines, tourism scenario in Nepal looks even better. With the continuous support and co-operation from government, private sector and airlines, Nepal Tourism Board hopes to see another average 25% growth in visitors numbers in 2004 and onwards.
A summary of the visitors for 2003 is as follows: India up 33% to 87,066 visitors, US up 8% to 1,6675 visitors, UK up 11% to 19,260 visitors, Spain up 80% to 6,407 visitors, France up 59% to 718 visitors, Japan up 9% to 19,551 visitors and China up 27% to 4,418 visitors.
However, compared to visitor arrival by air in 1999, the figures in 2003 are still lower by 36%. The total number of visitors arriving to Nepal by air in 1999 was 421, 243; this means 2003 figures are still short of 155,643 visitors in comparison to 1999. This further indicates that if 1999 is considered as base year, there is still a huge gap to fill for the recovery of tourism in Nepal.