Tourist arrivals to Nepal by air has decreased by 12.2 percent in August compared to the same period last year.

A total of 22,813 visitors entered Nepal during the month, the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) stated citing the figures released by Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation.

The arrival of Indian tourists declined by more than 23.9 percent last month, a major reason for gross decline in number of tourists visiting Nepal, the NTB said.

The decline came from other SAARC and Asian markets too with the only exception from Japan, which showed some incremental gain. Tourist from Bangladesh, another major source till August last year, too declined by 58.7 percent. Arrival from China saw a decline of 27.4, Malaysia 3.1 percent and Thailand 51.9 percent.

Unlike the trends of majority of markets, the European segment, however, gained 1.4 percent increase in arrivals. The Spanish market having 10 percent market share grew by 18.6 percent while UK arrivals went up by 3.9 percent. Arrivals from Holland grew by 94.7 percent, Denmark by 1.8 percent, Switzerland by 23.6 percent and Sweden by 531.8 percent. The German market remained unaffected. French arrivals saw a 29.1 percent decrease, Austrian 7 percent and Italian 11.5 percent. Australian visitors recorded a 5.4 percent decline while visitors from the US increased by 10.2 percent.

The NTB has stated that street protests taking place in Kathmandu could have caused decline in the neighbouring market as per the comments of some travel trade operators. The non-Indian market however was comparatively consistent and gradually rising. “The demand seems to be extremely high for the coming season as the air seats have reportedly been sold out for the coming months with booking trend increasing,” the NTB statement further said.