The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has said the arrival of tourists by air went down by 10.9 percent in the month of May this year as compared to the same period last year.

A total of 18,550 tourists visited Nepal by air route in May, the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) said on Monday citing figures released by the Immigration Office at the Tribhuvan International Airport. The decline was observed in both market segments- India and third countries.

Indian arrivals recorded a marginal decline of 3.3 while 8.3 percent decline was recorded in tourist arrivals from the overall SAARC region. Number of Bangladeshi visitors plunged by 71.2 percent but arrivals from Sri Lanka grew by 8.7 percent during the month.

Likewise, arrivals from other Asian countries almost reduced to half during the month of May as Chinese arrivals came down by 35.8 percent followed by a decrease from Japan (-22.8pc), Malaysia (-82.9pc), Singapore (-92.8pc) and Thailand (-77.7pc). However, 31.1 percent growth was recorded in the case of Taiwan, according to the NTB.

Among the European market, growth came mainly from Austria (72.3pc), Spain (16.6 pc) and Norway (28.6pc). However negative growth was recorded from other markets like Belgium (-41.7 pc), France (-32 pc), Germany (-15 pc), Israel (-4.1 pc), Italy (-44.8 pc), the Netherlands (-20.3 pc) and United Kingdom (-36 pc). Visitors from Australia increased by 18.1 percent while arrivals from New Zealand decreased by 13.2 percent.

On the other, hand arrivals from USA went down by 8.5 percent while Canadian tourists increased by a minimal 2 percent.

The NTB has said that despite the plunge in the number of visitors last month the tourism industry is showing signs of recovery thanks to the improving socio-political environment.

“Despite the fall in visitors in May, Nepalese tourism is poised towards strong recovery with better numbers in the coming months,” a NTB press release said, adding, “The changed socio-political context in the country with the complete absence of domestic crisis and settlement of insurgency, has not only reinstated a conducive environment for the industry to flourish again but also given a strong confidence to all markets to visit Nepal again.”