The year 2017 is estimated to see highest number of Indian tourists to enter Nepal as around 133,209 Indian tourists have already entered Nepal in first 10 months of the year. This number is slowly rising while in recent years the numbers were actually decreasing.
Year 2012 had 165,815 Indian tourists visiting while 2013 had 180,974. The numbers, which had been low for the past four years, has risen since the beginning of 2017. The chief focus by the Tourism Board of Nepal’s promotional activities was for India and China thus leading to increment in the tourist’s arrival stated secretary of Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA).
According to Hotel Association Nepal (HAN), Nepal is a great destination for Indian tourists as they have culture of visiting places with families, but this has not been the case due to expensive air ticket fares. This has made Indian tourists to visit Malaysia instead. In order to keep Nepalese tourism alive, it is important to lower air ticket rates for tourists from India and China and to create direct flight connections with the two neighboring nations.
The condition of Chinese tourist is even worse. Chinese tourists, who have been coming to Nepal in larger numbers than Indians, have been in low numbers in 2017, with 83,342 tourists visiting in last 10 months, the number expected to be less than 100000 by the end of the year. In 2015, similar numbers of Chinese and Indian tourists had visited Nepal.
Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) said that China and India are the main markets for tourism as the Nepalese government is focused on neighboring countries. Attracting Chinese citizens will be a great boon to Nepal for which a direct flight link from Nepal to China’s capital Beijing would double the number of Chinese tourists visiting Nepal.
