By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, July 4: Nepal welcomed 76,736 tourists in June 2024, marking a 6.21 per cent increase compared to their numbers in June 2023 and 2.47 per cent from their numbers in June 2019.
According to the Nepal Tourism Board, 72,250 tourists arrived in Nepal in June 2023 and 74,883 in June 2019. Similarly, 108,106 tourists left Nepal in May and 77,279 in June this year.
The arrivals of Indian tourists is higher in Nepal than those from other countries. A total of 37,835 tourists arrived from India in June. Similarly, the United States ranked second in tourist arrivals. During June, 8,281 US tourists arrived in Nepal Likewise, 7,494 tourists arrived from China, 3,857 from Bangladesh, 1,969 from the United Kingdom, 1,589 from Australia, 1,066 from Bhutan, 1,014 from Malaysia, 953 from Japan and 875 from South Korea in month.
Nepal's tourism sector shows strong signs of revival, with the increase in tourist arrivals indicating a positive trend for the industry, reads a statement issued by the Nepal Tourism Board.
This growth is expected to contribute significantly to the country's economy and promote Nepal as a preferred tourist destination globally, it said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation along with the NTB, organised a discussion and interaction with stakeholders on the previously publicised concept of the Tourism Decade 2023 to 2032 to gather suggestions on Wednesday.
According to a press statement issued by NTB on Wednesday, during the interaction, key private sector representatives said that although the concept of the Tourism Decade is good, it should be revised according to changing times to make it more effective.
They stressed the need for such programmes to make tourism dynamic but suggested that the state prioritise policy reforms and infrastructure development.
To address the need for gradually reviving the tourism sector, which was affected by COVID-19, the ministry formed a task force in 2022 under the coordination of the former Executive Director of the Board, Prachanda Man Shrestha, to formulate an action plan. The task force submitted its strategic action plan outline on December 22, 2022, the statement said.
Speaking at the programme, Secretary at the Ministry and Chairman of the Nepal Tourism Board, Dr. Ganesh Prasad Pandey, said that the interaction was organised to gather suggestions on how to effectively move forward with the prepared concept. He said that tourism could be made dynamic only with the collaboration of the private sector.
Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee of the NTB, Ram Prasad Sapkota, said that to make tourism dynamic, private sector input on the ministry's concept would pave the way forward.
Joint Secretary of the Ministry, Indu Ghimire, said that the interaction was fruitful and the concept would be revised based on suggestions from the private sector.
Former Executive Director of the Nepal Tourism Board, Deepak Raj Joshi, suggested that revising the programme in light of new contexts would be beneficial.
Presenting the action plan outline, the Director of the NTB, Mani Raj Lamichhane, informed that the action plan aimed at developing multi-faceted infrastructure across the country, reviving the tourism sector,
restoring tourist arrivals to pre-2019 levels by 2024, achieving an annual 15 per cent increase in tourist arrivals, reaching 3.5 million by 2032, and creating additional one million new
jobs in the tourism sector in the next 10 years.
