The beginning of the year 2006 has recorded a positive growth in the visitor arrivals to Nepal as the month of January observed a 14.6% increase as compared to the same period last year. The growth was…
The beginning of the year 2006 has recorded a positive growth in the visitor arrivals to Nepal as the month of January observed a 14.6% increase as compared to the same period last year. The growth was supplemented by an increase of 31.8% in Indian visitors number and 6.9% in non-Indian visitors arrivals. This was stated in the figures released by Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation quoting Immigration Office Tribhuvan International Airport.
Markets to grow during the month were basically from Asia. The Bangladesh market continued to show high growth from among the SAARC countries as it grew by 83.4%, while huge increases were observed from other Asian segments like China and Singapore, which increased substantially by 162.5% and 135.4%. Japan with its market share of 6% also grew by 16.4% along with South Korea by 27.3%. The market share of the Asian market was 64% for the month where as decline was observed basically from Malaysia (-22.6%), Taiwan (-31.1%) and Thailand (-26.3%).
The European segment with its 17% overall market share declined by 15.9% during the month. However growth came from Austrian (83.5%), Spanish (23.3%) and Swedish (2.9%) markets. Major European markets like UK (-14.8%), Germany (-12.6%), France (-24.5%) and the Netherlands (-48.7%) all suffered losses during the month. The US also went down by 11%.
The confidence of Indian visitors towards Nepal is still reflected in the arrivals last month. The effective connectivity in the Indo-Nepal sector and sustained market promotion by the Nepalese travel trade and airlines along with NTB in India has helped maintain the growth from the market. That`s true even in the case of Bangladesh. Growth from China has been largely due to the Chinese New Year as the market observes holiday and increases its outbound during the period.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
