Following the global surge in the Omicron variant cases, Nepal has decided to put inbound and outbound ban on both Nepali and foreign travelers from nine countries including South Africa.
We take the pleasure to inform you that as of today, no new cases of the Omicron variant has been found in Nepal while COVID cases are still well below 300 per day. The first case of Omicron was confirmed in Nepal on 6th Dec. when a 66-year-old foreign national who arrived by air on Nov. 19 and a 71-year-old person who was in contact with the tourist tested positive. As many as 66 samples of the individuals that had come in contact with the aforementioned two infected were tested with all negative results. Both patients have now recovered while all their tests are negative too.
Following the global surge in the Omicron variant cases, Nepal also has decided to put inbound and outbound ban on both Nepali and foreign travelers from nine countries including South Africa. The imposed restriction on nine countries are South Africa, Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, and Eswatini. Moreover, all Nepali citizens or other nationals traveling via these countries or any person who has been to any of these nine countries in the past three weeks will also be restricted from entering Nepal.
Given the current situation with the rate of new cases of Omicron variant in South African countries, European countries, and other places, the Nepal government is closely monitoring the satiation. On 16th Dec. the Council of ministers decided to impose a mandatory 7-day quarantine for all travelers from 67 countries. However, after reviewing the current data along with the situation in Nepal, the decision has been swiftly reverted and canceled henceforth. However, the travel advisory published on the 2nd Dec. and 24th Sep. are still in place. These travel advisories have been attached herewith for your easy reference.
Apart from this, Christmas and New Year is just round the corner with the domestic tourism again on the move. Christmas and New Year sees a lot of Nepali celebration wherein you can expect the tourist hotspots to be sold out within these dates. With low cases and no travel restriction at the moment inside Nepal, we expect to see record number of tourists traveling for celebrations compared to last year and the year before.
This is all we have for you today; we will be back with more updates from Temple Tiger next week. Until then, stay safe and stay positive.
Basant Raj Mishra, the executive chairman of the Temple Tiger Group of Companies, is a well-known name in the travel trade community. Former chairman of the PATA Nepal Chapter, Secretary of PATA Nepal Chapter, Executive Member of PATA Nepal Chapter, Advisor of PATA Nepal Chapter and Founder Board of Nepal Association Tourism Board (NTB). Mr. Mishra is an energetic and visionary entrepreneur. A widely traveled entrepreneur, he also has been carrying out responsibilities as the Honorary Consul of Republic of Chile to Nepal. Mr. Mishra is a well known person in the field of tourism and conservation, having a lot of experiences in the cultural, adventure and wildlife tourism. Till date Mr. Mishra is very active, enthusiastic in promoting tourism and have served many National and International Board of Trustees. He is running his company very successfully for the last 34 years in Nepal and abroad. He received many national and international awards.
