Frequent agitations in Nepal seem to deter foreign tourists, particularly Indians, with a significant drop reported in their numbers who travel to the Himalayan nation by air.
The number of Indians visiting Nepal by air has dropped by 25 per cent in April to 12,069 from 16,159 during the same period last year, according to figures released by Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).
The decline in Indian visitors may attribute to frequent agitation by political parties and unfavourable weather condition in the month of April.
Meanwhile, the total number of tourists coming to Nepal by air has declined by 8.9 per cent in the month of April as compared to the same month last year.
The visitors from SAARC countries show a 21.6 per cent decline, with the Indian visitors witnessing the highest decline in April as compared to visitors from other SAARC countries.
Visitors from Pakistan and Sri Lanka have declined by 10.9 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.
However, Bangladesh has registered a positive growth of 16.6 per cent.
The total number of foreign visitors who arrived by air in April has declined to 54,119 from last year’s 59,415.
However, arrivals from Asia, other than South Asia, have recorded a positive growth of 18.1 per cent in aggregate.
Visitor arrivals from China have recorded a growth of 26.6 per cent. Similarly, Malaysia (158.3 per cent) and Thailand (15.3 per cent) have maintained the upward trend.
European markets have posted weaker arrival figures and have registered overall negative growth by 14.3 per cent.
Visitor arrivals from the UK, Germany, Italy and Norway have declined by 14.8 per cent, 23.1 per cent, 49.2 per cent, 22.8 per cent respectively compared to the same month last year.
However, arrivals from Australia, New Zealand and USA posted positive growth of 6.7 per cent, 5.2 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively.