7.44 million tourists could travel to Nepal

In Nepal, according to a study, tourist arrivals via air in Nepal in fiscal 2012-13 dropped a marginal 1.4 percent to 586,668, largely due to a significant dip in arrivals from a southern neighbor. Indian arrivals to Nepal via air transport dropped 15.1 percent in the last fiscal year. However, arrivals from third countries grew 3.9 percent. The number of tourist standard hotels in Nepal swelled 15.4 percent to 1,224 in the last fiscal year, said a study conducted by the central bank.

According to the survey entitled Economic Activities Report 2013-14 conducted by Nepal Rastra Bank’s research department in eight major cities in 47 districts, 20,408 room nights are available per day in the country.

This means Nepal can accommodate 7.44 million tourists annually with the existing infrastructure. Room nights or bed numbers of hotels grew 18.47 percent from the previous year.

The central bank survey, the third in the series, is based on field reports of economic activities and other indicators in Kathmandu, Pokhara, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Birgunj, Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj and Dhangadhi.

“As Nepal failed to give continuity to its promotional campaign carried out in past years, its impact was visible in the arrival numbers,” the study said. A prolonged political transition has also been blamed for the failure to attract more tourists to Nepal.

The study report said that Nepal’s hospitality sector had improved gradually in terms of service and facilities. However, it has pointed out that Nepal has not been able to shift its focus from traditional tourism to other products.

The country has not been able to cash in on mountaineering, entertainment, pilgrimage and medical tourism to increase tourist length of stay.

“The policies and programmes have not been able to deal with challenges like diversifying tourism products and holding promotional campaigns beyond traditional areas to create employment, alleviate poverty and make tourism a major foreign exchange earning sector,” the study said.

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