Global turndown hits Nepali tourism sector

The worldwide financial crisis has started to hit hard Nepal’s tourism sector too.

The figures released by the Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), reveal that arrival figures by air in the month of March 2009 compared to the same month last year decreased by 17.6 percent to drop to 33,005.

“ The global recession is responsible for the decline in tourist arrivals worldwide as traveling is determined by disposable incomes, travel budgets and consumer confidence,” said Nepal Tourism Board press release.

In the South Asian market, only Sri Lanka and Bangladesh from South Asian region registered growth by 12.3 percent and 29.6 per cent respectively.

India and Pakistan witnessed negative growth of 24.7 percent and 6.3 percent respectively in March., challenging the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) assertion that it has been doing promotional activities in various Indian cities.

Similarly, other Asian countries Thailand and Singapore maintained the upward trend with 132.3 percent and 50.2 percent of growth respectively. However, arrivals from Japan, South Korea and Malaysia have witnessed negative growth by 19 percent, 34.2 percent and 7.1 respectively. There has been a nominal decline of 0.8 per cent in arrivals from China which reflects the unfailing economic growth of the country compared to other tourist generating markets.

The entire European and Oceania regions registered negative growth of 19.8 percent and 11.6 percent respectively in comparison to the same month last year. Likewise, arrivals from Canada and United States of America also registered negative growths of 9 percent and 10.5 percent respectively.

The United Nations World Tourism Organisation ( UNWTO ) expects international tourism to stagnate or even decline slightly by -1 percent to -2 percent throughout 2009.

A total of 32,945 foreign tourists departed from TIA in March 2009. The number of Nepalese arrivals stood at 44,607 while 46,051 Nepalese departed from TIA in March 2009.