Nepal Tourism Year 2011
Nepal is situated in the central region of the Greater Himalaya and it contains most of the world’s highest mountains than any other country. These include Makalu, Lhotse, Annapurna, Manaslu, and Dhaulagiri and of course Everest on most dramatic and highest mountain peaks in the world. It is rich in scenic splendor and cultural treasures with a strong historic tradition having population of more than 25 million people of different religion and Culture. A large portion of Population is believed in Hinduism whereas country is declared secular state already.
Over four lakh tourists come via Indian route
According to a survey, 429,455 tourists entered Nepal from India using various means of surface transport in 2009. With the assumption in the survey that only Indians crossing the border by vehicle are to be counted as tourists and also taking into account the third country tourists, it has been estimated that there were at least 298,821 Indian tourists coming to Nepal via land in 2009. “The number of third country tourists entering into Nepal from India stood at 130,634,” said the recently-conducted survey by the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) titled Survey of Indian Visitors to Nepal by Land 2009. The survey has come out with the number of Indian tourists entering Nepal in 2009 from eight major entry points along NepalIndia border — Birgunj, Kakarbhitta, Rani (Biratnagar), Belihiya (Bhairawa), Nepalgunj, Dhangadi, Janakpur (Vittamod), Gaddachowki (Mahendranagar) for an overnight stay or longer. However, it does not include the data of Indian tourists entering Nepal through Tatopani ( Kodari) entry point. Among the various border points, Belihiya (Bhairawa) was found to have the highest traffic flow of 29 per cent, followed by Vittamod (Janakpur) with 20 per cent, Kakarbhitta with 15 per cent, Birgunj with 14 per cent and Kanchanpur with 12 per cent. While the trend for Jeep/Cars was the similar, Belihiya (Bhairawa) was found to occupy a high share of the Bus traffic with over two-third (68 per cent) of the total Bus traffic. Comparatively, Belihiya (Bhairawa) ranked number one in terms of flow of visitors volume with one-third (33 per cent) of the Indian visitors coming into Nepal via land followed by Vittamod (Janakpur), Birgunj and Kakarbhitta with 19 per cent, 17 per cent and 14 per cent respectively. Two-fifth (41 per cent) of the Indian visitors coming via land were found to be using Bus as their mode of transportation, another 38 per cent were found to be using their personal mode of transportation like Jeeps and Cars. Among Indian visitors coming via land, Belihiya (Bhairawa) accounted for over half (56 per cent)of the Bus traffic followed by Birgunj (15 per cent) and Vittamod (Janakpur 14 per cent). Excluding Kakarbhitta(seven per cent) and Rani (Biratnagar three per cent), there was very little or almost no Bus traffic in the other three border points. “So far, the tourism statistics included only the Indian tourists entering Nepal by air and third country tourists entering by air and overland, completely excluding the Indian tourists entering Nepal through the various entry points along Nepal-India broader,” it said, adding that as Indian tourists entering Nepal via land are not required to register or go through frontier formalities, the large number of Indian tourists visiting Nepal via land has never been accounted in the available tourist arrivals data. India is one of the fastest-growing outbound travel markets in the world with more than 1.1 billion inhabitants and GDP increasing by more than eight per cent every year and the country offers enormous potential for future growth in outbound travel. “With robust economic growth and impressive developments in Indian tourism in recent years have brought the country as a major force in the world tourism market – both for inbound and outbound tourism,” the NTB added. According to United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), the total number of tourist arrivals to India in 2007 was five million and the number of outbound trips by Indian nationals increased by 17 per cent over 2006, reaching an estimated 9.8 million. Thus, outbound tourism has already overtaken inbound tourism during the same period and is expected to expand further in the coming years.
Interaction on Nepal Tourism Year campaign
Nepal Tourism Board on July 22 organised an interaction to discuss various issues relating to tourism industry and the Nepal Tourism Year 2011 campaign.
The interaction saw the participation of tourism minister, secretary and chiefs of travel trade associations among others.
During the interaction, representatives from the privates sector apprised the government of the difficulties faced by them in making the tourism campaign a success.
"Instead of focusing on trivial issues, we should seek the holistic approach to promote and develop tourism. Issues of developing and promoting main tourism products including attraction resources based in Tarai area should be given due priority as the sector has immense potential to attract tourists from far and wide", Minister Bhandari said.
Also speaking on the occasion were Jyoti Adhikari, president-TAAN, Ram Kaji Koney, president-NATTA, Basanta Mishra, president-NATO, Prasiddha Bahadur Pandey, president-HAN and other tourism entrepreneurs.
They requested the government to create a conducive atmosphere for tourism business and encourage the private sector to play a leading role for the success of the campaign.
TAAN concerned at resorts closure
