Kathmandu - Nepal's tourism industry saw robust growth in August, pushed by strong arrivals from European nations, tourism officials said Wednesday. Preliminary data issued by the Nepal Tourism Board said tourist arrivals via air grew by 17.8 per cent last month.
The growth pushed the total number of visitors arriving at Kathmandu's airport, Nepal's only international airport, in the first eight months of the year to 220,076, an increase of 33.1 per cent from the same period of 2006.
The figure did not include overland arrivals from India and Tibet.
The summer months are considered off season for tourism, and the increase has excited Nepalese officials over the upcoming autumn and winter seasons, which are the prime times to visit the Himalayan nation.
"The European market registered a healthy growth of 36 per cent in August, which is generally considered the low season for international tourist arrivals," the Tourism Board said.
"Major European markets like the UK (32.5 per cent), Germany (38.9 per cent), France (32.9 per cent), Italy (34.2 per cent) and Spain (46.4 per cent) registered healthy growth, creating fair support for the lean season of the tourism industry of the country," it added.
Also propelling Nepal's tourism sector were Asian nations like China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, which accounted for nearly 12 per cent of all visitors.
However, the board said arrivals of Indian tourists recorded negative growth, mainly because of an unavailability of plane seats as Europeans fill planes travelling from India to Nepal.
The board said it believes the arrivals in the coming months would become stronger because of festival seasons in India and Nepal.
Tourism officials expected nearly a half-million people to visit in 2007, the highest in nearly six years as peace returns to the Himalayan nation after a Maoist insurgency and political turmoil.
The tourism industry is one of Nepal's biggest foreign exchange earners, bringing in millions of dollars to the impoverished country and providing employment to hundreds of thousands of people.
It suffered considerably during the Maoist insurgency, which scared off travellers planning to visit Nepal. As a result, hundreds of small hotels closed and thousands of people lost their jobs.
