October 2, 2024, 10:46 pm 
Some 816,639 tourists visited Nepal in last nine months.
According to Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), tourist arrivals to Nepal via air over the first nine months of 2024 increased by 17.9 percent to 816,639. Nepal had welcomed some 692,372 tourists during the same period in 2023.
Nepal welcomed 96,305 tourists via air in September, which is a growth of 5.8 percent compared to total arrivals in September last year.
India accounted for 23.9 percent of total tourist arrivals in September. Department of Immigration data revealed that some 22,984 Indian tourists visited Nepal via air — which is down by 19.9 percent compared to the same month last year when 28,694 Indians had visited Nepal.
The USA followed the Indian tourists with 10,084 arrivals in September, followed by China (8,042), Australia (5,038), and Sri Lanka (4,915).
Region-wise, SAARC contributed some 34.9 percent of total tourist arrivals in September. A total of 33,611 tourists from the region visited Nepal during the month — some 8.8 percent lower compared to 36,852 in September last year.
Arrivals from Europe, however, increased by 12 percent to 17,104. Europe contributed 17.8 percent of total tourist arrivals to Nepal during the month.
Likewise, arrivals from Oceania, the Americas, and the Middle East were also up by 33.5 percent, 36.3percent, and 7.6 percent, respectively, in September.
Nepal welcomed some 1,014,885 visitors in 2023, which was lower than pre-Covid years. Total tourist arrivals to Nepal reached an all-time high of 1,197,191 in 2019.
