Marginal decrease in Nepal’s visitor arrivals

KATHMANDU – The arrival figures released by Nepal’s Immigration Office show visitor arrivals to Nepal in April 2008 reached 32,665, a marginal decrease of one percent compared to April 2007.

Arrivals from Europe remain unchanged. Arrivals from France grew by 21 percent, Austria by 20 percent, Netherlands & Israel with by 28 percent, Switzerland by 66 percent and Spain by 25 percent. Arrivals from UK, Sweden and Germany decreased by 20 percent, 31 percent and 20 percent respectively.

Significant growth from Australia and New Zealand has been recorded with arrivals increasing by 51 percent, while arrivals from Canada and the US grew by 25 percent.

There was a decrease of 18 percent for Asian countries.

The total number of arrivals in the first four months of 2008 is 1,28,802, an 11.15 percent increase over the same period in 2007.