The arrivals from South Asian region have gained overall positive growth of  34.9% with Bangladesh (51.6%), India (35.1%), and Sri Lanka (57%) registering positive growth. Visitor arrivals from Pakistan have declined by 20.2%. A robust growth of 20% has been observed in the arrivals from the South Asian region during the first eight months of 2010, in comparison to the same period last year.

Likewise, visitor arrivals from Asia (other than South Asian region) have maintained the upward trend. The region has recorded double digit growth of 27.7%. There has been substantial growth of 68.3% in visitor arrivals from China which is one of the fastest growing tourist markets for Nepal.

Arrivals from Malaysia (85.7%), and South Korea (28.6%) have registered positive growths. However arrivals from Japan, Singapore and Thailand have registered negative growths of 5.3%, 32.9% and 9.7% respectively.

Regarding the long-haul markets, Europe registered overall positive growth of 18.9% with major source markets showing positive trend in terms of visitor arrivals. Arrivals from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, UK up by 2.6%, 22.3%, 18.1%, 41%, 101.3%, 106.6%, 15%, 71%, and 15.5% respectively. A growth of 18% has been observed in the arrivals from the European region during the first eight months of 2010, in comparison to the same period last year.

The figures also show increasing trend in the visitor arrivals from Australia and New Zealand with a growth of 16.8% and 28.1% respectively. Similarly the United States of America has registered positive growth of 16.8% while Canada posted negative growth of 17.8%.

A total of 40,908 foreign tourists departed from TIA in August 2010.The number of Nepalese arrivals stood at 49,379 while 63,173 Nepalese departed from TIA in August 2010. nepalnews.com