April 16: Almost 300,000 foreign nationals have visited Nepal within first three months of 2018. In total, 200,160 thousand foreign travelers landed in Nepal by air and another 69,800 entered the country through road, states a report from Immigration Department. The number of tourist this time has increased by 33 percent compared to the number of visitors in the corresponding period last year.

According to the report, in total 57,500 foreigners landed in Nepal in January, 66,100 in February and 93,200 in March. Meanwhile 69,800 of the travelers had entered the country from various check points in different period. Among them, Balahiya border of Rupandehi was the commonly used check point by majority of the travelers, reported Krishna Prasad Sapkota, senior officer at the Immigration Department.

In total, 1 million foreigners had visited Nepal in the last fiscal last year out of which 253,000 came during the first three months of the previous FY.  But the number has already reached 300,000 this year, giving hopes of better tourist arrival.

“2018 seems to be a positive and prosperous year for tourism business. Private and government sectors must team up and collaborate for the development of tourism in Nepal,” Sapkota added.

According to Sapkota, around 200 million Chinese and 50 million Indians are expected to set out on  travel worldwide by 2020 and Nepal by the time can generate good revenue by attracting the tourists from the neighboring countries.

The department of Immigration also informed that Chinese and Indians are the most common visitors of the country so far this year. Almost 40,000 citizens from both the immediate neighbors have already visited the country.