Nepal welcomed over 1.14 million foreign travellers in 2024, around 13 percent increase compared to the 1.01 million arrivals in 2023, according to data from the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB).
The figure is the highest since 2019, when Nepal saw a record 1.19 million visitors. However, the tourism industry faced significant setbacks in subsequent years as countries imposed travel restrictions to curb the spread of the Covid-19.
In 2020, tourist arrivals plummeted to 230,085, followed by a further decline to 150,962 in 2021—the lowest since 1977, when only 129,329 foreign nationals visited Nepal.
As Covid cases declined and vaccines became widely available, countries began reopening their borders. This led to a steady recovery in Nepal’s tourism sector, with arrivals climbing to 614,869 in 2022 and surpassing 1 million in 2023.
Nepal’s post-Covid tourism revival has reached 96 percent of pre-pandemic levels, reported the state-owned news agency RSS, citing the last six-month data from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
(With inputs from RSS)
