Nearing the one million target set during the Nepal Tourism Year 2011 campaign, the country’s industry saw 940,218 tourists in 2017, informed the Department of Immigration (DoI) recently.

“If we count the number of Indian tourists entering Nepal through land route, the arrivals figure crosses the one million tourist arrival target,” says Raju Prasad Poudel, Information Officer at DoI.

According to Poudel, the number of unregistered Indian tourists entering through border points is very high.

Despite missing of the target, the latest arrival figures have offered needed boost to Nepali tourism industry and its entrepreneurs.

Elated at the rise in tourism figures, the President of the Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) Amar Man Shakya said, “We could not bring tourists as much as we have expected. But tourist numbers have increased significantly compared to last year. It is a positive thing,” says Amar Shakya.

According to Shakya, the rise in tourist arrivals could not add to the occupancy of hotel rooms.

“Hotel occupancy was around 65 percent only during September to November. We need more tourists to fill our rooms,” Shakya adds.

Meanwhile, Santabir Lama, President of Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) said, “We should not be disappointed because of our failure to meet the target of one million tourists. We were very near to the target. Hence, I consider the year 2017 as a successful year for Nepali tourism industry.”

Lama opined that the new government, as a result of parliamentary and provincial elections, would further boost the development of Nepali tourism sector.

Though Nepal saw a record number of 796,946 tourist arrivals in 2012, the country’s tourism industry suffered a major jolt because of the 2015 earthquake and again recovered in 2016 reaching 729,550 arrivals as a result of tourism promotional activities like Nepal Tourism Year 2011 campaign, among others.

Country-wise, India with 160,832 visitors stood as the major tourism market for Nepal in 2017, followed by China (104,664), United States (79,146), United Kingdom (51,058) and Sri Lanka (45,361) respectively, shows DoI data.

8 Lakh Arrivals Via Air!
Though the bordering tourists from neighboring countries like India travel to Nepal via land route, majority of tourists to the country prefer air travel.

According to the Immigration Office at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), more than 8 lakh (857,352) foreigners travelled to Nepal in 2017 as of December 26, 2017.

While a total of 734,686 tourists travelled to Nepal till October 2017 with a monthly average of 73,468 foreign visitors, the country couldn’t reach the target due to fall in number by almost 165,000 visitors during November and December of 2017.

Against the governmental target of at least 150,000 foreign visitors in November and 100,000 in December, the country saw only 122,666 tourists in these two months.

According to the Hotel Association Nepal (HAN), general election was one of the prime reasons for fall in tourist arrivals in the last two months as tourists usually avoid trips to the tourist destinations during election time.

Also Read:

• 2018 Nepal Tourist Arrivals: 73.5% Rise in July, 18% Rise in Jan-July

The post Nepal Highlights 2017: Tourist Arrivals Move Close to Million Target appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

Here are some of the major sports, entertainment and other highlights:

Sports and Entertainment

This year, Nepal proved its mark across various renowned national and global-level sports competitions such as ACC U-16 Cricket Championship Eastern Region, World Martial Peace Cup 2017, EPL Twenty20 Cricket, International Wheelchair Twenty20 Cricket, International Wheelchair Basketball, ACC U-19 Cricket Youth Asia Cup 2017, World Powerlifting Championship, International Taekwondo Championship, World Junior Judo Championship, ICC World Cricket League Championship, to name a few.

Continuing the pace, Nepal has already announced its team for 2018 Street Child World Cup, the International Football Tournament.

Nepal has also left its mark in the global beauty pageants through its contestants: Miss World 2017, Miss World 2017, Teen Nepal 2017 Pageant, Miss Deaf Asia 2017, among others.

Nepali film industry drew a special recognition in the New York Nepali Film Festival by winning three awards for its indigenous film Lomba.

Nepali Film Director Deepak Rauniyar achieved global recognition for his films Highway and White Sun, and The New York Times named him among ‘The 9 New Directors You Need to Watch’.

Kutu ma Kutu, a Nepali song from a Nepali movie Dui Rupaiyan, has also registered a new record on YouTube with over 10 million views within just 49 days of its release. This was a rare feat a Nepali music video has ever achieved till then.

A renowned Nepali music band Nepathya also completed its 25 years of musical journey in 2017.

Besides, various Nepali musicians have also embarked on foreign tours attracting huge global audience across countries such as London, among others.

Events and Conferences

Nepal also hosted many national and international level events in 2017 including: 11^th edition of the South Asian film festival called Film Southasia (FSA)- A festival of South Asian documentaries, South Asian Conference, Biggest Online Food Festival by Foodmandu, photo exhibitions, Nepal Chamber Expo 2017, Global Conference on Climate Change, 15th Handicraft Trade Fair and 13th Craft Competition of Nepal, among others.

Inspirational

Nepal has many inspiring people and stories to speak about.

                  Satya Mohan Joshi

In a major update in 2017, the Government of Nepal honored the renowned Nepali scholar and writer Satya Mohan Joshi with the ‘‘Litterateur of the Century’ title on August 23, 2017.

Meanwhile, Nepali golfer Pratima Sherpa also rose to fame in 2017 as the country’s first professional female golfer.

Pratima Sherpa (18), a girl born to a couple working in the Royal Nepal Golf Club (RNGC) course next to the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu, never thought that she would become Nepal’s top-rated female golf player.

The internationally-acclaimed Nepali surgeon and the Founder & Executive Director of the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology Dr. Sanduk Ruit’s thoughts and vision were featured in Genius, the world’s first 3D-printed book, in September 2017.

Previous                                                                                                                                                                            Next

The post Nepal 2017 Highlights: Sports and Events appeared first on Nepali Sansar.