Indians continue to be top foreigners visiting Nepal in 2017
Indians continued to account for the maximum number of tourists who visited Nepal in 2017, which recorded the arrival of nearly one million foreigners, according to government data. A total of 940,217 foreign tourists arrived in Nepal last year and five countries - India, China, United States, United Kingdom, and Sri Lanka - accounted for 47% of the visitors, the Economic Survey stated.
Indian and Chinese tourists increasing every year: Himalayan Times
"Among these five nations, the number of tourists from India and China are increasing every year," the Himalayan Times newspaper reported. As many as 729,550 foreign tourists had visited Nepal in 2016 against 554,747 in 2015. Indians had topped the list of tourists visiting the Himalayan nation in 2016. In 2017, Indians accounted for 17.1% of the total tourist arrival figures in Nepal.
81% tourists arrived via air-routes, 19% via land-routes
The Economic Survey stated that 81% of total foreign tourists in 2017 arrived via air-routes and 19% from land routes. The survey said the average stay of tourists went down in 2017 to 12.6 days from 13.4 days in 2016. "But the per day expenditure of foreign tourists in Nepal increased to $54 in 2017 from $53 in 2016," it said.
Lumbini, the most visited tourist destination in Nepal in 2017
In 2016-17, the foreign currency earnings from tourism sector were recorded at 58.5 billion Nepalese rupee, while the country earned almost 43.5 billion Nepalese rupee in foreign currency from the sector in the first eight months of the ongoing fiscal year. Lumbini, Lord Buddha's birthplace and a UNESCO world heritage site, was the most visited tourist destination in Nepal in 2017, the survey stated.
