November 11: Despite Covid-19 infection, the tourist season in September observed a slight improvement in arrival of tourists in Nepal. The months from September to November are considered as the peak tourist season in Nepal. The last two months have seen an improvement in tourist arrivals compared to 2020. This number is very low compared to the previous years.

The slowdown in arrival of tourists due to the onset of Covid-19 in 2020 has seen a slight improvement during this year's season. The number of tourists visiting Nepal used to be around 150,000 during October before 2020 and 2021. However, in the current year, it is below 50,000.

Altogether 134,096 tourists visited Nepal in October 2019, which dropped to 23,284 in October 2021 due to the  impact of the pandemic. Tourist arrivals in September also improved compared to last year. In September 2021,  a total of 9,898 tourists visited Nepal against 584 in September of last year.

In the first 10 months of this year, 134,096 tourists have visited Nepal. In 2020, a total of 230,000 tourists visited Nepal. With the onset of the tourist season and the opening of tourism, arrival of tourists has started to improve, according to tourism entrepreneurs.

According to the Nepal Tourism Statistics-2020 released by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, only 2,025 tourists had visited Nepal in October 2020.

According to the Nepal Tourism Board, there has been an improvement in arrival of tourists since October due to the declining Covid-19 cases and increase in the number of vaccinations.

According to the NTB, Indian tourists come in large numbers in October. A total of 8,736 Indian tourists visited Nepal in October. Likewise, the number of Chinese tourists has also increased slightly. Meanwhile, the number of American tourists has reached 4,711 tourists in the review month. Similarly, the UK nationals are the third most visited foreigners with 1,381 tourists.

According to the board, the number of tourists coming to Nepal from India, the USA, and the UK is higher than others. A total of 9,420 tourists from SAARC countries like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka have also visited Nepal during this period.

A total of 5,419 tourists have come from European countries including the UK, Poland, and Norway, while the number of tourist arrivals from Canada and the USA is 5,274 tourists.

According to the NTB, 8,874 tourists visited Nepal in January, 9,146 in February, 14,977 in March, 22,450 in April, 1,468 in May, 1,143 in June, 2,991 in July, and 5,917 in August.