According to Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), the total number of tourists visiting Nepal by air in 2009 was 378,12 whereas the number was 374,661in 2008.
Despite the decline in tourist arrivals, NTB said that 2009 ended with positive notes in the sense that Chinese tourist arrivals witnessed an encouraging surge. According to a press release issued by the board, there was a robust growth of 51.4 per cent in arrivals of Chinese tourists in December 2009.
Visitors from other Asian countries excluding South Asian countries also increased. According to NTB, tourist arrivals from South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand registered a growth of 25.1 percent, 7.8 percent, 22 percent and 26.5 percent, respectively.
However, there was a decline of one percent in the arrival of Japanese tourists. The aggregate tourist arrival from Asian segment, other than South Asia, registered a growth of 19.4 percent in December and 10.1 percent in the year 2009.
Among South Asian tourists, the arrivals from Pakistan grew by 8.2 percent but the arrivals from India and Sri Lanka declined by 5 percent and 31.5 percent, respectively, in December 2009.
Likewise, there was an overall growth of 10.1 percent in the arrivals from Europe in December and 4.5 percent in the year 2009.
Tourist arrivals from UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria also saw a growth. However, arrivals from Spain, Denmark and Norway posted a marginal decline.
Tourist arrivals from Australia, Canada and USA by 13.8, 5 and 10.9 percent respectively. According to the release, over 75,058 trekkers visited Annapurna region in 2009 while 1,769 trekkers visited Manaslu region.
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