November 6: The arrival of foreign tourists in Nepal has gradually returned back on track. In the past 10 months, around 500,000 foreign tourists visited Nepal, according to data provided by the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB). The figure is a huge increase as compared to the data of 2020 and 2021 when the pandemic was at its peak. The COVID-19 pandemic had ruined the tourism sector.    
The country recorded the arrival of over 230,000 tourists in 2020, a sharp drop by a whopping 81 percent against over 1.19 million tourists in 2019 just before the pandemic. Similarly, in 2021, the arrival of foreign tourists further dropped by 34.4 percent to over 150,000 as compared to 2020.    
The influx of tourist in 2022 took place between January and October, said the NTB. Over 88,500 tourists visited the country in October alone, and over 61,500 in April, over 58,300 in September, more than 41,300 in August, over 44,400 in July, and more than 46,900 in June.  Similarly, over 53,600 tourists visited the country in May, more than 42,000 in March, over 19,700 in February and more than 16,900 in January.    

More than 600,000 tourists are expected to visit Nepal this year with this arrival rate, according to Maniraj Lamichhane, Director of the NTB. -- RSS