February 26: The Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has begun a survey to find data on average expenditures by a foreign tourist from Sunday. The survey aims to find how much foreign tourists spend during their stay in Nepal, said the NTB Director Maniraj Lamichhane.

"Two thousand sample respondents will be selected for the survey. Five employees deployed by the Board will fill out the questionnaire with details of visiting tourists. They have been given 40 days for the job," Lamichhane  said. Students of the Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM) have volunteered as enumerators for the survey.

In 2021 and 2022, a foreign tourist spent average USD 48 on a daily basis, Lamichhane  said. In 2023, their expenditure is expected to increase anything between USD 70 and 75 each. The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, the Nepal Rastra Bank, the National Statistics Office and the NATHM have collaborated for the initiative.

The arrival of foreign tourists has gradually been on the track post COVID-19. A total of 55,074 foreign tourists visited Nepal in January, 2023 alone, according to data with the NTB. Similarly, the total 614,148 tourists arrived in Nepal in 2022.

The years 2020 and 2021 when the infectious disease COVID-19 peaked saw a sharp drop in tourist inflow to stand at 230,085 and 150,962 respectively from a whopping 1,197,091 in 2019 before the pandemic broke out.  The year 2020 witnessed an 81 percent decline in tourist influx. ----RSS