The arrival of 180 Chinese trekkers in Nepal on April 13, the first group tour from the northern neighbor after the Covid-19 pandemic, has rekindled hopes for Nepal's tourism sector. They were the first of four batches of nearly 8,00 Chinese trekkers to visit Nepal to trek on the Poon Hill trail located some 270 kilometers west of Kathmandu. This visit has come after China included Nepal on a second list of 40 destinations for group tours that Chinese nationals could visit starting from March 15. The tourism entrepreneurs focused on Chinese tourists said they are hopeful that the flow of Chinese tourists would grow. “I am bringing one group of Chinese tourists next week,” said a proprietor of a travel and tour agency. According to him, there are several groups of Chinese interested in visiting Nepal in May. “But I am not sure whether they could come to Nepal because of limited and expensive flights between the two countries,” he said.

China Southern Airlines, the largest airliner in China in terms of passenger volume, is conducting two flights a week—on Tuesdays and Saturdays. It resumed flights on the Kathmandu-Guangzhou sector in November last year after a halt of nearly a year and a half.

Air China resumed the Chengdu-Kathmandu flights in September last year and operates two weekly flights. Sichuan Airlines has also resumed scheduled flights between Chengdu and Kathmandu. Nepal’s Himalaya Airlines has also been conducting flights in various cities in China. “Currently, flight frequency between Nepal and China is too low which is the major concern for us to increase the volumes of Chinese tourists,” said Bishwesh Shrestha, owner of C&K Travels which specializes in Chinese tourists. They are however expecting increased flights in the days along with rising demand from Chinese tourists. After China reopened its door to its citizens to visit Nepal, Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) and Nepali travel trade entrepreneurs are visiting various Chinese cities to promote Nepal tourism. “NTB and representatives of over two dozen tourism-related companies are currently in China for marketing purposes,” said Shrestha, “NTB has been making presentations about Nepal, interaction with the Chinese journalists have been held and business-to-business (B2B) meetings with Chinese tourism entrepreneurs have been conducted during this marketing tour.” According to the entrepreneur, the Nepali team has completed their task in Chengdu and Kunming and they will now visit Beijing for similar marketing activities. Stakeholders say that it would not be difficult for Nepal to welcome more Chinese tourists because of the limited infrastructure. Two new international airports have been built in the tourist city of Pokhara and Bhairahawa. However, the airports have hardly been used for international flights. Post-pandemic, Nepal’s tourism industry has been recovering gradually. Nepali officials plan to revive the sector to the pre-pandemic level by attracting one million tourists in 2023. For this, increased arrivals of Chinese tourists will be important. According to NTB statistics, 614,148 foreigners visited Nepal in 2022. In 2019, Nepal welcomed 1.19 million foreign arrivals, including a record 169,543 Chinese tourists. The Chinese arrivals fell to 19,257 in 2020, and went further down to 6,198 and 9,599 respectively in 2021 and 2022 amid the Covid-19 travel restrictions. The total number of total foreign visitors declined to 230,085 and 150,962 in 2020 and 2021, respectively. “We hope to attract at least 100,000 Chinese tourists in 2023,” said the tourism entrepreneur. “It can be made possible if more flights are added between the two countries.”