Nepal recorded a significant tourism milestone in October, as it welcomed 117,306 foreign tourists by air, marking the highest monthly arrivals since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. This brings the total tourist arrivals in Nepal for the year to over 800,000.

 The arrival figures so far this year shows that Nepal’s tourist numbers will be near the pre-covid levels this year. Nepal welcomed 1.19m foreign tourists via air in 2019 before the covid pandemic hit the tourism industry out of gear throughout the world.

International tourism has continued to recover from the worst crisis in its history as arrival numbers reached 84 percent of pre-pandemic levels between Jan and July 2023, according to the latest data from UNWTO.

October’s remarkable performance outstripped the total foreign tourist count for Oct 2019, when Nepal hosted 113,816 visitors. In stark contrast, Oct 2022 saw only 52,121 foreign tourists visiting Nepal.

According to the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), Europe emerged as the largest source market for Nepal in October, contributing 36,653 arrivals. However, this figure represents an 8.2 percent decrease compared to the arrival numbers for the same month in 2019 when Nepal welcomed 39,941 European tourists.

Arrivals from the SAARC region saw a remarkable increase of 37.4 percent in October compared to Oct 2019. Nepal received 26,772 visitors in October, compared to 19,455 in the same month four years ago. Conversely, arrivals from other Asian nations in October declined when compared to the same month in 2019, with Nepal receiving 16,084 tourists from Asian nations, as opposed to 22,267 in Oct 2019.

In October, arrivals from Oceania and the Americas showed improvements compared to October 2019, but arrivals from the Middle East declined by more than 50 percent, with only 1,043 tourists compared to 2,122 four years ago.

India remained the largest source market for Nepal in October, contributing 18,480 visitors, followed by the United States with 14,879, the United Kingdom with 8,219, China with 6,880, Australia with 6,075, Germany with 5,916, France with 5,271, and Bangladesh with 4,292 visitors.

The autumn season, which spans from September to December, is considered Nepal’s peak tourist season, as trekkers get to savor the best views after the monsoon rains. In the first ten months of 2023, Nepal has welcomed a total of 809,372 tourists via air. The highest influx of tourists was recorded in October, with 117,306 foreign tourists, while the lowest was in July, with 57,726 arrivals.