Tourist arrivals to Nepal fell to a six-year low of 538,970 in 2015 as the April 25 earthquake and subsequent Tarai unrest kept visitors away, according to the statistics of the Department of Immigration. The inbound figure includes rescue personnel and volunteers who converged on Nepal to help the earthquake victims and were counted as tourists.

Nepal received 251,148 less tourists last year, representing a sharp drop of 31.78 percent, compared to the 2014 figure. The impact of the killer quake was bigger for Nepal’s tourism industry with arrivals plunging 55.59 percent to 97,510 during

the four-month period (May-August) following the disaster.

Just as the tourism industry was picking itself up, it received another knockout blow from a fuel shortage resulting from India’s trade embargo against Nepal.

Tourist arrivals dropped 26.51 percent to 199,405 during the following four-month period (September-December). This is Nepal’s peak tourist season and the plunge in arrivals was devastating to the industry. Many travel agencies even urged their clients to defer their Nepal trip due to the gasoline crisis.

The government had projected that Nepal could lose more than 300,000 tourists in 2015 as a result of the April earthquake, but it had not anticipated the political upheaval in the southern plains that followed the constitution promulgation on September 20.

Both the major source markets, India and China, sent less tourists. Inbound from India dived 44.49 percent to a 13-year low of 75,124 individuals in 2015. In 2002, when the Maoist insurgency was at its height, Indian visitor numbers had dropped to 66,777. Despite the sharp fall, India remains Nepal’s largest tourist source market.

Indian inbound dropped to an average of 5,000 monthly during the May-July period from 20,000 monthly recorded during the same period in 2014.

“The May-July period is the school holiday season in India, and a large number of Indian visitors come to Nepal during this time of the year,” said Deepak Raj Joshi, chief executive officer of the Nepal Tourism Board. “The earthquake occurred during the prime Indian holiday season, as a result the numbers dropped significantly.”

Joshi said that the NTB had been planning to launch promotional campaigns in major metros in India like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata starting in mid-February in coordination with Nepal Airlines. “We expect that an aggressive promotional campaign in these cities will help revive Indian numbers to some extent this year.”  

Likewise, arrivals from China dropped to a four-year low of 66,984 individuals in 2015, down 45.89 percent from the previous year.

Nepal had been receiving an average of 12,000 Chinese tourists monthly since January 2015, but the figure dropped to an average of 1,200 monthly during the May-July period. There was a slight increment in the number of visitors from China during the rest of the year, but they remained below 4,500.

According to Joshi, Chinese tourists stopped visiting Nepal after a negative travel advisory was issued following the earthquake. However, there has been some positive development with the government providing free visas to visitors from the northern neighbour.

“We expect that Chinese numbers will increase significantly once airlines from China resume regular flights.”

Similarly, arrivals from the US, Australia, the UK, Japan and France dropped 14.33 percent, 24.05 percent, 19.12 percent, 31.80 percent and 31.92 percent respectively last year. Inbound from South Korea, Germany and Spain too dipped 21.94 percent, 29.39 percent and 48.58 percent respectively during the review period.

Myanmar is the only country showing a rise in arrivals, with the figure swelling 19 percent compared to 2014. There were 22,403 tourists from Myanmar to Nepal last year.