South Asian Business news and information

Peace is good for economy. Political stability is good for tourism. This kinds of sentences have become clichés and we forget to give any value to this kind of ideas. However, peace and stability have given Nepal record number of tourists in 2007. After 7 years, Nepal had a huge number of tourists last year.

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has given a press release and wrote:

December 2007 registered a growth of 13 % in the international visitor's arrival to Nepal by air route. The total visitor arrivals reached 29895, up by 3433 compared to the same month last year, according to the data released by Immigration Office Tribhuvan International Airport. A growth of 25 % has been recorded in the visitor arrivals from Europe, US and other non-Indian Asian tourist generating countries while Indian arrivals has been fallen down by 8.5% during this month.

The key contributors to the arrivals from Asian market were China and Singapore which showed an exceptional growth during this month with gains of 114.6 %, 92 % respectively. The East Asian markets Japan (-12.3%), S. Korea (-9.4%) Malaysia (-22.9 %), however showed some decline.

The European markets have too recorded an encouraging growth (19.8%) during the month with arrival numbers increasing from almost all the markets excepting a few. Growth was observed from Switzerland ( 97.8%). UK (21%), France (33.4%), Belgium (56.1%) ,Denmark (34.5%) Spain (41.9%) and Germany (19.6%),. The Dutch arrivals have too increased by 26.7%. The only markets to come down were Austria (-22.2 %), Israel (-8.1%) and Italy (-4.2%.

It is very good news for Nepalese economy and more tourists always mean more jobs for the local economy. I hope that Nepal will see even more tourists in 2008. Of course, this will happen only if there is peace and stability in the country.