Source::THT
In January 2021, Nepal has welcomed about 16,975 foreign visitors, almost double the amount compared to last January of last year. But while the numbers have significantly from last year, the drop of numbers from December 2021 shows that Omicron variant and quarantine measures have slowed the tourism sector in recent weeks.
About 8,874 international visitors came to Nepal through the Tribhuvan International Airport last month. With the latest number from the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), it shows that the origin for the most number of passengers has been India with 3,916 visitors, making 23.07 per cent of total arrivals. India was followed by Americans making up 19.19 per cent with 3,257 travellers, then the British constituting about 10.75 per cent with 1,824 tourists. 1,236 Bangladeshis travellers made about 7.28 of passengers and 1,213 Australians represented 7.15 per cent of tourists that came to Nepal.
The major absence in the top origin countries is China which sent about 1,877 tourists last year. This has been due to China's 'zero-COVID policy' and the economic giant imposing new lockdowns and quarantine measures to tame the spread of COVID-19 in preparation for the Beijing Winter Olympics.
While the numbers are much higher than last year's numbers, when compared to recent numbers, we have seen a decline in passengers. After the second wave of COVID-19 had waned and lockdowns were lifted, the foreign tourists' numbers has risen to 26,135 in November 2021. But due to the third wave of Omicron, tourist numbers decreased to 24, 679 in December. And with the number of January 2022 plummeting to 16,975, it has shown that Omicron has had a significant effect on tourism and will blunt the recovery from the pandemic for the foreseeable future.
