Tourist arrivals drop 16% in January

Tourist arrivals to Nepal via ari in the first month of 2013 declined by 15.9 percent , compared to figures of the same period in 2012 , mainly due to drop in arrivals from India , ongoing economic crisis in euro zone countries and political uncertainty at home . According to Immigration office at Tribhuvan International Airport, only 35,330 foreign tourists entered the country via aerial routue in January. In the same period last year, 42,031 foreign tourists had visited the country via air. The number of Indian tourists who make up nearly one – third of total tourists arrivals went down by 26.1 percent to 7,548 in January .Similary , arrivals from China – one of the fastest growing markets for Nepal – dropped by 40.3 percent to 3,958. Total arrivals from other south Asian markets like south korea and japan , however , posted positive growth of 11.2 percent and 16.8 percent to 3,265 and 1,993 , respectively . Despite growth in the number of British tourists by 6.6 percent in January, overall arrivals from Europe dropped by 15 percent due to slackness seen in flow of tourists from other European markets like Germany, France and the Netherlands.