In the first eleven months of 2024, Nepal welcomed over one million foreign tourists via air travel.
According to the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), a total of 1,055,533 international visitors arrived in the country between January and November 2024. Despite this, the goal of reaching 1,315,000 tourists this year remains difficult to achieve.
The NTB forecasts that approximately 70,000 more tourists will arrive in Nepal during the remaining month of December, bringing the total to around 1,115,000 by the end of the year.
In November alone, 114,000 tourists arrived in Nepal, marking a 5.4% increase compared to the same month in 2023.
NTB Director Maniraj Lamichhane noted that the data so far indicates that tourist arrivals in 2024 will likely see a 10% increase over last year, when 1,014,871 visitors came to Nepal.
Initially, the NTB had hoped to record the highest number of arrivals since 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted global tourism. In 2019, Nepal’s tourism arrivals stood at 1,197,191.
Nevertheless, Nepal’s tourism sector has demonstrated a strong recovery, outperforming many other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. According to data from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) for the past six months, Nepal’s tourism industry has recovered 96% of its pre-pandemic levels. Despite this recovery, the NTB acknowledges that meeting the 2024 arrival target is still challenging due to various factors.
