Nepal’s Tourism - How big is It ?
Let’s first define this big word Tourism
Tourism can be defined as an Occupation of providing services such as Tours, Travel, Accommodation, Entertainments, and catering for tourists.
Tourism is BIG in Nepal.
- Tourism is the number one (#1) industry in Nepal
- It is the backbone of Nepal’s economy.
- Nepal earns more than 70% of foreign exchange through tourism.
Wish our leaders spend more time touring Nepal.
Perhaps we would have no war!
But some say, when war starts, they forget the BIG things they own!
Over a decade long bloody civil war brings Nepal’s tourism industry down to its knees. In spite of the worst night-mare any tourism country could face, Nepal’s tourism makes it through!
Many restaurants, tours and travel companies, and hotels did not vanish forever, which all of us thought would. May be some did really go out of business, but the number wasn’t big enough to appear in any of our news and media. Who could erase the love of Nepal Land in the hearts of our tourists ? Nothing could stop them from visiting Nepal, not even their own government’s exaggerated travel warnings.
Nepal gets more repeated visitors than any country of South Asia. Once tourists land in Nepal, they come back again, again, and again. Sometimes alone and the other times with another. No wonder, tourists visiting Nepal are called the friends of Nepal or even more by the term “Lovers of Nepal” Nepal is a magnet, literally, it will attract you.
Recent peace agreement between the Nepal Government and Maoists Gorillas will surely help bring the tourism industry back on its feet again.
Let’s take a moment right now, and give a big hands for all the hard-working peoples in our tourism industry who have gone through toughest times in the history of Nepal but never gave up. The cooks, managers of travel companies, hotel owners, artists who draw thankas, hard working women who make hand-made papers, people working in the carpet industries, to all those hard-working travel guides, and the brave trekking operators who took their clients near to the war zones. Cheers to you all, hear us clapping for your devotions in keeping the Industry alive. NepalVista.com salutes you!
Following chart shows tourists arrivals by air, compared with previous years data (source: Nepal Tourism Board). Majority of tourists arrive in Nepal by air. You can see that the % of arrivals in recent months have started to go up in comparison to last year - a postive sign that our tourism industry is picking up.
How big is Nepal’s Tourism Industry ?
Here are some quick facts…
- 16 Fully Dedicated Tourism Related Associations.
- Over 12 International Airlines Fly to Nepal
- More than 8 Domestic Airlines can take you from the lower-terai plains to all the way up-to the world’s Highest Airport - Lukla which is located at an altitude of 9373 feet (2857 meter), ready to helping you see Mt. Everest up-close or climb it.
- More than 135 hotels specifically catering to Tourists are in Kathmandu City alone. Kathmandu city is only 50.67 Square Kilometer (KM). That is about 19.56 Square Miles of Land. Get a hotel every-where you see (roughly you can get 1 hotel in every per Kilometer). There are also more than 300 cheap hotels specifically catering to locals which are also now being used by Tourists.
- 7 Five Star Hotels, 7 Four Star Hotels, and 13 Three Star Hotels are located within Kathmandu. Generally speaking, more the stars the better in standards of service, food, accommodation and obviously the price.
- Tourism can help elevate poverty. Until recently only the main cities such as Kathmandu and Pokhara have been the main tourists spots. Now Nepal government is promoting various other regions such as Chitwan, Manang, Dang etc as tourists destination. By allowing tourism industry to be scatter throughout the nation, rural people will benefit through employment and business opportunities.
- More than 30 Full Service Resorts are located in Nepal
- 504 Fully Licensed Trekking Companies are in Nepal
- Over 70% of Nepali websites are those of Tourism. These includes websites of tours and travel companies, hotels, restaurants, websites promoting tourism and/or offering travel information for Nepal.
- Over a 1000 shops offering exquisite Nepali made products such as carpets, thangkas, nepali hand made papers, handicrafts, etc are offered in shops specifically catering to tourist. Imagine a shop of 1000s within about an square miles of land - Thamel street of Kathmandu.
- More than 300 fully dedicated Travel Companies are located within Kathmandu alone. These include travel agents, trekking and expedition operators.
- 45 White-Water River Rafting Service Providers are located in Nepal
- The person who climbs the highest mountain in the world more often than anyone else, is none other than a Nepali. Appa Sherpa - who has climbed Everest for 16 times, he is an inspiration and pride for all Nepalese. Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, the first Nepali women to climb Everest, who died tragically as she was returning from the Submit, remains the number one Female icon of Nepal for her devotion, passion and bravery. Tourism industry of Nepal empowers all class of people.
- Number of tourism schools and colleges are growing in the country as more and more students are recognizing the growing opportunities in the tourism sector. Hotel Management courses have become the second most popular choice after Information Technology for many students in Nepal.
Data Source for this article: Hotel Association of Nepal, Nepal Vista’s Web Directory, Dmoz.org, Civil Aviation of Authority of Nepal, Tourism Ministry of Nepal
As the country is preparing for a lasting peace and a new government hoping to fully represent all class of Nepali, the growth of Nepal’s tourism industry is eminent.
Every Leader of Nepal, Prachanda, Girija, Madav and all, should wake up every morning repeating 10 times the following mantra. This mantra was given to us by a “Lover of Nepal”
“TOURISM, I LOVE YOU.
TODAY, I WILL DO SOMETHING FOR YOU.
LAST 10 YEARS, I GAVE IT TO WAR.
THIS 10 YEARS, I WILL GIVE IT TO YOU”
Repeat 10 times!
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wonderful. wonderful post. lots of data here. keep it up dude! Hope Nepal’s tourism industry gets what it deserves this year!
This is great article. Thanks a lot for sharing here.
Just one question, is the data for entire Nepal or for Kathmandu ?
thank you for gathering all these facts, it really shows the picture of tourism business of our country. Why the hell our netas do not undertand this!
wow! That’s a lot of hotels in kathmandu? So it is crowed ha?
good info ruben.
does anyone know about tourism directory for dolpa, rukkum and other remote parts of the country. If you have the info, would you be willing to share that info with travelers who are searching for the same.
Thanks for the great info. I needed this for homework and I really appreciate it. GOOD WORK!!!
you welcome. Thanks for your compliment and encouraging us to do better. Loved it!
Was looking for some facts. Thanks a bunch for some here. Will be around to check more later. Thanks for helping me; got a Uni/Research Pap. C YA U All.
i wish you had the facts of on a separate sheet. My question is
Where can i find tourism facts for pokhara and everest region?
I was in Nepal in 2004. I can never forget the smiles of innocent nepali kids. I travelled to pokhara and the sight was beyond my expectations, just mind blowing. Would like to know about facts about Japanese submitting everest.
THANK YOU FOR PUBLISHING SUCH A GOOD INFORMATION OF NEPAL .
I ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR EFFORT.
Thank you for your best information and suggestions to the leaders of Nepal and other general people.It is very necessary to wake them.
Tourim is actually backbone of Nepal.I think Nepal should activate the marketing activities in International arena well.Nepal is so back in It`s marketing activities.
I think Nepalese tousism should be broaden upto remote area like Humla,Dolpa,Rukum also.Because Nepalese touristic spot is not limited only in Kathmandu,Pokhara,Chitawan,these are the most popular products of nepal.But it`s the time to take out new tourism product.Im a tourism studying student in Japan.Actually Im interested in tourism development in Remote area.Im specially very interested in Dolpa and Rukum.If Anyone is around having same interest .please I`d request to sare Idea,information ect.
The japanese market of Nepalese Tourism is declinin badly.It`s cause of political unstability of Nepal.It is fact that tourism is the peace industry.However after the peace agreement between Got. and Maoist in nepal, it`s getting time to get recover this industry well because there is lack of such activities that takes out the past image of Nepal.Japan is the second largest tourists sending country(in terms of numbers) in Nepal and it is called a volume market of Nepal.But Nepal doesn`t have any effective promotional programme for the Japanese market.Nepalese tourism sector should pay more attention to promote nepalese products in japanese market.
[…] More than 400 Tour Operators and Executes Participated in Last Years ATW, Says the website of ATW, Canada. “More than 500 Adventure Travel Industry professionals from around the globe convened at the Adventure Travel World Summit” - said Nepal Tourism Board “Product diversification, research, marketing, prospect opportunities into result-oriented endeavors, growth strategies, customer acquisition, maximizing web marketing, best practices for operating in sensitive environmental destinations were some of the issues covered in the Summit”, Nepal Tourism Board Explains in its website. “Nepal Tourism Board’s proposal to hold the next Adventure Travel World Summit in Kathmandu Nepal, has been received positively by the Organizers”, claims the official site of Nepal’s Tourism Board. For a nation like Nepal where Tourism Ranks as #1 Industry of all time, this proposal is something that Nepal can do, and do it easily. It has the necessary infrastructure in place. For more info on how big Nepal’s Tourism is, please see This Article, Facts About Nepal’s Tourism. […]
Well, Nepalis involved with the tourism industry must learn to become more professional. It is not a very nice feeling to miss one’s connecting flight or train across the border almost routinely when you travel by surface. Taxis often drop a customers home on the way at the cost of rest of the passengers and reach you late by a couple of hours. People are used to start early by a day for long journeys. High time transporters take this suggestion seriously if they really wants to get the support of overseas tourists.
Sam has great points here. An american friend told me a week ago about lack of professionalism of adventure travel operators in our country.. Summary of his suggestions were; a) its hard to get price of travel packages from them - websites don’t mention, briefing on adventure beforing embarking ia none; guides only speak but don’t know even the basic first aid kits; poor punctuality; when asked to one of the manager, he himself doesn’t know what ecotourism is; yes professionalism lacks.
Its nice to get feedbacks, it is by understanstanding we can try to improve. My personal suggestion would be that in order to be a manager of a travel company, nepal tourism board should issues license based on expertise, education od managers and also a regular training sessons should be held throught the year and formulate pricing structure and transparency in work!
i did like it
it did help me with my geogaphie coursework
thanks
what were you looking for ? If you could be more specific we could provide you that content or may be the content is located at the main site www.nepalvista.com. Hope to hear from you soon!
it is very useful deta for tourism students. as a tourism student i got good information abot the country.
thank you.