Lumbini The Most Visited Destination In 2019
May 27, 2020 | Investopaper
The economic survey has shown Lumbini as one of the most visited destinations in Nepal this year as well. In 2019, 1.78 million tourists visited Lumbini. Before that, in 2018, 1.51 million tourists had visited Lumbini. Lumbini has the highest number of Nepali visitors at 79 percent and Indians at 11 percent. Citizens of other countries are 10 percent. Compared to last year, the number of tourists visiting Lumbini has increased by 2.3 percent this year.
About 65 percent of the tourists come to Nepal for entertainment. Similarly, 14 percent of tourists come for trekking and mountaineering and 4 percent of those who come for other purposes.
Tourism Affected By Covid-19
The economic survey has shown that the tourism has been most affected by the Corona in Nepal at a time when tourist arrivals have been increasing in recent years. Currently, hotels, airlines, tour-travel, trekking and mountaineering related to the tourism sector are all closed. With an annual ticket and cargo turnover of Rs 1.5 trillion, the domestic and foreign aviation industry in Nepal alone had a daily turnover of Rs 10 billion.
The survey has also shown that the number of airlines flying in Nepal is also increasing compared to the previous year. Such number was 29 in 2075/76 but it has reached 30 in the current fiscal year. Similarly, the number of all-weather airports operating in Nepal has reached 35. There are 50 airports across the country.
India, China, the United States, the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka are the top five countries in terms of total tourist arrivals in 2019. The number of tourists coming from these countries is 53 percent of the total tourist arrivals.
The government collects royalties from mountains higher than 65,000 meters, while the Nepal Mountaineering Association collects royalties from mountains below that. This year, the royalty has increased by Rs 100 million as compared to the previous year and reached Rs 680 million. Of this, 90 percent of the total royalty from the mountains has been collected by Province No. 1 and 8.5 percent by Gandaki Province.
