NTB begins survey to find foreign tourists’ average expenditure in Nepal

KATHMANDU: Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has begun a survey in a bid to find data on the average expenditures of foreign tourists during their stay in Nepal. The survey aims to find how much foreign tourists spend during their stay in Nepal, said the NTB Director Maniraj Lamichhane. "Two thousand sample respondents will be selected for the survey. Five employees deployed by the NTB will fill out the questionnaires with details of visiting tourists. They have a timeframe of 40 days for the job," he said. Students of the Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM) have volunteered as enumerators for the survey. In 2021 and 2022, a foreign tourist spent an average of $48 on a daily basis, he said. In 2023, their expenditure is expected to increase to reach between $70 and $75 each. The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Nepal Rastra Bank, the National Statistics Office and NATHM have collaborated on the initiative. The arrival of foreign tourists has gradually been on the track post-Covid 19. A total of 55,074 foreign tourists visited Nepal in January 2023, according to NTB’s data. Similarly, a total of 614,148 tourists arrived in Nepal in 2022. The years 2020 and 2021 when the Covid 19 pandemic reached its peak saw a sharp drop in their inflow at 230,085 and 150,962 respectively from a whopping 1,197,091 in 2019 before the pandemic. The year 2020 witnessed an 81% decline in their inflow. READ ALSO:

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