Tourist flow decreased by 50 per cent in Nepal: Tourism board

KOLKATA: Tourist inflow to Nepal has halved since the devastating earthquake in April and the country hopes that numbers would soon pick up.

"Tourist arrivals have decreased by about 50 per cent if we look at the corresponding period last year," Nepal Tourism Board official Bimal Kadel told reporters here.

The Himalayan nation is participating in a roadshow at the ongoing Tourism and Travel Fair here.

Kadel said the country hopes that its tourism sector would be revived as its transport network comprising road and airport connectivity is intact.

"Most trekking areas except Manaslu and Langtang have not been damaged by the quake. Chitwan, Pokhara, Annapurna region and Bardia escaped widespread damage," he said, adding religious places like Pashupatinath, Muktinath and Lumbini, birthplace of Gautam Buddha, did not suffer damage.

To bring back normalcy in tourism, some of the monuments in the heritage sites have been reopened on June 15, he said.