Published on : Thursday, October 4, 2018
With significant impact of the high FTA growth in the adjacent Himalayan country, Nepal, the eastern Himalayan region tourism arena in India expects bright festive and winter season business. Nepal has made a commendable effort in turning around after the devastating earthquake in 2015.
Experts in Indian tourism sector find FTA trend in Nepal as highly significant contributor to the high value premium class tourism business in eastern India.
“At least one third of visitors from Western world reaching Nepal prefer keeping Indian eastern Himalayan destinations including Darjeeling or Sikkim in their itinerary.
Domestic tourists from south or Western India visiting Nepal also do the same,” explained Sandipan Ghosh, Secretary, Eastern Himalayan Tour and Travel Operators Association.
“On an average 50,000 foreign tourists and five lakh domestic tourists visit Darjeeling Sikkim region per annum. Though low in head count, foreign tourists contribute a major share to Rs 350 crore rupee volume of annual tourism business in this region,” said Raj Basu, tourism advisor to Sikkim Government.
As Nepal tourism statistics shows, the country had 7.53 lakh visitors during 2017 recording 24% growth against 5.40 lakh in 2016. Continuing with the same high growth trend, the arrival has been 5.93 lakh during Jan to July 2018 showing a growth of around 18% over same period 2017.
“Post monsoon and winter usually enjoys 20-30% higher FTA than March – August. With present enquiry pattern, we expect the same even in this year,” said Prem Chetrti, a prominent tour operator from Nepal. “This will definitely impart its positive impact on our business volume too in Eastern India,” said S. Sanyal, veteran tourism consultant.
Going by the trend, travel business arena expects FTA to further go up significantly during Sep to February.
Tags: Indian Tourism, nepal