Nepal is expecting to welcome an overwhelming 40,000 tourists from China during the two-week-long Chinese New Year Holiday that commences on Friday as per travel traders.
It is also known as Spring Festival or Lunar New Year.
During this time the entire country of China is away on vacations to celebrate the occasion. This festival would last till 2nd March. The start of the Year of the Dog is slated to offer a boost to Nepal tourism.
Bishwesh Shrestha who is the managing director of Shuang Qi Tours and C&K Nepal Treks, one of the important agencies dealing with Chinese tourists said that Nepal welcomes a major chunk of Chinese outbound tourists in Chinese New Year.
Schools and offices are all shut down and a large number of people would be travelling in China or go on a foreign trip.
Nearly 6.5 million people are expected to make trips overseas during the two-week long holiday starting Friday as per media reports. Nepal is steadily emerging as a popular tourist locale for Chinese tourists of late.
And as per the Department of Immigration, arrivals from China, the nation’s second largest source market after India had totaled 104,664 individuals last year.
Shrestha feels that based on the present growth trend Chinese tourist arrivals in Nepal would probably reach 150,000 this year. The rise in Chinese arrivals has been attribute to improved airline connectivity between Nepal and China.
At present five Chinese carries including China Eastern, Air China, Tibet Airlines and Sichuan Air connect Nepal with mainland China.
One of the leading travel agencies of Nepal, Osho World Travel mentioned that inbound flight bookings on the Guangzhou-Kathmandu sector have been recorded at over 90% from mid-February to early March.
China Southern Airlines operates daily flights on this sector.
Similarly flight bookings on the Kunming-Kathmandu route have been recorded at over 70% for the mid-February to mid-March according to Deepak Basnet, ticketing executive of Osho World Travel.
China Eastern Airlines operates double daily flights on the route.
Tags: Bishwesh Shrestha, china, china eastern
