In contrast to tourist arrival increment, their stay is decreasing

The number of tourist arrivals in Nepal from different countries has increased but the time period of their staying has decreased shows an Economic Survey of 2009-10.
According to the survey, in 2008, tourists’ coming for recreational purpose was 29.6%. Similarly, in 2009, this sum increased to 34%. In average, tourist arrival increased by 1.9% but their time period of staying has decreased to 11.6 days in 2009 in comparison to 11.8 days in 2008.
Tourism is the major source of income in Nepal. Each year many tourists come to visit Nepal peculiarly for trekking and mountaineering purpose.
CEO of Nepal Tourism Board, Mr. Prachanda Man Shrestha mentioned that, “The substantial rise of tourists coming for recreation purpose in Nepal is a result of increasing options for spare time activities in Nepal.”
The survey has discovered that, tourists coming for pilgrimage have increased slightly from 9% in 2008 to 10.4% in 2009.
From the total number of tourists arriving in Nepal in 2009, tourists coming for trekking and mountaineering reported 20.9%.
In 2006, after the peace treaty signed between the Maoist and Government, tourist coming to Nepal started to stay for a long time but due to several strikes and bandhas held by Maoists and different other parties’ arrival of tourists declined. This affected every aspect of Nepal’s tourism industry.
General Manager of Shangri-La Hotel, Mr. Raj Bikram Shah accused the economic recession that bounded tourists to stay for short periods in Nepal.
Similarly, David Yonjan of Yeti Travels mentioned that there had not been any drastic changes in situation of the country and the period of stay depended on the tour packages of incoming visitors.