Nepal Rastra Bank's Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari said that the country's economy was becoming viable and the business environment was being enabled.
Addressing the Hotelier Summit organized by the Capital Nepal Business Magazine on Friday, Governor Adhikari highlighted tourism's role in earning foreign currency and job creation.
He expressed his confidence that the addition of star hotels in the hospitality sector of the country would contribute to the development of tourism infrastructures.
Similarly, parliamentarian and industrialist Binod Kumar Chaudhary viewed that the entry of international chain hotels into Nepal had attracted attention from the world.
"Tourism and hotel infrastructures are major sectors to change the face of Nepal. We should work by prioritizing these industries to make Nepal an attractive destination in the world," he said.
The hotel is one of the most invested sectors in Nepal in recent times. Tourist-oriented hotels were opened in Nepal since Nepal issued visas for foreigners in 1951, it was shared.
According to official statistics, there are 182 five-star hotels in Nepal while the number of lodges and resorts stands at 1,234. At present, 31 international airlines are operating their flights in Nepal.
Prior to two years before the COVID-19 pandemic, over one million tourists had visited Nepal while a similar number of tourists arrived in Nepal in the last fiscal year, the statistics showed.
Nepal fetched an estimated Rs 68 billion as an income from foreign tourists in 2023, it was told.
The average stay of a tourist in Nepal is 13.2 days and average spending is 41 USD per day. Most tourists visit Nepal for holidays, entertainment, trekking, and mountaineering purposes.
The budget statement of the current fiscal year 2024/25 has incorporated plans and programs to promote tourism sectors.
The plans include identifying new tourist destinations and promoting the existing ones, service delivery to tourists from a one-door system, an automation system to be implemented for issuing permits for mountaineering and promoting tourist destinations as wedding destinations, and facilitating tourists visiting Nepal for marriage among others.
