Makwanpur, July 25 – The number of tourists visiting Chitwan National Park, the third largest tourist destination in Nepal, has come down. The number of tourists visiting the park has decreased by half in the last fiscal year 2077/78 as compared to the previous fiscal year 2076/77.
According to Lokendra Adhikari, information officer and assistant conservation officer of the park, the number of tourists visiting the park has decreased by 90,226 in the last fiscal year as compared to the previous fiscal year. Officials said that only 92,209 tourists visited the park last year.
Similarly, in the previous fiscal year 2076/77, one lakh 82 thousand 435 people visited the park, according to the official. Of the tourists visiting the park in the last fiscal year, 89,667 were domestic tourists, the official said. The number of foreign tourists visiting the park was very low last year as compared to the previous year, the official said.
Last year, 1,364 tourists from SAARC countries and 1,244 foreign tourists visited the park, the official said. The number of foreign tourists visiting the park has come down as tourists from SAARC and foreign countries could not come to Nepal last year as international flights were affected for a long time due to the corona infection scare, the official said.
“The number of domestic tourists visiting the park is almost the same as in the previous fiscal year and last fiscal year,” the official said. While 89 thousand 441 domestic tourists visited the park in the previous fiscal year 2076/77, 14 thousand 239 tourists came from SAARC countries and 78 thousand 755 tourists from foreign countries, said the official.
Last year, there were 37,653 women and 51,788 men among the domestic tourists visiting the park. Similarly, 6,067 women and 8,172 men from SAARC countries and 33,694 women and 45,061 men from foreign countries visited the park, the official said.
In the last fiscal year 2077/78, there were 37 thousand 968 women and 51 thousand 633 men among the domestic tourists visiting the park. Similarly, 549 women and 815 men from SAARC and 562 women and 682 men from foreign countries visited the park, the official said.
Decrease in park revenue
Along with the tourists visiting Chitwan National Park, the revenue collected here has come down by more than a quarter. The revenue collected by the park has decreased by a total of Rs. 154.89 million in the last fiscal year as compared to the previous fiscal year. The park has collected only Rs. 443.62 million in the last fiscal year 2077/78 In the previous Fiscal Year 2076/77, revenue of Rs. 192.255 million was collected.
The revenue collected by the park has come down as the revenue collected from tourists has come down, said the Information Officer and Assistant Conservation Officer. According to him, the revenue collected from tourists visiting the park in the last fiscal year has been Rs. 164.847 million less than the previous fiscal year.
In the previous fiscal year 2076/77, Rs. 187.38 million was collected from tourist fees, but in the last fiscal year 2077/78, only Rs. 25.5 million 37 thousand 828.
Published Date : 25 Jul 2021
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