October 04, 2007	Thursday	Ramazan 21, 1428

KATHMANDU: Tourist arrivals in Nepal have shot up 32 per cent this year, a sign that the Himalayan nation’s crucial tourism sector is recovering after Maoist insurgents ended a decade-long war, officials said.

“Nepal’s tourism is reviving rapidly and we are seeing good signs,” Sarad Pradhan, an official at the Nepal Tourism Board, told AFP Wednesday.

“There are lots of new airlines coming in... this definitely sends out a good message.”

The Tourism Board said total arrivals in the last nine months have gone up by 32.3 per cent over the same period last year — when overall arrivals slumped to 283,000.

The tourism official said he was now “certain” that arrivals this year were on track to match the bumper year of 1999, when nearly half-a-million people visited the impoverished and landlocked Himalayan country.

Tourist numbers have been increasing after the Maoists ended their armed rebellion with a peace deal signed with mainstream parties late last year.

Nepal is a paradise for backpackers, hippies, trekkers, mountaineers and other adventure tourists. The tourism sector accounts for at least four per cent of GDP and provides around 300,000 jobs.

The country has two tourist seasons annually — one in spring, which ends around June with the onset of the monsoon, and another that begins in October, the prime season for trekking amid the country’s majestic Himalayan peaks.—AFP