page_title: Tourism in Nepal
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Tourism in Nepal / Overview
caption_attribution_description: English: Namche Bazaar village located at 3,440 metres (11,286 ft) above the sea level in Khumbu region, northeastern Nepal. The Kongde Ri peak with its 6,187 m (20,299 ft) can be seen in the background. Français&#160;: Le village de Namche Bazar, situé à 3&#160;440 mètres au dessus du niveau de la mer, dans la région de Khumbu (Nord Népal). En arrière plan, on peut voir le Kongde Ri, culminant à 6&#160;187&#160;m.
context_page_description: Tourism is the largest industry in Nepal and its largest source of foreign exchange and revenue. Possessing eight of the ten highest mountains in the world, Nepal is a hot spot destination for mountaineers, rock climbers and people seeking adventure. The Hindu and Buddhist heritage of Nepal and its cool weather are also strong attractions.
context_section_description: Mount Everest, the highest mountain peak in the world (8848m above the sea level), is located in Nepal. Mountaineering and other types of adventure tourism and ecotourism are important attractions for visitors. The world heritage site Lumbini, birthplace of Buddha, is located in the south of the West region of Nepal (which despite the name is located in the center of the country) and there are other important religious pilgrimage sites throughout the country. The tourist industry is seen as a way to alleviate poverty and achieve greater social equity in the country. Tourism brings $471 millions a year to Nepal.
  According to statistics of 2012, there was a slow growth rate of 9.8%. According to statistics from Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), a total of 598,204 foreign tourists entered the country via aerial route in 2012. The government of Nepal declared 2011 to be Nepal Tourism Year, and hoped to attract one million foreign tourists to the country during that year. The government of Nepal has also declared Lumbini Tourism Year 2012 to promote Lumbini. The government of Nepal has also recently declared Visit Nepal 2020 with the aim of bringing in two million tourists by 2020.
  According to the statistics of 2017, most of the tourists comes to Nepal for observing the pilgrimage sites and heritages sites of our country i.e. 70.3%, then 34.5% of them comes here at holiday for pleasure, 13.1% of them visit Nepal for mountaineering and trekking and remaining 18.0% of the tourists comes here for official activities, conferences, business etc.
  The tourism industry of Nepal was affected after the destructive earthquake in 2015, by the series of earthquakes in 2015.
caption: Namche Bazaar, gateway to Mount Everest, under snow
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.", "Image Model": "E-500", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "314", "Image YResolution": "314", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Photo Gallery 6.0.6000.16386", "Image DateTime": "2008:05:20 13:18:56", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "308", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 37, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1402", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6803", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Creative", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:04:03 04:57:33", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:04:03 04:57:33", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "925/256", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Fine weather", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "14", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2448", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3264", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "742", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Custom", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Landscape", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Hard", "EXIF Saturation": "Hard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard"}