A haphazard decision to close the Kathmandu airport, Nepal’s key gateway, for 10 hours daily has begun to take a toll on the country’s tourism sector, marking the first decline in tourist arrivals since the post-Covid recovery phase.
According to the latest statistics from the Nepal Tourism Board, tourist arrivals in February dropped by 0.6 percent year-on-year to 96,880 individuals. The decline was most pronounced among visitors from Nepal’s key source markets, India and China, both of which recorded double-digit decreases.
On November 8 last year, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal announced that Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport would be closed from 10 pm to 8 am until March 31 for five months to expand taxiways….
