3 lakh 889 people from India and 111 thousand 403 people from third countries came to Lumbini. Tourists from third countries have increased by 48 percent compared to the previous year.
In 2024, tourists from 112 countries including India visited Lumbini. According to the Lumbini Development Fund, 111,403 people from third countries came to Lumbini last year. 3 lakh 889 tourists have visited from India.
Tourists from third countries increased by 48 percent last year compared to the previous year. In 2023, 76,210 people from 85 countries besides India came to Lumbini. In 2022, 23 thousand 992 people from 96 countries and in 2021 1 thousand 197 people from 68 countries visited Lumbini.
Information Officer of Lumbini Development Fund Rajan Basnet said that the situation of 2019 has not yet been reached before the corona epidemic. In that year, 1 lakh 74 thousand 15 tourists from 115 countries came except India.
Last year, tourists from the nearest China to the farthest South American country, Chile, have come to Lumbini. Last year, 13,120 tourists came from China and 19 from Chile.
Similarly, 115 tourists from war-torn Israel and 56 from Ukraine have visited Lumbini. Last year, the highest number of tourists to third countries came from Sri Lanka 23 thousand 569 people. 21 thousand 496 tourists have visited from Thailand in the second. 10,517 tourists came from Myanmar under military rule in the fourth, 8,500 from Vietnam in the fifth and 4,646 from South Korea in the sixth.
Last year, Sri Lanka's former President Mahinda Rajapakse, Sri Lanka's former President and Prime Minister Ranil Wickrama Singha visited Lumbini. Likewise, China's Minister of National Religious Affairs Administration Chen Ruifeng, Chinese Vice Minister Wang Ruijun and world famous Hollywood actor Jet Li also visited Lumbini.
Last year, 36 people came from Muslim-majority Iran, 23 from Pakistan and 3 from Afghanistan. Tourists from conflict-ridden Sudan to Syria, Turkey and Somalia have come here. According to the fund, 1 in 1 tourists came from Albania, Armenia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Ethiopia, Georgia, Haiti, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan, North Korea and Liberia. Leelamani Sharma, senior vice president of the Lumbini Hotel Association, says that the increase in tourists from Muslim-majority countries is positive. "Now everyone needs peace," he said, "the glory and ooze of Lumbini is the result of reaching far and wide."
Domestic tourists have also increased in Lumbini. Last year, 759,990 Nepalis visited Lumbini. In 2023, 656,218 people visited. 649 thousand 78 people visited in 2022 and 463 thousand 963 people visited in 2021. Tourists have increased due to the comfortable conditions of the country and various pujas and programs in Lumbini.
Similarly, the number of Indian tourists coming to Lumbini has also increased after the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then Indian spiritual guru Muraribapu in May 2019. In 2023, 266,510 and 230,863 Indian tourists visited Lumbini in 2022. Dilipsingh Rai, exhibition officer of the Lumbini Development Fund, says that Indian tourists have increased due to the publicity of Lumbini due to Modi and Bapu's visit. He says that this has added energy to the tourism business here, which has slowed down after Corona.
Basnet, information officer of the fund, said that despite the increase in the number of tourists in Lumbini, they could not take advantage of the fact that they could not extend their stay. According to him, even 20 percent of the tourists who come to Lumbini do not reach another important Buddhist site, Tilaurakot. He says that reaching the Buddha place of Ramgram in West Nawalparasi is very less. Lharkyal Lama, the vice president of
fund, says that it will benefit the local businessmen and the country if they can make an attractive package including those places and extend the stay of tourists. "Private and government efforts are necessary for the tourist attraction program," he said. Lumbini Hotel Association General Secretary Purushottam Aryal said that although it is good to create an environment for tourist arrivals, attention should be paid to sustaining it.
