Nepal's tourism sector is showing signs of continued improvement. Tourism entrepreneurs are hopeful that Nepal's tourism industry will reach and catch up with its pre-Covid status.
The Nepal Tourism Board has stated that Nepal's tourism sector has maintained positive progress in October 2025. Noting a strong increase in international tourist arrivals, it has stated that the number of foreigners is only a short distance away from reaching the pre-Covid level.
A total of 128,443 international tourists visited Nepal in October 2025. This represents a significant increase of 3.3% compared to the same month in 2024, reaching 95.8% of the pre-COVID 2019 arrivals in October, the board said.
This positive change is also seen in the total figures for the first ten months of this year (January-October 2025). So far, 943,716 tourist arrivals have been recorded. This shows a recovery of 97.7% compared to the same period in 2019.
Europe emerged as the leading source region in October. European tourists contributed 31.6% of the total arrivals. The UK (6.6%) and Germany (5.0%) are the main contributors within this market. South Asia contributed 22.6%. Arrivals from this region are in second place. Where the number of tourists from India is on the list of the single largest country with 17,298 arrivals.
The United States is the second largest market with 13,286 arrivals in October, making the US the third most important source destination overall.
The Middle East is another emerging market for Nepal. It has shown a growth of 19.8% compared to October 2024. In particular, arrivals from Israel have increased by 26.8%.
Since then, the number of tourists from northern China has decreased. Arrivals from China in October 2025 were 6,755, which is 54.7% less than the pre-COVID October 2019.
The mountaineering adventure tourism sector in the autumn of 2025 has been strong. A total of 1,450 climbers from 83 different countries visited Nepal this season. Which generated revenue of Rs. 250 million. Ama Dablam and Manaslu are the peaks with the highest number of climbing permits. The Germans had 118, the French 117, the Chinese 110, the British 106, the Russians 104 and the Americans 102 in the mountaineering.
According to the Department of Industry, the tourism sector also dominates the foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals. As of Asoj (September 2025), 33.1% of the total proposed FDI projects are in the tourism sector. The proposed investment amount is Rs 1.46 billion.
Similarly, during the month of Bhadra (mid-August-mid-September 2025), foreign exchange earnings from tourism were worth Rs 6.20 billion. Which is 7.34% more than the same period last year.
Tourism entrepreneurs are hopeful that despite the upheaval in 2025, there will be good prospects for tourism. Therefore, Nepal's tourism industry seems to be reaching and catching up with the pre-Covid situation. This increase in numbers indicates a continuous improvement in the tourism industry, which is considered to be economically important to Nepal, says Yuvika Bhandari, general secretary of the Nepal Association of Tour and Travel (NATTA). “Nepal’s tourism market has become dynamic, forgetting the Gen-G movement and the sudden monsoon disaster that followed. This is a promising and good sign,” said general secretary Bhandari.
