KATHMANDU — Foreign tourist arrivals in Nepal have more than tripled in the first 10 months of 2022 than the whole year of 2021, show government figures released on Friday.

The South Asian country received 473,563 foreign tourists by the end of October, a sharp rise from 150,962 recorded in 2021, according to the Nepal Tourism Board data.

“It is clear that we’re on the path to recovery,” Binayak Shah, first vice-president of Hotel Association Nepal, told Xinhua.

“We have received growing inquiries from foreign travel agencies about their clients’ visit plans to Nepal,” he added.

Nepal’s tourism sector, hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, has a long way to go before it can repeat the feat of having as many as 1.19 million foreign tourists in 2019.

Amid rising tourist arrivals, the hotel occupancy rate has climbed to an average of 25 percent nationwide from almost nil last year, according to Shah.  (Xinhua)