Foreign Tourist Arrivals in Nepal See Moderate Rise in February 2026

Kathmandu. The number of foreign tourists visiting Nepal in February 2026 has shown a slight increase. According to a report published by the Nepal Tourism Board, citing data from the Department of Immigration, a total of 105,441 foreign tourists entered Nepal this month.

This figure is an 8.8 percent increase compared to the same month last year (2025). In February 2025, 96,880 tourists visited Nepal. Furthermore, compared to February 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, tourist arrivals this year have increased by 2.9 percent. During that period, 102,423 tourists had arrived.

These are the major countries from which tourists arrive

Neighboring India remains in the first position in the list of tourists entering Nepal in February, as usual. From India, 22,745 tourists visited Nepal this month. Following closely, the northern neighbor China is in second place, with 10,816 tourists visiting Nepal.

The United States is in third place. During the one-month period, 9,710 tourists arrived from the US. Additionally, 7,515 tourists came from Sri Lanka, 6,035 from Myanmar, and 5,618 from the United Kingdom.

Moreover, 3,638 tourists came from Thailand, 3,212 from Bangladesh, 2,850 from Germany, and 2,553 from South Korea this month, the Board stated.

According to this data, a good improvement in tourist arrivals has also been observed from countries with a large Buddhist population, such as Myanmar and Thailand.

Market Share by Percentage

When analyzing total tourist arrivals on a percentage basis, the share of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member countries appears largest. The contribution of the SAARC region to the total arrivals is 33.5 percent.

Regionally, after SAARC countries, 28.3 percent of tourists arrived from 'Other Asian' countries. Sixteen point six percent of tourists entered Nepal from Europe, with the UK and Germany accounting for the major share.

Tourists from the American continent accounted for 11.2 percent, and from Oceania, 1.6 percent. Arrivals from the Middle East and African countries were limited to 0.9 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

Improvement by Region

Compared to 2025, there has been a significant surge in arrivals from some countries.

Arrivals from Myanmar have increased by 91.6 percent, while an increase of 90.3 percent was seen from Poland and 72 percent from Sri Lanka. However, the data shows a decline in arrivals from some countries, such as Australia and Vietnam, compared to last year.