Tourist arrivals in Nepal topped one million for the first time in 2018 — boosted by increased visitors from India, China, the U.S., Sri Lanka and the U.K, VOA news reports.
The Himalayan nation saw the number of tourists jump nearly 25 percent as it welcomed a record high of 1,173,072 visitors in 2018, the country’s tourism authorities said Tuesday.
Rabindra Adhikari, Nepal’s tourism minister, called the new total “remarkable.”
Last year also saw a record 807 climbers reach the summit of Mount Everest, including 563 summits from Nepal.
Tourism is a major revenue earner for impoverished Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 meters (26,000 feet).
Fears for the industry rose after a devastating earthquake in 2015 that killed nearly 9,000 people and destroyed many of the country’s heritage sites.
The industry’s annual revenues fell by almost a third that year, dealing a devastating blow to the economy, but the sector has since gradually recovered.
Tourism contributed 7.8 percent to Nepal’s GDP in 2017, creating over a million jobs, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.