Over 3,000 foreign tourists visit Upper Mustang

MYAGDI, NOVEMBER 21: The number of foreign tourists visiting the Upper Mustang in the Mustang district of Gandaki province has seen a significant upturn. In the first 11 months of the current fiscal year, more than 3,388 travelers from 38 different countries reached this place. This was revealed by Padam Raj Regmi, chief of the Jomsom-based Area Conservation Office under the  Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP). In previous years, the average number of tourists visiting the Upper Mustang yearly used to be around 1,000.

Out of the first 11 months of this year, the largest chunk of tourists i.e. 810 visited the place in the last month of October alone.  Similarly, January, February, March and April saw 7, 23, 62 and 425 tourists respectively.  Likewise, 712, 149, 108 and 278 tourists visited the Upper Mustang in May, June, July and August respectively.

Regmi attributes road accessibility and promotional campaigns, among others, to the upsurge in tourist arrivals in this destination during the review period. It is said that more than Rs 220 million as revenue from the tourists from January to October.

This area is replete with historical and religious monuments, and its geography distinctly differs from other parts of Nepal as it lies in the rain shadow of the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri Himalayas