The emergency declaration on February 1st in Nepal has caused tourism in the Kingdom to decline sharply. The Nepal News Online at http://www.nepalnews.com/ thre has been a
decline of 43 percent in tourism to nepal when compared to the same month last year, according to the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB).
The Nepal News Online further quoted the NTB report, saying that 14,001 tourists came to Nepal in february. There was a substantial
decline of Indian visitors during the month, down 52 percent, while the number of non-Indian visitors dropped sharply, down 39 percent. The good news, on the other hand, was that the number of Chinese tourists increased by 52 percent.
the NTB said that the drop in tourism was most certainly due to the negative press in foreign countries to the emergency decree and suspension of democratic rights by the monarchy.
In other news, The Kathmandu Post (http://www.kathmandupost.com/) report that efforts are under way to convince foreign governments to continue providing aid to the Kingdom of Nepal.
"My duty was to make them understand on why the King needed to take the present step. They want withdrawal of state of emergency, restoration of freedom of speech and release of political prisoners," the Kathmandu Post quoted Finance Minister Madhukar Shumsher Rana as saying after returning to Kathmandu from the Paris aid conference.
According to the Kathmandu Post article, he said he told the donor agencies that if they didn’t cooperate with the government, they would, in fact, be playing into the hands of the terrorists.
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