Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: International visitor arrivals to Nepal increased by 12.1% in September.
According to data released by the Nepal Tourism Board on Thursday, Nepal recorded 88,248 international visitors in September, up from 78,711 in the same month of 2025.
Data show the total number of international tourists visiting Nepal in the first nine months of 2026 reached 865,920. This represents a 6.21% growth from the 815,273 visitors recorded during the same period last year.
India remained the largest source market in September, accounting for 17,425 visitors—or roughly 19.75% of the total monthly arrivals. China followed in second place with 11,212 visitors (12.71%), while the United States came third with 8,299 visitors (9.4%). Sri Lanka and Australia rounded out the top five with 7,108 visitors (8.05%) and 4,842 visitors (5.49%), respectively.
South Asian countries accounted for the largest share of international arrivals in September at 34.1%. Other Asian countries outside the SAARC region contributed 22.5% of total visitors, followed by Europe at 17.2%, the Americas at 11.5%, and Oceania at 6.1%. The Middle East accounted for 3.0% of total arrivals, while Africa contributed 0.5%, and visitors from other markets made up the remaining 5.2%.
The strong performance over the first nine months indicates that Nepal is well on track to break previous tourist records in 2026.
Nepal welcomed a record 1,197,191 international tourists in 2019 before footfall fell sharply due to pandemic-related travel disruptions. Total arrivals rebounded to 1,158,459 in 2025. A 4% growth rate through the remainder of 2026 will push the annual total past 1.2 million.
