国际英语新闻:Half of FDI pledged to Nepal goes to tourism sector

KATHMANDU, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Nepal's tourism sector received half of the total foreign direct investment (FDI) pledged to the country during the first four months of the current fiscal year 2018-19 that began in mid-July, Nepal's Department of Industry (DoI) said.

As Nepal is organizing the 'Visit Nepal Year-2020' with the aim of attracting 2 million foreign tourists in the year, the Himalayan country is also attracting growing amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the tourism sector.

According to the DoI data, Nepal received FDI commitment of 6.48 billion Nepali Rupees (56.57 million U.S. dollars) during the first four months of this fiscal. The FDI committed in the tourism sector stood at 3.28 billion (28.67 million U.S. dollar). In the last fiscal year 2017-18, Nepal received a total of 4.12 billion Nepali Rupees (36 million U.S. dollar), according to DoI.

Nepali tourism entrepreneurs said that there has been growing investment in most of the sectors related to tourism, particularly the hotels, in the recent years as Nepal has been witnessing steady rise in tourist arrivals.

Famous international hotel brands including Hilton, Marriott, easyHotel, Sheraton, Aloft, Taj among others are also entering into Nepal.

"Obviously, Nepal is witnessing growth in investment in tourism sector and it is bound to grow as the country is targeting to double the arrival of foreign visitors in 2020," Suraj Vaidya, an entrepreneur and coordinator of Visit Nepal Year-2020, said Wednesday.

In, 2017, Nepal attracted 940,218 tourists and the arrival has reached 772,798 as of September in 2018, according to Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), the main tourism promotion body of Nepal.

NTB's Chief Executive Officer Deepak Raj Joshi told Xinhua on Wednesday that there has been massive surge in investment in the recent years in hotels and cable cars being constructed in tourism destinations are attracting huge investment lately.

"Foreign investors are making investment in Nepal's tourism industry as they see the business prospect because Nepal has a lot of attractive tourism destinations including Himalayas and there is a possibility of massive inflow of tourists from China and India, two neighboring countries of Nepal," he said.