Number of tourists down in Lumbini

BHAIRAHAWA, JAN 05 -

The number of third country visitors in Lumbini, birth place of Lord Buddha has come down these days.

Local business has also been adversely affected with the decrease of tourists and it is not a good signal as the country is committed to make Lumbini as main destination of world tourism, said Prof. Dr. Gitu Tiwari, a tourism expert.

Though domestic and Indian tourists have increased, the number of tourists from third countries has decreased for lack of proper publicity. Therefore, the government and Lumbini Development Trust should pay due attention, added Prof. Tiwari.  

Most of the tourists come from Sri Lanka and Japan to visit Lumbini but due to Bodhgaya incident they are not found interested to come here, said Ajit Man Tamang, member secretary at the Fund.

As many as 125,492 foreign tourists of different 100 countries have visited the Lumbini last year, said Haridhoj Rai information officer at the Trust.  

The government had marked 2012 as a Visit Lumbini Year and that has highly attracted the foreign tourists .   

Though the Trust has been marking Lumbini Tourism Vision 20 these days, the number of visitors is decreasing. RSS

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