Kathmandu: New government data reveal a widening gap between what Nepal earns from incoming tourists and what Nepalis spend travelling abroad — with outbound travel expenses exceeding inbound tourism earnings by more than fourfold.
Despite being promoted as a premier tourism destination, Nepal’s income from foreign visitors remains modest compared to the fast-rising spending of Nepalis on overseas travel, according to official statistics.
In the first two months of the current fiscal year 2082/83 BS (July–September 2025), foreign tourists spent a total of Rs 11.58 billion in Nepal. In contrast, Nepalis spent Rs 47.31 billion traveling abroad during the same period, according to figures released by the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).
Of this outbound expenditure, Rs 21 billion was spent in July and Rs 26 billion in August.
Nepal’s average monthly tourism income in the past two months stands at just around Rs 5.5 billion, the data show. The government classifies spending by foreign visitors within Nepal as “travel income” in its balance of payments statistics.
By comparison, during the same two months last fiscal year (2081/82 BS), Nepalis had spent Rs 43.49 billion on foreign trips, while tourism income from international visitors totaled only Rs 10.53 billion.
This year, Nepalis have already spent Rs 47 billion on overseas travel even before the Dashain festival, one of the busiest travel seasons.
Although the number of foreign visitors to Nepal has been increasing steadily post-pandemic, the data highlight that outbound travel spending by Nepalis continues to outpace tourism earnings from foreign arrivals.
Even during the COVID-19 period, when global travel was heavily restricted, the trend of Nepalis traveling and spending abroad did not fully stop, the NRB data indicate.
Before the pandemic, in the first two months of fiscal year 2076/77 BS, Nepal’s travel income was Rs 11.39 billion, while travel expenditure stood higher at Rs 14.85 billion.
During the pandemic year 2077/78 BS, those figures dropped sharply — outbound spending fell to Rs 2.92 billion, and inbound tourism income plunged to just Rs 970 million.
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