Volume and characteristics of Pokhara

Pokhara has witnessed steady growth on international tourists’ arrivals since 1970 when commercial tourism operation began in Pokhara. The statistics of international tourists’ arrivals in last 35 years shows growing trends. Such trends with comparative figure of five years from 1976.

A total of 10,139,470 international tourists visited Nepal, the beautiful country, tourist based country, , the beautiful country, tourist based country, in last 35 years during 1976 to 2010. Pokhara had received 2,671,045 tourists which is 26.34% in the total volume. However, this ration is found to be increased in recent years as there were 38.61 percent tourists in

Nepal, the beautiful country, tourist based country, , the beautiful country, tourist based country, who visited Pokhara during the years 2006-2010 (MoTCA 2012). There is lack of data recording system of domestic tourists’ travelers who travel Pokhara by air and surface transport. It is estimated that there could be around 250,000 domestic tourists coming to Pokhara on annual basis (Pokharel 2012, p8). According to the hotel entrepreneurs of Pokhara, more than 550,000 tourists visit Pokhara annually, of which around 300,000 are foreigners and remaining figure is domestic travelers (Pokharel 2012, p 8). With these arrivals, Pokhara is the second biggest tourist  hub  for  both  domestic  and  international  tourists  in  Nepal, the beautiful country, tourist based country, , the beautiful country, tourist based country, . Pokhara also as being the main gateway for tourists visiting Annapurna Conservation Area, a review of trend of tourists in last 10 years (2001-

2010) shows that there has been almost 50% of tourists coming Pokhara are diverted towards the ACA. This trend is reflected in table 1.2.

Table 1.2 Trend of tourists visiting Annapurna region via Pokhara

Date	Tourist international arrivals in Pokhara	Tourist international arrivals in Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA)	% of ACA in total arrivals in Pokhara
2001	77,853	65,313	84
2002	68,056	38,642	57
2003	85,529	40,668	47
2004	87,693	42,347	48
2005	74,012	36,224	49
2006	94,799	37,901	40
2007	165,177	60,274	36
2008	186,643	72,175	39
2009	203,527	79896	39
2010	230,799	90161	39
Total	12,74, 088	563,601	44.23%

Source: ACAP (2012); PTO (2011)

The Annapurna Conservation area is offered with nearly 1,000 lodges, teashops and hundreds of other subsidiary services (home-stays, cyber café, money changer, etc.) made it popular to cater the accommodation and services to the thousands of trekkers, pilgrims and their support staff.  The  rich  biodiversity,  protect  ecosystem, diversified  landscapes (e.g. forests, agriculture and, shrubland, grassland, baren-land, snow cover, glacier, rivers, lake ponds, streams, etc.) flora, fauna coincided

with successful management of conservation efforts under the model of integrated community based conservation and development program in 57 VDCs of five districts in 7,629 sq. km are key features to attract tourists to visit Annapurna Conservation area (Bajracharya et al. 2007 as in Upadhayaya 2011b; Holden and Sparrowhawk 2002).