The number of Indian tourists coming to Nepal by air has increased by 39 per cent to 145,338 during last year.

The number of foreign tourist arrival by air to Nepal has also witnessed an increase of 21.4 per cent over the 2010 figure of 448,769 visitors, official sources have said.

However, Nepal''s Tourism Board (NTB) has admitted that it has failed to meet the set target of attracting 1,000,000 tourists during the Nepal Tourism Year 2011 campaign as the year witnessed only 544,985 foreign visitors by air including 145,338 Indians as per a PTI report by Shirish B Pradhan.

The arrival of less than expected tourists can be attributed to a number of factors such as shortage of aircrafts of the Nepal Airlines, the national flag carrier, and economic slowdown in Europe, said Sarad Pradhan, media advisor of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB).

However, if we add the arrivals by land route, we can arrive at a total of 750,000 tourists from January to December 2011, he said.

Even after adding the land figure the number of tourist arrival could not suffice the targeted one million figure.

The Indian tourists arrival witnessed a significant growth of 39 per cent this year as compared to the last year''s arrival figure of 104,470 by air. The number of Chinese visitors also witnessed 77.6 per cent growth registering 45,400 arrivals this year, according to the NTB.

Besides lack of effective promotional campaign by Nepal''s tourism authority abroad political instability, the frequently observed shut downs and strikes have also contributed to the slowdown in tourism sector, they pointed out.

According to a survey there were more than 50 days of general strikes and shut downs in the year 2011 despite the pledge made by leaders of some 20 political parties last year not to launch any strike or agitation affecting tourism sector during the NTY 2011.

Last year two of the eight casinos of Kathmandu were closed down due to labour problems and failure to pay government royalties on time.

Casino Nepal, the oldest casino of Nepal, was shut down six months ago after failing to pay government revenue and Casino Shangrila was shut down last week due to row between two leftist trade unions.

The casinos of Nepal mainly target Indian tourists. The Maoist affiliated trade union had shut down half a dozen hotels in Kathmandu last year to exert pressure on the management to fulfill their "unrealistic" demands.