Half of Nepalese Households Contribute Rs 1.5 Trillion Annually to Economy Through Domestic Travel

June 18, Kathmandu – Over half of the total households in Nepal reportedly undertake internal travel at least once a year, according to the first-ever Domestic Tourism Survey 2078/79 released by the National Statistics Office. According to the 2021 Census, there are 6.91 million households in Nepal. The survey revealed that within a year, a total of 3.62 million households (52.4 percent) participated in tourism-related activities at least once. These households have been classified as tourist households by the office.

For this survey, the department employed a two-stage stratified sampling method. In the first stage, primary selection units were chosen using Probability Proportional to Size (PPS), while in the second stage, 12 households were sampled from each enumeration area. Altogether, samples were drawn from 444 enumeration areas nationwide, totaling 5,328 households surveyed. The data shows that 3.29 million households (47.6 percent) did not undertake any kind of tourism travel during the reference year. Based on this, it was determined that, per 1,000 households, 523 engage in travel activities while 477 do not.

“This indicates that more than half of Nepalese households are directly involved in domestic tourism activities,” said Dhundhiraj Lamichhane, Deputy Chief and Spokesperson of the National Statistics Office. According to the census, the average household size in Nepal is 3.94 members, with rural areas averaging 4.02 and urban areas 3.87. The survey also noted that tourist households in rural areas tend to have larger family sizes. The survey considered the period from October 2021 to October 2022 as the reference year.