Tourist footfalls are gradually increasing in Nepal as the coronavirus-related restrictions are eased with fewer daily cases and a low transmission rate in the last few months.

The tourism sector, the backbone of the Nepalese economy, came to a griding halt in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said on Saturday.

However, now the sector is picking up steam with the total number of active COVID-19 cases dropping to less than 700 across the country.

This is in stark contrast to May 2021 when over 9,000 cases were reported daily.

In March this year, Nepal received 42,006 tourists via flights, according to the Department of Immigration here, of whom 15,013 tourists were from India followed by 4,029 tourists from the United Kingdom and 4,896 from the United States.

Last year in the same period, only 14,977 foreign tourists visited Nepal.

The Department of Tourism, Nepal, said the country received 78,747 foreign tourists from January to March end this year.

Nepal on Saturday recorded 13 new cases of COVID-19 along with 44 recoveries and zero deaths, according to the Ministry of Health and Population.

There are currently 649 active cases of COVID-19 across the country.