Tourism officials are enthused that tourist levels are up in October compared to September. But this October is 12 percent down from last year mainly because of publicity about the Maoists blockade and anti-Muslim riots. Tourism is picking up again, says Tek Bahadur Dangi, chief executive officer of NTB, but it takes a long time to rebuild our image after the mass cancellations in September, after international media reports of strikes and demonstrations.

The decline has hit Indian arrivals the most, numbers have been consistently slowing in the past four months, with 31 percent fewer arrivals this October compared to last October. Non-Indian arrivals decreased by eight percent in comparison to last October, mainly for Americans, Japanese, Italians and Chinese visitors. But there were modest increases for Australians, British, French, Dutch, Spanish and German tourists in October, largely because of the resumption of flights to Europe.