KATHMANDU: Cross-border shopping, particularly along the Nepal-India border, has emerged as the primary driver of Nepal’s outbound tourism, according to a survey by the National Statistics Office (NSO).
The Domestic Tourism Survey 2025 found that Nepalis made over 4.1 million outbound trips between October 16, 2024, and October 15, 2025, including 3.5 million same-day trips and 622,000 overnight trips.
Shopping accounted for 63.9 per cent of all same-day outbound travel, highlighting the importance of cross-border shopping, especially with India.
India recorded the highest number of same-day outbound trips by Nepali residents, reflecting strong economic and social ties and easy cross-border movement. Madhesh Province recorded the largest share of same-day outbound travel, while Lumbini had the highest number of overnight trips. Both provinces border India.
The survey also found that shopping accounted for 70.7 per cent of same-day outbound expenditure, with Madhesh and Lumbini recording particularly high spending linked to cross-border purchases in India.
For overnight travel, visiting friends and relatives was the leading purpose (40.3 per cent), followed by health and medical treatment (19.6 per cent) and religious travel (19.6 per cent).
Outbound travel peaked between November and January, which the survey attributed to festivals and favourable travel periods. (IANS)
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