Kathmandu. The number of tourists visiting the mountainous district of Mustang is increasing during the Tihar holidays. The number of tourists visiting Mustang has increased due to long government holidays before and after Tihar.

This year, due to adverse weather, tourists could not come to Mustang as expected before and after Dashain. Due to the projection of natural hazards including heavy rains, snowfall, avalanches and storms, the number of tourists in Mustang this year was not as expected compared to the previous years. However, the number of domestic and foreign tourists has increased as the weather is becoming favourable with the approaching Tihar, according to the District Police Office, Mustang.

According to Police Inspector and Information Officer Santosh Basyal, the number of domestic tourists has increased by two-thirds compared to foreign tourists with the Tihar approaching. According to Police Inspector Basyal, people from schools, colleges, government and non-government offices, banks and financial institutions, cooperatives, toll committees and others visit Mustang during the Tihar festival.

According to the statistics of the District Police Office, Mustang, 35,858 tourists have visited Mustang from October 15 to 29. The number of domestic tourists is 27,107 and the number of foreign tourists is 8,751, said Police Inspector Basyal.

According to him, 7,714 foreign tourists from SAARC countries and 1,037 from other countries visited Mustang. Most of the tourists who come to Mustang during the Tihar festival return after visiting the Muktinath temple while some tourists reach Korala Naka. Tourism entrepreneurs said that the influx of domestic tourists will continue as the government holiday is a public holiday until the Chhath festival.

Suraj Gurung, a tourism entrepreneur of Muktinath, said that Mustang is becoming the choice of the youth during Tihar and Chhath festivals. Tourism entrepreneur Gurung said that the tourists who come here visit various tourist destinations of Mustang in the pretext of visiting Muktinath.

The number of tourists in Mustang, a religious and touristic mountainous district, has increased every year due to easy road transport. Although the Beni-Jomsom road has been affected this year due to the obstruction of the Beni-Jomsom road and adverse weather for some time, the number of tourists has not been affected last year. Thousands of tourists come to Mustang every day for the tourist-friendly season, while school and college students come to Mustang during festivals like Dashain Tihar and Chhath festivals.

Muktinath Temple is the first destination for tourists visiting Mustang. After that, they visit Korala Naka, Lomanthang Durbar, Jhong Cave, Ghar Gumba, Damodar Kunda Tirth, Chiusi Cave, Dhumba Lake, Kagbeni, Jamsom, Marfa and Sekung Lake, Bhutarcho Lake and Titi Lake of Thasang Rural Municipality.

They return after observing the historical, religious and cultural heritage, biodiversity, lifestyle and costumes of the Himalayan districts and the Himalayan heritage. In recent times, Nepal-China North Korala border point has become an important tourist destination for domestic tourists.