A sample survey conducted by the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has shown that around 520,522 Indian tourists visited Nepal in 2010.
according to Bhandari, the survey was conducted through counting average number passengers who traveled to Nepal by various Indian registered vehicles and stayed for more than 24 hours in the country.

The research, however, has excluded Indian tourists who came to the country foot, he added.

As tourists from the third-country also entered via India, the number of such tourists has been deducted from the total estimated number to find out the net Indian tourist arrivals, he informed.

The data of vehicles were collected from the eight customs offices located at Birgunj, Vittamod, Kakarvitta, Biratnagar, Nepalgunj, Dhangadhi, Biratnagar and Bhairahawa.

As per the survey, a total of 96,928 different groups had entered Nepal through the eight entry points during the survey year.

Among the eight border points, Belahiya (Bhairahawa) accounted for about 50 per cent of the total passenger traffic followed by 17 per cent from Vittamod, eight per cent from Kakarvitta and the remaining 20 per cent from others.

Overland arrivals of the third-country tourists recorded an increase of 18 per cent in 2010 over the previous year.

However, the increase in the arrival of Indian tourists via land using vehicles on the basis of surveys conducted by the NTY 2011 Secretariat has shown an increment of about 74 per cent in 2010 compared to the figures of 2009.