Tourism in Bhaktapur

Bhaktapur is one of the smallest historical royal towns as and regarded cultural capital in the valley. It was also the ancient capital of the Malla ruler. Historically the city was built in the 9th century (889 A.D.) during the reign of king Anand Deva. However, it might be older than that. The city was originally built in the shape of a sacred conch (shell), which is associated with Lord Vishnu, the Lord protector. It is also believed that the city was built in the shape of Mandala (Mandala is a one kind of graphic chart of ritual interpretation of Hindu or Buddhist deities). Eight Mother Goddess were installed at eight geometrical corners of the city and in the center of the city, there is one Mother Goddess, for the divine protection of the city.
Bhaktapur is the house for over a hundred temples, Shrine and “Math” (Ancient buildings built for the purpose of accommodating priests and visitors) with rich architecture and master craftsmanship on wood, metal and stone of ancient and medieval period. It is a living museum by its self-offering the aroma of the 17th century, while wandering through it is narrow tranquil lanes paved with bricks. And the UNESCO has included this wonderful city in world heritage sites in 1978 AD.
After the establishment of the democracy in the country in 1950 the government adopted open door policy for all the foreigners. And then tourists started to visit Nepal as well as Bhaktapur. Now more than 100,000 tourists visit Bhaktapur every year. No authentic data of the tourists arrival could be obtained, before the municipality started to taking the entrance fee in the city.
Bhaktapur municipality began to take entrance fee to tourists on 21 July 1993 for visiting the city. A Japanese lady was the first to pay the entrance fee of Rs. 50 as per rule of the municipality. From 1998 it started to take entrance fee to tourists from SAARC country too. (Source: Tourist service center Bhaktapur 2004)
The above table shows the total tourist arrival in Bhaktapur. There is not any authentic data available of tourists visiting Bhaktapur before the local municipality started charging an entrance fee in Bhaktapur. It started taking entrance fee to tourists in 21 July 1993. This year a total of 41896 tourists visited the Bhaktapur City. In 1994, 94121 tourists arrived in the city. In 1995 - 106,896 tourists visited the city. 112,992 tourists visited the Bhaktapur City in 1996. In the year of 1997, 114,473 tourists came to Bhaktapur. In 1998, 188,102 tourists arrived in the city. In 1999, the tourist arrival in the city increased. It was 202,688, which is historic record. Since 2000 the number of tourists visiting Bhaktapur has been decreasing. This year the total number of tourist visitors was 187,465. In 2001- 127,030 tourists had visited the city. In 2002 only 80,774 tourists arrived in Bhaktapur and finally in 2003 a total of 106,491 tourists visited the City.So, according to above table the number of tourists arrival has decreased since the year of 2000. It is possibly due to the prevalent bad political situation and Maoist problem. At the beginning of the entrance fee system in Bhaktapur, the visitors from Saarc countries were not needed to pay any entrance fees. But since 1998 Municipality has begun to take entrance fee to visitors from the Saarc countries also.