Tourist arrivals in Nepal increased 2 per cent in the first eight months of 2008 compared with the same period last year despite a slowdown since April, the Nepal Tourism Board said Wednesday.

"Total arrivals by air at the end of August reached 224,679, which is an increase of 2 per cent in comparison to the same period last year," the board said in a statement.

However, it said the sluggishness seen in the past four months continued in August despite the overall growth.

"Just over 26,300 tourists arrived in Nepal in August, which is a decline of 2 per cent from August 2007," the board said, adding, however, that the tourism industry had shown signs of revival after a 19-per-cent drop in July.

India, the largest tourist-generating market for Nepal, bounced back with growth of 13 per cent while the entire South Asian region posted growth in excess of 30 per cent, the board said.

The new data also showed tourist arrivals from Britain, Australia, Norway, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia were higher than last year but there had been a notable decrease of tourists from Japan, South Korea and China.

The tourism industry is one of Nepal's biggest foreign exchange earners, bringing in millions of dollars to the impoverished country and providing employment to hundreds of thousands of people.

The industry suffered considerably during the height of Nepal's communist insurgency from early 2000 until the Maoists signed a peace pact with the government at the end of 2006.

In 2007, nearly half a million tourists visited Nepal, the highest figure since 1999.