Knowledge Update

​Kathmandu, Jan 12 (IANS) Nepal's tourism industry rebounded in 2016 after taking a big hit in the previous year by way of twin disasters -- a devastating earthquake and crippling trade embargo.

Foreign tourist arrivals to Nepal jumped 39.71 per cent to 753,002 in 2016 -- boosted by robust visitor growth from India, China, the US, UK and Sri Lanka, according to statistics released by the Department of Immigration.

According to The Kathmandu Post, however, 2016 arrivals were still 4.69 per cent down from 2014 when the country welcomed 790,118 foreign visitors.

The tourism boom is expected to continue in 2017 and remains a major economic growth driver even as the industry sees low overseas promotional activities.

A breakdown of arrivals by market shows Indian travellers at the top of the list. Arrivals from the southern neighbour reached 118,249 last year -- up 57.40 per cent. 

Chinese tourist arrivals jumped 55.26 per cent to 104,005. Travel trade entrepreneurs said Chinese arrivals did not increase as expected last year as the key entry point, Tatopani Customs in Sindhupalchowk, was closed after the April 2015 earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people. 

However, Rasuwagadhi has emerged as an important surface route with 23,452 Chinese visitors entering the country through this point last year.

Meanwhile, visitors from the US, Sri Lanka and the UK jumped 25.67 per cent, 29.64 per cent and 55.71 per cent, respectively.

October, November and December were the most busy months for the industry, accounting for nearly one-third of total arrivals during the year.

"It's a dramatic growth. The industry is returning rapidly to its pre-earthquake growth level," said Kedar Neupane, Director General of the Department of Immigration. 

"The tourism boom is expected to continue in 2017 given a level of promotion by Nepal in the major source markets."

He said that if the government, Nepal Tourism Board and private sector conduct aggressive promotional activities, this year could be an extraordinary year. 

"We can expect 1 million tourists in 2017 considering the current environment," Neupane said.

According to Neupane, Nepal could see a boom in Chinese arrivals this year following Beijing's announcement of Nepal Tourism Promotion Year 2017 in a bid to encourage its citizens to visit the Himalayan nation.

"The industry carried out massive marketing activities after the earthquake, leading to the recovery," said tourism entrepreneur Basant Raj Mishra. 

"The arrival of foreign volunteers as well as conferences held by NGOs in Nepal last year contributed to the growth."

Suman Pandey, chairman of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Nepal Chapter, said 2017 looked promising; but the crumbling Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), Nepal's only international aerial gateway, could be a major setback.

"The hospitality industry in Nepal can accommodate more than 3 million tourists, but the airport is already choked with capacity constraints even though arrivals are way short of the one million mark," he said.

Global travel guide Lonely Planet has named Nepal the world's 'best value destination' for 2017. 

Likewise, Nepal's Langtang region has been featured in The New York Times' '52 places to go in 2017' list.

Nepal has also appeared in the January travel issue of China Daily. 

"Nepal remains a fabulous choice for budget-conscious travellers, whether it's the country's world famous trekking routes or the wildlife in the southern region. Travel costs per day are as low as $50 on average," it said.

​Los Angeles, Jan 12 (IANS) Over one million Chinese visited Los Angeles in 2016, making the Tinseltown their No.1 tourist destination in the US.

Los Angeles has become the first ever American city to receive more than one million Chinese visitors in one year, Xinhua news agency reported citing US officials. 

The year 2016 was a big year for LA's tourism industry. 

Besides reaching the mark of one million Chinese visitors, both the city's domestic and international visits reached an all-time high, according to a report released by Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board (LA Tourism). 

Last year, total domestic visits to LA reached 40.2 million -- a 3.8 percent increase over 2015. 

An additional 7.1 million international visitors also made the second largest city of the United States their ultimate destination -- a 3.5 percent rise over the previous year, statistics showed.

"Tourism is booming in Los Angeles, and it's helping to drive our whole city's economy forward," said LA Mayor Eric Garcetti.

LA also plans to attract more tourists in the future, especially Chinese tourists.

In 2016, China was the second largest international market for LA after Mexico. 

China accounted for 75 percent of the destination's overall growth of international tourism and the number of Chinese visitors grew nearly 22 percent -- the seventh consecutive year of at least 20 percent visitation growth from that country.

Buoyed by Chinese visits, LA tourism will open its fourth office in China's Chengdu -- also called "Land of Pandas". 

Offices of LA tourism already exist at Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. 

​New York, Jan 12 (IANS) When a star comes close to the black hole only to be ripped apart, the outward gas streamer gathers itself into planet-size objects which are then flung across the galaxy in a game of cosmic 'spitball', new research has revealed.

The team from Harvard University noted that the closest of these planet-mass objects might be within a few hundred light-years of Earth with a weight somewhere between Neptune and several Jupiters.

"A single shredded star can form hundreds of these planet-mass objects. We wondered: Where do they end up? How close do they come to us? We developed a computer code to answer those questions," said lead author Eden Girma.

These planet-size objects glow from the heat of its formation and are very different from a typical planet because they made of star-stuff.

"It takes only a day for the black hole to shred the star and only about a year for the resulting fragments to pull themselves back together," said the study presented at the conference of American Astronomical Society recently.

Almost 95 per cent of the planet-mass objects will leave the galaxy entirely due to their speeds of about 10,000 km per second. It would take about a million years for one of these objects to reach Earth's neighborhood. 

"Since most other galaxies also have giant black holes at their cores, it is likely that the same process is at work in them," Girma added.

​Las Vegas, Jan 11 (IANS) Not just smartphones, convertibles or cameras, it was time for ground-breaking products in 5G technology, self-driving vehicles, digital health, Artificial Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), robotics and machine learning to be showcased at the world's biggest annual electronics event here.

Canberra, Jan 11 (IANS) The Australian government plans to tax all online transactions, Treasurer Scott Morrison said on Wednesday, as part of a so-called 'tax strike' on the rapidly-growing digital economy.

Toronto, Jan 11 (IANS) Playing a musical instrument does not only produce melodies but can make the elderly more reactive and alert in daily life, says a new study. According to the researchers from Université de Montréal, musicians have a faster reaction time to sensory stimuli than non-musicians have. "The more we know about the impact of music on really basic sensory processes, the more we can apply musical training to individuals who might have slower reaction times," said lead researcher Simon Landry. Playing an instrument also has implications for preventing some effects of ageing. "As people get older, for example, we know their reaction times get slower. So if we know that playing a musical instrument increases reaction times, then maybe playing an instrument will be helpful for them," Landry explained. In the study that involved 16 musicians and 19 non-musicians, the researchers found significantly faster reaction times with musicians for auditory, tactile and audio-tactile stimulations. "The idea is to better understand how playing a musical instrument affects the senses in a way that is not related to music," Landry added in a paper published in the journal Brain and Cognition.

​New York, Jan 11 (IANS) Microsoft is launching a web-based account privacy dashboard that gives users control over their data and lets them monitor the information Microsoft services use.

Toronto, Jan 11 (IANS) If you are a sedentary type and prefer sleeping over hitting the ground, better start exercising or face the risk of developing dementia like those who are genetically predisposed to it, warns a new study. According to researchers from McMaster University, carriers of a variant of the 'apolipoprotein E' (APOE) genotype are more likely to develop dementia and inactivity dramatically increases the risk for non-carriers. APOE is the principal cholesterol carrier in the brain. This protein is involved in Alzheimer's disease and cardiovascular disease. "The important message here is that being inactive may completely negate the protective effects of a healthy set of genes," said Jennifer Heisz, Assistant Professor at McMaster. Approximately 47.5 million people worldwide are living with dementia and the numbers are expected to surge to 115.4 million by the year 2050. Researchers suggested that physical exercise can reduce the risk of developing dementia among those individuals who are not at genetic risk. "Exercise can mitigate the risk of dementia for people without the variant of the 'apolipoprotein genotype'. However, more research is needed to determine the implications from a public health perspective," added Barbara Fenesi, postdoctoral fellow. The study involving over 1,600 Canadians and published in the journal Alzheimer's Disease, also noted that a physically-active lifestyle helps the brain operate more effectively.

​New York, Jan 11 (IANS) Apple's next generation bezel-less iPhone 8 is rumoured to sport a bold new design and would feature an OLED display full of holes, a media report said. "The patent filed by Apple for 'Electronic devices having displays with openings' describes a method by which various components can be mounted behind perforations in a device screen that are so small as to be imperceptible to the human eye. This arrangement would allow engineers to design a smartphone or tablet with a true edge-to-edge, or full-face display," appleinsider.com reported on Wednesday. The openings may be located in the active portion of the display. The display may be mounted in a housing associated with the electronic device. An electronic component may be mounted in alignment with the one or more openings in the display. The electronic component may be a structure that uses light such as a camera, a light sensor, a light-based proximity sensor, a status indicator light, a light-based touch sensor array, or a secondary display that has display pixels that may be viewed through the openings. Signals associated with the electronic component may pass through the openings. The signals may include acoustic signals, electromagnetic signals such as radio-frequency electromagnetic signals, and light. One or more openings in the display may form a window through which a user of the device may view an external object. Display pixels in the window region may be used in forming a heads-up display. The 2017 version of Apple's iPhone is also rumoured to come in red and will retain the same design as the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Alongside its usual 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch smartphone offerings, the company will also unveil a third model that will be priced at a higher side than iPhone 7 and will sport a 5.1-inch or 5.2-inch OLED display with invisible home button, all-glass housing, wireless charging, according to earlier reports. Samsung and LG, joined by Foxconn-owned Sharp by 2018, are said to be Apple's primary OLED suppliers.