KATHMANDU, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- The number of Chinese tourists visiting Nepal plunged by 28 percent in the first half of 2016, although the Himalayan country witnessed a growth of 13 percent in total tourist arrivals, according to Nepal's Department of Immigration.

The department's statistics showed that Nepal received a total of 33,224 Chinese visitors as of June 2016 against 39,401 during the same period in 2015.

China is the second largest source market for tourism for Nepal, after India.

However, surging arrivals from India, United States, Britain, Germany and Sri Lanka contributed to the rise in overall tourist arrivals, showing the signs that the tourism industry in Nepal is bouncing back from twin disasters of last year's earthquake and blockade in Nepal's southern border points.

Tourist arrivals from India increased by 37 percent while those from the United States soared by 47 percent. Arrivals from Britain also soared by 40 percent.

The United States and Britain are Nepal's third and fourth largest tourism source markets.

Nepal received a total of 313,512 tourists in the first half this year, against 277,992 in the same period a year ago.

Stakeholders at Nepal's tourism industry said that Chinese tourist arrivals slumped because of the lack of adequate connectivity through both air and land following the earthquake.

"Many Chinese airlines which cancelled Nepal flights during the blockade due to the lack of aviation fuel, have not yet started full services that they used to provide before the blockade," said Suman Pandey, chairman of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), Nepal.

"As the main border point, Tatopani-Khasa (Zhangmu) between Nepal and China has continued to remain closed since the earthquake last year, arrivals of Chinese through land route has also decreased."

Before the earthquake, arrivals of Chinese visitors were in ascending trend.

However, with Chinese airlines moving either to restart their flights in some routes or add flights, Chinese tourist arrivals are expected to go up.

China Southern Airlines has announced daily flights between Guangzhou and Kathmandu from Sept. 1, and the frequency will be upped to double daily flights from Oct. 30.

After last year's fuel crisis, the carrier had cut its frequency to three flights weekly.

China Eastern Airlines, which connects Kathmandu with Kunming, is planning to boost its frequency to daily from three flights weekly from October.

Another Chinese airline, Air China, currently operates nine flights weekly to Nepal.

"The lack of Kathmandu-Guangzhou flight service was one of the major reasons why Chinese visitors declined because the largest number of Chinese tourists comes through this route," said Sudhan Subedi, senior official of Nepal Tourism Board, the main tourism promotion body of Nepal.

"The resumption of the flight in this route will help for the growth of Chinese visitors."

He said that the tourism board has also been intensifying promotional activities in China as it is a very important source market for Nepal.