Mustang district recorded a sharp rise in foreign tourist arrivals between January and October 2026, with reports putting the total at between 285,616 and 290,287 visitors. Figures attributed to the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), which operates under the National Trust for Nature Conservation, show 262,012 visitors from SAARC countries and 28,275 from other countries - a combined total of 290,287. One report said the figure was 77.62 percent higher than the total recorded throughout 2025.
Visitor figures show strong growth
The reported increase puts Mustang among the destinations drawing a large number of international visitors during the period. The figures cover the first ten months of the year, from January through October, and distinguish visitors from SAARC countries from those arriving from elsewhere. The SAARC group accounted for the clear majority of the reported arrivals, while the 28,275 visitors from other countries made up the remainder of ACAP’s published breakdown.
The total is not identical across the reports. While the ACAP breakdown cited by Onlinekhabar adds up to 290,287, other coverage put arrivals at 285,616 or described the figure as more than 285,000. The reports therefore point to a substantial flow of visitors, but do not present one consistent total. The available information does not explain the difference between the counts, so the figures should be read as reported rather than treated as interchangeable.
ACAP count separates regional and other arrivals
The ACAP figures offer a breakdown by visitors’ country grouping: 262,012 came from SAARC countries and 28,275 from other countries. Together, those categories account for 290,287 arrivals. This makes the regional share a defining feature of the reported total, while also showing that Mustang received tens of thousands of visitors from outside the SAARC group during the ten-month period.
The data are associated with ACAP’s Jomsom office. Jomsom is the location identified in the reporting for the visitor count, while ACAP is the project named as the source of the figures and is under the National Trust for Nature Conservation. The reports do not provide further detail on how the arrival count was compiled or whether the differing totals reflect separate counting methods or reporting periods.
Comparison with 2025
One account described the ten-month figure as a 77.62 percent increase over the total recorded across all of 2025. That comparison indicates that the reported arrivals in the first ten months of 2026 had already exceeded the previous year’s full-year total, according to that report. However, the coverage does not provide a consistent set of underlying totals alongside the percentage, and the figures published by different outlets vary.
The reported growth is notable in part because the comparison is between a ten-month period and a full calendar year. It offers a clear headline measure of the increase cited by the report, but the available figures do not detail month-by-month arrivals or identify when the growth occurred. Nor do the reports provide a breakdown of the visitors by individual country, beyond the SAARC and other-country categories.
The accounts from Khabarhub and Ratopati, alongside the ACAP figure reported by Onlinekhabar, all describe a significant influx to Mustang. Their totals differ, but each indicates that hundreds of thousands of visitor arrivals were recorded during the period. Further detail from ACAP would be needed to clarify the variation and provide a more complete picture of how arrivals changed through the year.
