While the global tourism is slowly moving on and operating at small steps amid the Covid-19 breakdown, Nepal still struggles to find a way to restart tourism in Nepal. Previously it was said that the tourism in Nepal will restart along with the resumption of international flights but the sudden rise in the cases of Covid-19 has lead to the uncertainty regarding the restart of tourism in Nepal. Not only the tourism industry of Nepal but we have seen the global tourism industry crunching down to its feet during the pandemic with billions of losses, with several companies being shut down and thousands being jobless. Tourism in Nepal has been a peak source of the nation’s economy in recent years and we can only imagine the reports that the nation will draft next year and we all know 2020 will be taken as one of the worst year for the tourism industry as a whole, we can already see that.
Back in 2015, the massive earthquake took the tourism of Nepal to a huge down fall. It took a couple of years for Nepal to get back to its feet and thrive the tourism of the nation by making tourist feel that Nepal is safe to travel. Since then, tourism in Nepal has taken a huge up turn. Tourism in Nepal has reached new heights in recent years and also reached the milestone of 1 million tourist arrival which motivated the tourism industry of Nepal to aim for 2 million tourists in the year 2020 but it did not happen, did it ? Nobody can predict the future and now it has been over six months that tourism and all the activities related to it are completely halted in Nepal and things are far more worse than we have imagined.
Traveling is completely banned for foreigners in Nepal, while the ongoing lockdown also restricts the nationals to travel from one district to another. So there is no chance of the domestic tourism as well. The adventure activities like paragliding, bungee, Everest Marathon, Mountain biking, rafting, rock climbing everything is suffering a huge loss. Some of the entrepreneurs who are running these businesses have hinted about the great loss that they are bearing due to the Covid-19 breakdown. Apart from that, there were several new plans to enhance the tourism activities in Nepal out of which many of them are halted. While we talk about the adventure sports, the new bungee at Kushma will be the second highest bungee in the world which might start soon after the resumption of tourism in Nepal. Other adventures sports like Everest Marathon are gaining so much attention from the tourists and all of them are completely halted now. Many people have forgot
Trekking and mountaineering activities likely to take place in the autumn season of 2020 in Nepal ?
However, trekking and mountaineering will likely to take place in the coming days as per the news reports. Now there seems a high chance that the Department of tourism management in Nepal will permit for mountaineering as DoTM has recently permitted for expedition of Mt. Baruntse for a team of six Nepalese as reported by the Himalayan Times which is going to be the first expedition of the autumn season this year in Nepal. This is not the first time that the expedition was permitted, earlier it was permitted for the Bahrain Royal team and their expedition will take place in the coming days. Despite the ongoing travel ban for the foreign tourist in Nepal, the mountaineering division is really hopeful about the mountaineering activities that will likely to occur in this season. So this could be one of the positive part for tourism in Nepal after months of halt of tourism activities.
If we have to talk about the tourism activities in Nepal as a whole, the concerned authorities are still uncertain about the restart of tourism in Nepal. However, they are constantly trying to find an optimal solution regarding this issue. Nepal Tourism Board is likely to prepare plan for the city tour at least inside the Kathmandu valley, they will also be thinking about the possible virtual tours that Nepal could offer. However, until the lockdown is imposed in Nepal, the tourism activities is likely to be halted for the time being. On the other hand, the resumption of International flights have created a small space for travel agents and hotels specially inside the Kathmandu valley to conduct their activities, so there is a little plus point at that part of the industry while the rest of the tourism sector is still suffering.
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