Nepal’s Mountain Tourism Business Is Struggling for Breath – The Diplomat

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With the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the mountains of Nepal – cases have even been reported from Everest Base Camp – the country’s multi-million dollar mountain tourism industry has been hit hard.

The country is home to eight of the ten tallest mountains in the world, with Mount Everest, the tallest of them all, being the ultimate nirvana that mountaineers seek. Consequently, Nepal is a great attraction for mountaineers and trekkers.

Its mountain tourism industry that contributed to it $ 724 million in 2019 is a major foreign exchange earner for the country. However, it only deserved it $ 5,989,911 in April of this year.

Last year, COVID-19 forced the Nepalese government to cancel all climbing expeditions. The industry was looking forward to a better season this year.

But this year, too, mountain tourism suffered from the pandemic. Climbers, guides and people in mountain villages tested positive.

This year’s climbing season was hit by the second wave of the pandemic. In mid-May, when the rise peaked, Land reported nearly 10,000 new cases and hundreds of deaths every day. After several weeks of lockdown, the situation has improved. According to the Ministry of Health, the number of new cases fell to 2,607 on June 17, while deaths from COVID-19 fell to 39 that day.

During the second wave, while the Nepalese government received some royalties from the mountaineering industry and some Sherpas and others in the trekking business got jobs, things were far from easy.

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Hem Raj Bastola, a senior trekking guide in Pokhara, told The Diplomat that while the government grants trekking licenses, it doesn’t sponsor guides like him. “I depend on agriculture to survive as I am unemployed,” he said. His unemployment forced him to move his children from private to public schools.

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“Mountain hiking is in crisis,” stressed Bastola. “If the government doesn’t step in, we may have to quit this job.”

Nepal is working hard to contain the collateral damage the pandemic has inflicted on the mountaineering industry.

The government tries to paint a picture of normalcy. Rudra Singh Tamang, General Director of the Ministry of Tourism, tells about climbing, “We haven’t seen any reports of Covid-19 cases in the base camp. There are similarities between the symptoms of altitude sickness and Covid. ”Between April and May of this year, around 100 climbers climbed Everest, said Tamang, emphasizing this all is well.

According to the geographer and mountain guide Niroj Sedhai, four people have died in the Everest region since last year. But these deaths were “due to altitude sickness and fatigue”, with one of them “falling into a crevasse”.

Originally “the government opened all climbing / mountaineering and trekking activities” on condition that “COVID-19 health protocols were followed. It has attracted a lot of foreigners and hikers, especially in the mountaineering sector, ”Sedhai said.

While some trekkers “have quarantined themselves in Kathmandu for the required days, others have not”. According to Sedhai, “there was no one to check that they were following the quarantine measures.”

Expedition teams going into the mountains and base camp were required to follow health protocols. “But what I saw was that most of them weren’t following these protocols until the first COVID-19 case was discovered in Everest Base Camp,” Sedhai said.

In April, Norwegian climber Erland Ness became the First climber tested positive for COVID-19. When he showed signs of pneumonia, Ness was evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in Kathmandu.

Locals are not as lucky as he is.

Sherpas who live in the remote Everest region cannot afford this high evacuation costs with the helicopter from a great height and therefore have no access to treatment if the test is positive. Without oxygen cylinders and other life-saving equipment, many Sherpas have succumbed to COVID-19.

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This climbing season has been difficult to maneuver for the Nepalese Ministry of Tourism. She had to choose between money and health. Fearing economic losses and backlash from the local and international climbing and trekking community, she has tried to downplay the threat posed by the pandemic to climbers. For example, it downplayed Ness’ condition, claiming it was have pneumonia-like symptoms just.

A total of 742 Expedition permits were issued this spring season. As of April 30, around 408 permits for climbing Everest had been issued, and a further three permits were issued in the following month. Of the permits issued for climbing Mount Everest, several western expeditions were canceled their expedition in the last stage.

Sedhai said Sherpas who tested positive for COVID-19 have been moved to quarantine in hotels in Boudha, Kathmandu. As a result, several travel agencies such as Tag Nepal, Seven Summits, Furten Bach and Expedition Himalaya canceled their expeditions in the last phase of the summit application.

Thirty Chinese climbers who climbed Mount Everest last month remain stranded in Kathmandu as the Chinese government is reluctant to send a return flight.

As COVID-19 cases decline, the Nepalese government has started easing lockdown restrictions. This and probably Reinforcement of vaccine deliveries into the country have revived the slack mood in the country.

But the threat from the new Delta Plus variant remains, and time will tell whether Nepal with its mighty mountains can withstand the third wave or not.