New Delhi, Aug 28 (IANS) Nepal has proven its resilience in coping with earlier disasters, pointed a newspaper report on Friday, as the country stepped up search and rescue operations after a sudden deluge this week, facing uncertainty over an economy that depends largely on tourism, where the majestic mountains – facing climate change and local disturbances – themselves loom as threat.
The surging waters washed out parts of the country as it had barely emerged since the Gen Z protests of September 2025 that had reportedly affected tourism.
“Amid all this, there is one reason to cheer. Nepal has the capacity to recover quickly,” Deepak Raj Joshi, former chief executive officer of the Nepal Tourism Board, the country’s tourism promotional body, told The Kathmandu Post.
“A full assessment of Wednesday’s disaster is underway. But the destruction has already highlighted the potentially devastating consequences of glacial outbursts and other climate-induced hazards for communities, infrastructure and tourists in the Himalayan region,” the report said on Friday.
On the immediate aftermath, the report said the flash flood “has shattered hopes of a strong tourism recovery, particularly for the lucrative Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage market”, adding that the disaster struck the Rasuwagadhi-Timure area, a major gateway for pilgrims travelling from Nepal to Tibet.
At the same time, it stressed on “a much bigger question for Nepal’s tourism-dependent economy: Are the country’s mountains becoming an increasingly dangerous destination because of climate change?”
The article quoted experts agreeing that the country’s tourism practically depends on mountains, where the risk associated needs to be assessed properly to prevent future disasters. They noted that Nepal’s exposure to climate-related disasters is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
The effects could last at least six to seven months, the newspaper quoted Joshi. “We need a dedicated tourism recovery team to send the message that the rest of Nepal is intact,” he said.
According to the report, the World Travel and Tourism Council estimated travel and tourism contributed 6.6 per cent to Nepal’s gross domestic product.
The sector is also a major source of employment, particularly in remote hills and mountain communities where alternative economic opportunities are limited, it added.
That dependence makes the sector especially vulnerable to disasters where such incidents can destroy roads, bridges, airports and hotels, disrupt supply chains, force cancellations and damage a destination’s reputation for safety.
The newspaper stressed that the recent tragedy also offers a warning that disaster preparedness can no longer be separated from tourism policy.
Because, for Nepal, the challenge is no longer simply to attract more tourists; it is to make sure that the mountains that attract them remain safe enough to visit, it emphasised.
Yet, it reminded that “Nepal’s tourism industry has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to recover from crises”. From the turn of the century, Maoist insurgency between 1996 and 2006 that claimed more than 17,000 lives had disrupted economic activity across the country, it recounted.
Then the 1999 Indian Airlines hijacking and later the global decline in international travel after the 9/11 attacks also severely affected Nepal’s tourism industry. So did the 2001 Royal Massacre, which killed King Birendra and members of his family, deepening political uncertainty.
Additionally, frequent strikes after the comprehensive peace accord in 2006 disrupted businesses and discouraged visitors and investors, it reminisced.
The article listed further incidents, including “years of power shortages, including periods of up to 18 hours of daily load-shedding”.
The 2015 earthquake was another devastating blow, killing nearly 9,000 people and causing billions of dollars in economic losses. Tourism infrastructure and heritage sites were badly damaged, while international arrivals plunged. “Yet the industry recovered,” it reminded.
The Covid pandemic tested that resilience again, effectively shutting down international tourism for almost two years.
Since then, however, visitor arrival “recovered steadily”. And now, when Nepal’s tourism industry was entering its peak season last September, the Gen Z-led anti-corruption protests brought the sector to a sudden halt.
“The unrest came after years of setbacks,” it said. Earlier too, catastrophic floods had battered the country, while in the aviation sector, two major accidents had raised fresh concerns about air safety. But Wednesday’s disaster, that struck at a particularly vulnerable time, was held as “different” in the article, “because it points to a threat that cannot simply be addressed through political stability or marketing”. Yet, with combined effort, the country will yet again bounce back, implied the article.
–IANS
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