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🇳🇵 Nepal /Economy & Trade

A flood of bad news leaves Nepal’s tourist hubs eerily quiet

From Kathmandu Post · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Flood-related reports and road disruptions have triggered widespread booking cancellations in Pokhara, Chitwan and Lumbini as Nepal’s peak autumn tourist season begins.
  • Hotel occupancy in Chitwan’s Sauraha has fallen below 5 percent, while one major hotel reported that 80 percent of its bookings had been cancelled.
  • Hotel operators say misleading international reports portray Nepal as broadly unsafe even though alternative roads and flights to Chitwan remain available.

Sauraha would normally be crowded with visitors at this point in the autumn season. Instead, the Chitwan jungle destination is largely empty, with hotel occupancy falling below 5 percent after tourists cancelled bookings following reports about flooding and damaged roads.

There are hardly any tourists at the moment. Hotel occupancy is below 5 percent.

· Suman GhimireThe former president of the Regional Hotel Association Sauraha described the sharp fall in visitors and hotel occupancy.

The Bhotekoshi River flood did not damage Chitwan, but its effects have travelled far beyond the disaster zone. Domestic travellers have called off trips because of difficult road conditions, while foreign visitors have reacted to travel advisories and reports portraying Nepal as unsafe. The Krishnabhir section of the highway was washed away, stopping many tourists from travelling to Chitwan by road.

Suman Ghimire, former president of the Regional Hotel Association Sauraha, said his 34-room Jungle Safari Lodge had been left with most rooms empty. “There are hardly any tourists at the moment,” said Ghimire. “Hotel occupancy is below 5 percent.” He added that the East-West Highway remained open, but tourism had suffered because reports had spread internationally portraying Nepal’s situation as disastrous.

There is no problem on the East-West Highway. But tourism has been hit because reports have spread internationally portraying the situation in Nepal as disastrous.

· Suman GhimireGhimire said international reporting about the floods had damaged tourism even where infrastructure remained usable.

Several routes remain operational, including the Hetauda-Kathmandu road, the Tribhuvan Highway and the Hetauda-Kulekhani road. Travellers can also fly from Kathmandu to Bharatpur. Hotel operators, however, say those options have not prevented the cancellations. Rameshwar Sah, chairman of the 65-room Royal Tulip Chitwan Hotel, said 80 percent of bookings had been cancelled. “The tourism sector has been severely hit by the floods,” Sah said. “Although the destinations themselves have not been affected by the floods, rumours and misleading reports about the situation have had a significant impact.”

The tourism sector has been severely hit by the floods. Although the destinations themselves have not been affected by the floods, rumours and misleading reports about the situation have had a significant impact.

· Rameshwar SahThe Royal Tulip Chitwan chairman linked widespread cancellations to perceptions of danger in Nepal.

Sauraha has 125 hotels with capacity for 8,000 tourists a day. Gunaraj Thapaliya of the regional hotel association said that, apart from a handful of Chinese tourists, few visitors remained. Hotels in Patihani and Meghauli are also waiting for guests to return.

Except for a handful of Chinese tourists, there are no visitors in Sauraha at the moment.

· Gunaraj ThapaliyaThe Regional Hotel Association vice-president described the near-empty tourist destination.
About this summary

Originally published by Kathmandu Post. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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