Nepal's renowned adventure tourism industry faces a sobering reality check, according to local mountain tourist associations and hostel owners, following devastating flooding on Nepal's border with China.
The death toll from last week's disaster, which tore through villages along the Nepal-Tibet border, stood at 987, authorities said Tuesday. Nearly 4,250 people were missing, they added.
The catastrophe began on Aug. 26 in the Himalayas, a mountain range that contains some of the world's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest.
A massive glacial collapse in northern Nepal triggered a landslide of ice and rock and meltwater into the valleys below, with powerful floods sweeping away or cutting off entire communities and damaging roads, bridges and hydropower facilities.
The tragedy, which prompted Nepali Prime Minister Balendra Shah to push for international climate action, underscores the growing impact of climate change on adventure tourism.
Rajendra Bahadur Lama, general secretary of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, described the floods as a "serious warning" for Nepal's tourism industry.
"This disaster should not be seen as the end of Nepal's adventure tourism; it should be a wake-up call," Lama told CNBC in an email. "Climate change is changing the Himalayas, and Nepal must now build a tourism industry that is not only adventurous, but safer, smarter and climate-resilient."
Tourism infrastructure, routes and destinations will need to be assessed and redesigned with better protection for floods, landslides and other extreme events, Lama said, noting that international tourists are "increasingly conscious" of climate change and safety.
To rebuild from the catastrophe, Nepal, one of the least developed countries in South Asia, has reportedly estimated a cost of between $4 billion and $5 billion, equivalent to nearly one-tenth of its economy.
The tourism industry is a core tenet of the Nepalese economy and serves as a major source of foreign exchange and revenue. The country of nearly 30 million is world-renowned as a hotspot for trekking and mountaineering, as well as a premier global destination for spiritual travel.
Tourists have cancelled bookings in the last several days, however, just as Nepal heads into its most popular travel season from Sept. 15 to Nov. 15, said Saroj Bhandari, owner of the Wander Thirst hostel in the capital city of Kathmandu, more than five hours' drive from the flood site.
Bhandari expects that, at best, his 122-bed hostel will reach 60% occupancy during that peak tourist season this year, down from 100% last year. Most of the cancellations have come from European tourists, he said.
"This time only the one part of Nepal is little damaged by the flood and a lot of the tourists think it's not safe to go to Nepal because of that," he said, noting the country does not only consist of mountains but also flatland.
Bhandari said Nepal is nearing the end of its rainy monsoon season. He emphasized the government's system for landslide alerts and road closures, noting the state typically shares warnings about floods and landslides with the hostel every day, which the hostel then passes on to guests.
While he was not aware whether China had sent an alert, Bhandari said people who first saw the flood had warned those living downstream of it, but that those downstream had underestimated its size.
