‘Still a lockdown’: Deadly floods hit Nepal tourism as peak season begins 

Kathmandu, Chitwan and Nuwakot, Nepal – Like every year, Pushpraj Rimal, a tour planner and taxi driver in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, was looking forward to September for his business to boom.

But what he got instead was a series of cancellations by tourists after catastrophic floods last month killed more than 1,450 people and destroyed key highways, deeply impacting the Himalayan nation heavily dependent on tourism.

“It is still a lockdown kind of situation,” the 42-year-old told Al Jazeera nearly a month after the disaster.

Pushpraj, who speaks Nepali and Hindi, works on commission for several hotels and trekking companies in Kathmandu and the scenic town of Pokhara, known for its lake nestled in the Annapurna mountain range. Pokhara also serves as a base for Himalayan trekkers.

Nepal’s tourist season peaks after the monsoon ends in August and the skies are clearer. Tourism attracts thousands of international travellers, accounting for nearly 8 percent of Nepal’s gross domestic product and employs more than 1 million people.

Last year, Nepal saw more than 1.15 million tourists visiting the country, nearly a third of them during the September-November season.

But the floods this year, triggered by a glacial mountain collapse along the Nepal-Tibet border in the north, have pushed tourists away from the unaffected areas as well.

“I had rented two cars for two months, but I have done one fourth of the business I usually do in a season. Tourists generally start pouring in from September, but most of them have cancelled this year,” he said.

“I will get no commissions from the hotels or trek organisers, nor has the taxi business worked well. … I am now waiting for the season to end.”

Rimal has two children, Hema, 14, and Rahul, 12, whom he had promised a tablet this Dussain, a prominent Hindu festival that usually falls in October. “But it seems impossible now. I will have to break their hearts and my promise to them for the very first time.”

Seeta Nepali, 61, and her husband, Ramakant Nepali, 68, sell homemade buttermilk on the highway connecting Kathmandu to the tourist towns of Pokhara and Chitwan. The couple, who also sells cottage cheese in their neighbourhood, depend on these daily sales to make ends meet.

“Our town may not have been destroyed by the floods, but the floods reached us by way of no buyers. We could earn nothing for 11 days after the flood because the road was blocked,” Seeta told Al Jazeera.

“Even after it reopened, only government vehicles were allowed to pass. Now, some tourists are coming in, and we are able to sell, but it is not even half of what we used to sell earlier because there are far fewer people. … We are making barely one-fourth of what we would usually do,” she added.

‘Nepal is open and safe’

British national Alexa, who goes by a single name, had planned to visit Pokhara and Dhulikhel, a hill town near Kathmandu known for its cultural experiences and homestays, with five of her friends. But the flooding forced the group to cancel their trip.

“It was going to be our first time in Nepal, and we had booked two cabs from Kathmandu airport to Pokhara in July itself along with hotels, trekking and camps. When we learned about the disaster on the 26th [of August], we had to cancel everything,” she told Al Jazeera.

A traveller from Japan, who asked to remain anonymous, said the washed-out roads and bridges were the least of his concerns.

“We could have taken flights, but the situation and environment due to the floods, the stranded dead bodies could be deadly for me and my family, so we chose to cancel this time,” the father of two said.

Others like Tapas Kumar from India changed their itineraries instead of cancelling their trips.

“Our son is based in the United States. He was concerned about us and insisted that we cancel Nepal for now. So we found a middle ground. We cancelled Pokhara and extended our Kathmandu stay for all of the seven days,” Kumar, who was travelling with his wife and friends, told Al Jazeera.

Many foreign tourists said they were also checking travel advisories issued by their embassies in Nepal before cancelling or rescheduling their trips.

“Some people also got scared and misunderstood the information and safety measures issued by the embassies of other countries in Nepal and chose to cancel their travel plans. But we want people to know that Nepal is open and safe. Only some parts need to be avoided,” Surendra Thapa, charge d’affaires at the Indian embassy, told Al Jazeera.

On the other hand, the embassy of the United Kingdom issued an advisory on September 11, warning that the floods had made many areas unstable and it was difficult to guarantee safe travels within Nepal.

The US embassy issued a similar advisory, stating many areas were unsafe and designated no-travel zones.

‘Disastrous season’

“We had ensured all the rooms were furnished with the best utilities. Special staff was hired, and the best supplies were bought since I had all the rooms sold out for September. But 23 days in and we are already in a lot of loss,” said Pramila Chhetri, who works at a resort in Chitwan, about 150km (90 miles) from Kathmandu’s airport.

She said her resort lost significant business this year because many travellers misunderstood the flood-related warnings as an advisory to avoid the entire country.

“We really wish people across the globe would understand that it is not all of Nepal that is facing the floods and there are many small and big businesses that depend on travellers to make ends meet, especially in the months of September and October,” Chhetri told Al Jazeera. “Even parts unaffected by the floods are bracing for a disastrous season.”

Chhetri said 80 percent of her resort’s reservations were cancelled within hours of the floods because the main highway to Chitwan was damaged and closed for nearly two weeks.

“A group was supposed to come in the first week of September, but instead of cancelling, they postponed their trip to October. So we are keeping our fingers crossed for now,” she said.

While the full economic impact of a decline in tourism is still being assessed, small-business owners such as Pushpraj and Seeta are already on the edge. Seeta is back on the road with her bottles of buttermilk, but there are not many buyers.

“We are eating only flattened rice and buttermilk for lunch since the income has been drastically reduced and we are not able to buy enough vegetables,” Seeta said.

“Every day, we come here with the hope that more tourists might have come to see our beautiful Nepal and buy from us. But we don’t see many.”