Three weeks after deadly flash floods swept through Nepal near the Chinese border, the country faces a potential drop in tourism, even in parts of the country unaffected by the disaster.
Pam Walker, founder of Walker Adventures in Palm Coast, Fla., is a Nepal specialist who sends some clients to the country for spiritual pilgrimages. As an adventure travel specialist, she has spent years cultivating relationships with Nepalese guides, some of whom have told her that their tourism business has dried up because tourists are staying away.
"People are so afraid to go," Walker said. "What they don't realize is that the disaster areas are in one part of the country … the rest of the country is wonderful."
She said people are "losing work, and they live by tourism. When travelers cancel coming into the country, they lose their income."
The floods happened on Aug. 26, ahead of Nepal's peak trekking season, which runs September to November. The country's adventure tourism sector could take a hit with a drop in bookings and a rise in cancellations.
The threat to the Nepalese economy and the livelihood of tourism workers is so dire that the country's tourism minister, Khadak Raj Paudel, took to social media to urge visitors to travel to the destination. Hotel Association Nepal also posted online, urging tourists to come and calling on the government to support the hospitality industry.
"Your coming to Nepal this time does not mean only a holiday," Paudel said. "It's a big support to the country fighting this catastrophic flash flood. It will help us sustain our tourism business. It will help the guides. It will help the hoteliers. It will help all tourism-related workers in Nepal."
Major trekking routes, such as Everest, Dolpo, Upper Mustang and Annapurna, remain open to visitors and are popular among Pelorus Travel clients, said co-founder and CEO Geordie Mackay-Lewis.
He said Pelorus is doing its part to spread the message that Nepal remains open and ready to welcome tourists.
"For anyone due to travel there, the instinct may be to cancel," Mackay-Lewis said. "But as we saw after the earthquake in Morocco in 2023, tourism can play an important role in helping a country recover, particularly in communities where so many livelihoods depend on visitors.
"Tourism cannot undo what has happened, but it can help support the recovery that follows."
While reconstruction in the affected area will be critical -- 1,259 hotels and restaurants were damaged in the flooding, according to a report in the Kathmandu Post -- rebuilding traveler confidence will be equally important, said Brandon Leong, regional security coordinator at Healix International, a global risk-management firm.
"Clear and timely communication from authorities and tourism operators around route conditions, infrastructure restoration and safety measures will help travelers make informed decisions and support the industry's recovery," Leong said.
Nepal has begun what is expected to be a long recovery in the region where the floods happened. The disaster claimed the lives of residents and visitors: Nepal reports that 1,367 people have died as of Sept. 16 and that approximately 5,100 people remained missing. The Kathmandu Post reported on Sept. 16 that records maintained by the tourist police showed as many as 795 tourists unaccounted for.
A glacier collapse near Langtang Lirung, a peak in the Himalayas about 40 miles from Kathmandu, is said to have triggered the floods, which swept through a popular pilgrimage route on the Nepal-China border.
Intrepid Travel launched an appeal for fundraising through its nonprofit organization, Intrepid Foundation. The operator, which offers more than two dozen itineraries in Nepal with a local team of approximately 460 people, had so far raised $382,000.
Sherpa Hospitality Group, which operates mountain lodges in Nepal, started a GoFundMe with Kathmandu nonprofit Pasang Lhamu Foundation, which empowers women in tourism in Nepal. Exodus Adventure Travels, through its foundation, is also raising money.