Tourism in Nepal

Tourism is the largest industry in Nepal; the largest source of foreign
exchange and revenue. Possessing 8 of the 10 highest mountains in the world,
Nepal is a hotspot destination for mountaineers, rock climbers and people
seeking adventures. The Hindu and Buddhist heritage of Nepal, and its
cold weather are also strong attractions.

About Nepal

Nepal is a country lying between China
on the North and India on the South.It is
a landlocked country It is on the collision zone between two plates, so large
mountain ranges are formed in the creasing – including the Pahar Hill region and
the Mountain region, both with large altitudes and populated valleys. Tourism is
especially large in Mount Everest and a large amount of conflict has arisen
there – as we will study later. Mountaineers with ambitions to travel, view and
climb the spectacular slopes come in their ten thousands. 39% of the GDP comes
from agriculture; 76% of people use it as their principle employment. Services
(which would include tourism) equal 42% and industry 21%. The lack of natural
resources means that agriculture is the main primary industry, while tourism
probably the main tertiary. Main exports are clothing, leather, jute goods and
grain.

There are lots of places to visit in Nepal. That is why people often term
Nepal as "a place where there are more temples than houses". Similarly because
of Gods and Goddesses we term it as a place where the number of gods and goddess
is more than the population of people.

Inside the Kathmandu Valley, there are lots of sight
seeing. For example, you can go to Kasthamandap which was build of one tree,
Pashupati nath of the capital and several other temples, historical places and
monuments.

However, one of the most amazing thing of the Kathmandu Valley is the
excellent view of the valley from all the hilltops!

Similarly when one goes outside of the valley, he or she can see countless
natural beauties never explored. Tourists stare with amazements of the gift of
God to the Himalayan Kingdom. Nepal is a must visit place.

Problems of tourism

Tourism began in Nepal as people discovered the land around the tallest peak
in the world, Mt. Everest. Development around Mt. Everest was slow to start,
however the scenery waiting to be viewed would soon wonder so many adventerists.
So tourism began: people had ambitions to climb the slopes of the great
mountain, and, as always, local people began to expand their living to fit that
of the tourists and properly became richer and more developed. Visitors would
share their culture, good or bad, and this had some major disadvantages;
principally litter. Locals also began to, as they used more developed equipment,
drop litter on the slopes that no-one wanted to take down. This includes oxygen
bottles, bottles of water, snack bars and tissues etc – all of what we enjoy at
home, but without any bins. Landfill sites were set up.

Other problems include the volume of tourists wearing the mountain away,
which causes mudslides through erosion which can be deadly for lower
communities. Trees are cut down at an alarming rate, adding to this problem – a
tourist uses three times more wood then a Sherpa. In the towns, toilet
facilities involve no sewage system, and therefore local water, which the people
are used to it being clean, is neglected and polluted with human waste. Locals,
who can’t afford the bottled water that tourists are buying have no real choice
about using the polluted water and suffer the increased health costs and deadly
diseases. Now tourists are buying and pushing up the price of products that the
locals are selling, agriculture in growing potatoes for the local population has
decreased and massive problems have occurred because of the price rise: locals
can no longer buy their community’s food and have to either eat less and less or
find another way to scrape a living. A community cannot be both focused totally
on foreigners and on members of its own community; only people who offer a
service acceptable to the tourists – this includes corporations such as
Coca-cola and Cadbury and hotel owners and tour guides etc. And even they don’t
always get the best deal; they have to pick up all the litter that tourists
think is untidy and will refuse to pick up. Large non-localised organisations
also often refuse responsibility.

Benifits of Tourism

Tourism is big business in Nepal. Local people can benefit and develop their
lives out of poverty with tourism, despite the fact that tourists can dilute the
culture and destroy the local area. It obliges people that aren’t involved to
take up tourism in order to survive; great financial incentive would be in this.
Tourism can lead to development, such as healthcare and cleaner water, and this
can be good if tourism is sustained long enough for people to demand those
services, but again many disadvantages can come with this. It can also act as a
substitute to other methods of income, such as agriculture or secondary
industry, which may start to struggle.