Earthquake rattles Nepal, tourism a casualty

As of now all flight services to Kathmandu have been efficetively put on hold

The devastating earthquake in Nepal has dealt a blow to tourism that contributes significantly to the country’s economy.

A favourite destination for tourists across the world, including from India, for the Himalayan views and trips to the Mount Everest base camps, it was all about frantic calls and cancelled bookings on Saturday since news of the earthquake came in.

“We have received calls to cancel almost 90 per cent of close to 1,000 bookings to Nepal,” said Sharat Dhall, president of Yatra, a leading online travel agent.

Jet Airways’ Kathmandu flight was diverted to Lucknow and returned to Mumbai. The airline cancelled its services on the New Delhi-Kathmandu-New Delhi route and said it was monitoring the situation and updating passengers.

Two Air India flights from Delhi and Kolkata were also put on hold. The airline was awaiting clearance from the aviation authorities in Kathmandu before resuming services. SpiceJet’s Kathmandu-bound flights were cancelled on Saturday and IndiGo was awaiting clearance from the Nepal government. “SpiceJet will resume flights to Kathmandu as soon as possible,” the airline said in a statement.

While advising passengers travelling to Nepal to verify with them before heading to the airport, SpiceJet said it would waive all change and cancellation fees for four days. It operates two daily flights on the New Delhi-Kathmandu route. IndiGo has called back its Delhi-Kathmandu flight and waived cancellation charges on Kathmandu flights for a week.

Tour operators said the earthquake would hurt tourism in Nepal. This is peak season for tourists at Pokhara, Kathmandu and Lalitpur. “Our internal teams have cancelled their trip to Kathmandu. While putting a number to cancellations is difficult, it could potentially be in the thousands. This is going to impact tourism in Nepal for at least a few months,” said Subhash Goyal, president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO).

According to Nepal tourism statistics, around 700,000 Indians visited Nepal in 2012 by air and land. Around 2,000 Indian tourists visit Nepal daily.

Major tourist attractions were severely affected. Dharahara tower, the historic nine-storey landmark in the heart of Kathmandu and one of the nation’s biggest tourist attractions, was reduced to rubble. The ancient tower was the place where Nepal’s kings were once crowned.

Basantapur Durbar Square, another tourist attraction in Kathmandu, was also flattened. Declared a Unesco heritage site, it consisted of temples, idols and fountains. Many Bollywood movies were filmed there.

Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari tweeted, “Had a word with Nepal government officials and RSS, Nepal. Slight damage to Pashupatinath temple.” After he was sworn in as Prime Minister last year, Narendra Modi had visited the shrine and made an offering of 2,500 kg of sandalwood.

Tourism will also be affected by large cracks along roads in Nepal. Many Indian tourists visit the neighbouring country by road and industry experts said infrastructure development would be a challenge.

“The bigger problem would be revitalising the tourism economy by infrastructure investment. With the scale of the earthquake, the damage to infrastructure will  be high,” said Nikhil Ganju, country manager at TripAdvisor India.