Scrapbook: The Promise of Nepal

Scrapbook: The Promise of Nepal

Four years after the devastating Gorkha earthquake, there’s a sense that the country is clearly long past recovery mode and finding ways to transcend and thrive, while trying to leverage its position between two dominant powers, neighbors India to the south and China to the north. In my brief visit (I was there to speak at the Himalayan Travel Mart), I clearly saw the potential for sustainable tourism—particularly community-based tourism—to benefit the country economically and socially. However overtourism and a lack of regulations on the world’s highest mountain, as well as pressure to drastically increase the number of visitors to the country regardless of quality, are specters that could derail progress. As I said in my remarks, “We are in the country that arguably gave birth to adventure travel, on Everest, in 1953. And I’m here to talk to you about the future of travel, but let me be clear: that Everest photo that has gone viral in the last couple of weeks is not the future but the past. Adventure travel, after all, is about blazing new trails and taking on a challenge. Sixty-seven years later, in 2019, the world has changed. Where travel is going, and where I hope you will be going, is very different. One thing I do know: Everest is more than just the climb to the summit. The Himalayas are more than just Everest. And Nepal is more than just the Himalayas.”

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