Popular Nepal trekking area given green light

One of the most popular trekking areas of Nepal has been given the green light for tourists to return by experts three months after powerful earthquakes rocked the country.  

The first official report on earthquake-related damage in the Annapurna region has been welcomed by the Government of Nepal, trekking companies, and development agencies behind the assessment, who regard it as an important step towards the country’s economic recovery.

Tourism is Nepal’s largest source of foreign income, with more than 40 percent of the country’s 800,000 visitors each year coming for its iconic trekking and adventure activities. However, tour operators looking for reassurance on safety for travellers in the Annapurna region have had to rely on anecdotal evidence to date.

“There has been a decline in  foreign tourists since the earthquake,” said Suresh Man Shrestha, Secretary for the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. “Tourism is very important for Nepal’s economy and for the Nepalese people. But, we needed to assess which areas of the trekking regions have to be reconstructed for the safety of our visitors.”

In a joint public-private initiative, earthquake engineering specialists Miyamoto received funding from SAMARTH-UKAID on behalf of the government of Nepal to conduct the expert assessment.

The report confirms that the Annapurna region, located in the Himalayas in north-central Nepal, sustained “very little damage, with the three percent of buildings which were damaged in the earthquake all easily repairable.”

The regional assessment was conducted by a team consisting of earthquake geotechnical experts, structural engineering experts, conservation officers from the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) and Intrepid Travel. The team conducted a technical inspection of the main trekking routes and selected villages ahead of the monsoon season.

“The aim of the report was to develop an overall understanding of the extent of the damage from the earthquakes so that we could assess the safety of the region’s trekking routes,” said Dr Kit Miyamoto, the technical team leader and a structural earthquake engineer. “Conservation officers from Annapurna Conservation Area Project and trekking guides from the region were critical in helping the technical team navigate the almost 200 kilometres of trekking routes that were surveyed for earthquake-related damage.”

“Like many other tour operators we’ve seen a significant slump in bookings since the quake as travellers are concerned about safety in Nepal. There’s been speculation about the condition of the treks, but we believe that the industry needed a proper assessment to make decisions based on facts,” said Darrell Wade, CEO of Intrepid Travel.

The company is donating all profits from the upcoming season in Nepal back to support charities in Nepal as part of the initiative to return tourism to the country. “We’re one of the largest trekking operators in Nepal, and we know how reliant the country is on tourism so we felt a big responsibility to get things in Nepal back to normal as soon as possible by kick-starting the trekking season in September,” Wade said.