Nepal’s series of earthquakes affected tourism this time. After the Jajarkot earthquake last November, there is concern and apprehension in the tourism world about Nepal. On Monday morning, a new message was given by the Nepal Tourism Board. They said, the tourist centers of Nepal are safe. They also started campaigning on the issue. In the meantime, Nepal shook again in the afternoon. Another earthquake near Jajarkot measured 5.6 on the Richter scale. Tremors were also felt in Delhi and NCR. The two consecutive tremors brought back memories of April 2015 in Nepal.
In this situation, there are doubts about how many tourists will visit Nepal in the next few days. A secretary of the state tourism department said that the tourism business in Nepal has increased by more than 100 percent in the last three years. The largest number of tourists go there from India. America is next. After 2015, the number of people from the Everest summit to the base camp also decreased. From Kathmandu to Pokhara, the roads were almost empty of tourists everywhere. It is feared that this incident will be repeated this time as well. The secretary said, “As soon as Nepal Tourism Board tried to manage the situation, the second phase of the earthquake turned everything upside down. For now, the situation will come forward after monitoring the situation for a few days. But few people will go to Nepal on Diwali. Bookings have also started getting cancelled.
According to tourism department sources, there was an earthquake in Jajarkot on November 3. It is 6.4 on the Richter scale. The distance from Siliguri to the source was 661.44 km as measured by sky boundary. Three days later, another earthquake struck near Jajarkot on November 6. This time the intensity is 5.6. Source from Siliguri is 649.2 km. Many tourists enter Nepal through Kankarvita from this side. After that go to different areas via Bharatpur, Kathmandu. Only 2025 foreign tourists visited Nepal in 2020. It stands at eight lakh 9,678 people from January to October 2023. During Diwali, Christmas, New Year season it was going to increase further.
Tourism traders in North Bengal said that the National Highway was closed for seventeen days after Harpa Ban in South Lonak Lake in Sikkim on October 4. North Sikkim was completely devastated. Despite the opening of the road, many foreign tourists canceled Sikkim and planned to go to Nepal and Bhutan. Many have visited. Many also booked to go during Diwali. This time all of them are likely to be cancelled. Samrat Sanyal, editor of ‘Himalayan Hospitality and Tourism Development Network’ said, “Instead of Sikkim, bookings were going to Nepal and Bhutan. After the first earthquake, the search increased. It seems that tourists will decrease in Nepal due to another earthquake.
