Nepal turmoil will hit tourism

Violent protests on Monday and Tuesday in Nepal got unprecedented worldwide publicity for Nepal — but not of the kind it would have wanted at the peak of the autumn tourism season which sees more than a third of annual arrivals.

Videos on tv and online about the death, destruction and mayhem in Kathmandu have led to some cancellations, especially with scenes of burning internationally branded hotel chains.

Thousands of passengers have been stranded in Kathmandu and in destination cities with the 24 hour closure of Nepal’s only international airport. The Nepali diaspora coming home early for the Dasain-Tihar holidays were also impacted. 

However, despite the unprecedented nature of events this week and the continuing political uncertainty, tourism officials are confident that Nepal will make it through like it did after past crises. Even during the height of the Maoist war, tourists and trekkers were not harmed.

“The tourism industry has been through a lot in recent years, such as conflict, pandemic and earthquake. We have always managed to recover, and have learned a lot about how to bounce back,” says Deepak Raj Joshi, CEO of the Nepal Tourism Board. “However, having such situations again and again really hurts our credibility as a destination.”

Nepal was just bouncing back from the slump brought on by a series of upheavals starting with the earthquake and the Covid-19 lockdowns. The number of international visitors had finally reached pre-pandemic levels, recording 736,562 arrivals from January to August 2025. A series of new hotels including international brands such as Hilton, Marriott and Holiday Inns came up across the country.

With the Nepal Army stepping in to stabilise the situation starting Tuesday night and through Wednesday and Thursday, the streets are calmer. Kathmandu airport is back in operation, but arriving passengers have to drive past the charred hulks of government buildings and torched cars.

At present there are up to 35,000 foreign tourists in Nepal, many already trekking in the Everest and Annapurna regions. Some of them are in Pokhara, Chitwan and Lumbini. 

“Many are carrying on with what they came to Nepal to do,” says Joshi, adding that since the airport is open their current situation will steadily resolve itself as the backlog of passengers are handled in the coming week.

NTB has organised shuttle services between the airport and hotels for tourists, and these buses had passes to ply even during the 10AM-5PM and 7PM-6AM curfew hours on Thursday.

Once a more normal state has been reached, NTB plans to work with the private sector to put out the message that Nepal is back in business and has always been safe for tourists. Indeed, no tourists have been harmed during the protests, and they have not been targeted in past conflicts either.

At a hotel in Pokhara protestors backed off when they were told that there were foreign guests, and any disturbance would hurt Nepal internationally. The mob left after breaking a few glasses and some vases and torching swimming pool towels.

Foreign Investment

However, the negative impact of the protests in the short and long term are undeniable. Visuals of a burning Hilton Hotel has been a powerful deterrent, not just for tourism but also for foreign investors thinking of setting up in a country already infamous for corruption and an unfriendly investment climate.

“This will likely deter investors who are interested in building an environment for high-end tourists,” cautions Joshi.

The last available Doing Business report by the World Bank that included Nepal was in 2020 where Nepal ranked 94th out of 190 countries, a significant jump from its previous position.Pokhara also saw several governmental buildings including a ward office being vandalised and set on fire. Four hotels and establishments linked to politicians -- Mantra Thakali, Hotel Sarowar, Hotel Pokhara Goodwill, and the recently opened Bagaincha Resort were all attacked.

According to Mani Raj Lamichhane, NTB’s Gandaki Province head, most of the violence happened around Pokhara’s New Road area, with a few incidents in Lakeside popular with tourists.

“Tourists had already been evacuated when the hotels were attacked, and they are now at Lakeside, waiting for buses to ferry them to the airport,” he adds.

A Himalaya Airlines flight from Lhasa that could not land in Kathmandu after the airport was closed on Tuesday afternoon was diverted to Pokhara with 65 passengers. The plane flew back to Kathmandu last night.

Lamichhane is not so pessimistic about the future. He says, “Nepal has these situations periodically. We lost the tourists that would have come yesterday, and as we were just going into the season we might lose 10-15% of our business. But we are telling tourists to keep their bookings on hold instead of cancelling them.”He adds: “We really have to put the message out there that despite the violence, tourists are safe and they are left alone to enjoy Nepal’s sights.”