Want to help Nepal recover from its deadly floods? Here’s what tourists need to know

The catastrophic floods that struck Nepal and Tibet in late August caused widespread destruction and enormous loss of life, killing at least 1,386 people, with thousands more still missing.

The immediate priority since then has rightly been rescue, relief and restoring essential services.

But ever since the deadly floods, Nepal has been appealing to international tourists not to cancel their travel plans. Much of the country is still open to visitors. Without tourism, what has been a disaster for parts of the country will end up hurting communities across the nation.

For a country so dependent on tourism, one of the hardest questions is now when, and how, to encourage visitors to come back.

1 in 7 jobs rely on tourism

Almost 1.16 million foreign tourists visited Nepal last year, its best year since before the COVID pandemic.

Tourism supports about 15% of Nepal’s employment – almost one job in seven – and its benefits reach from hotels and trekking companies to guides, porters, restaurants, transport operators and remote communities. The industry contributes about 6–8% of Nepal’s gross domestic product.

But past disasters in Nepal and elsewhere show that getting tourism recovery right can be surprisingly difficult.

Encourage visitors back too soon and they can impede recovery. Wait too long, and communities that depend on tourism can suffer a second, economic crisis.

The danger is that the economic footprint of this disaster could spread to have an even wider national impact than the floods themselves.

Lessons from past disasters

Tourists respond not only to actual risk, but to what they believe the risk to be. Media coverage, social media and travel advice all shape those perceptions.

For distant travellers, “disaster in Nepal” can quickly become a false impression that “all of Nepal is unsafe”.

This creates what we might call a “perception footprint”, which can be considerably larger than the area physically affected.

Nepal experienced this after the 2015 Gorkha earthquakes, which killed more than 8,800 people.

International arrivals fell 32% in 2015 compared to the year before, even though major destinations including Pokhara in the Himalayas and Chitwan were not directly affected.

Images of damaged temples, buildings and communities nevertheless contributed to a much broader perception of a devastated country.

Nepal eventually recovered strongly. Visitor numbers began growing again in 2016 and rose to a then record of 940,000 in 2017.

Tourism authorities used international media, partnerships and tourists’ social media posts to demonstrate that people were safely returning to many parts of the country.

Read more: The rebuilding in Nepal needs to start now. This is what worked after an earthquake a decade ago – and what to avoid

The same challenges have occurred in other tourism destinations impacted by natural disasters.

The 2011 Queensland floods in Australia claimed 33 lives and caused widespread damage across an area the size of France and Germany combined.

Colleagues and I studied more than 2,100 potential Australian tourists following the disaster. They were uncertain whether a visit would help, though many were willing to travel to support recovery.

An important lesson from that and other research is that the tourism consequences of a disaster do not necessarily follow its geographical boundaries.

It has shown that if you’re trying to get tourists to return sooner, as Nepal is already doing, you’re better to appeal to people who’ve visited a region several times before, as they’re more likely to return than less frequent visitors.

That matters when thinking about how Nepal’s tourism can recover. But this does not mean Nepal should try to bring tourists back as quickly as possible.

Timing and trusted information

Reopening too soon can put visitors at risk and strain resources needed by affected communities.

Traveller confidence needs to be earned through credible and detailed information to provide reassurance.

As recovery progresses, travellers wanting to visit Nepal will need to know:

• which specific places remain affected
• which roads and trekking routes are accessible
• what infrastructure is operating
• and where authorities continue to advise against travel.

Nepal is already working hard to get some of these travel updates out to the world, including through social media posts tagged with #NepalCalling.

Our research following Cyclone Marcia in Queensland similarly found that trust and consistent communication between tourism organisations were critical to effective recovery.

The objective is to manage the return of tourism in a way that supports affected communities, without putting visitors or residents at greater risk.

People visiting friends and relatives in Nepal, or other tourists who have visited the country before, are the most likely to return earlier once Nepal is ready, due to their stronger personal ties and better knowledge of local conditions.

The challenge for Nepal is not simply deciding when the country is “open” again. It is being clear about which specific places are ready for visitors to return, and when tourism will support Nepalese communities – not complicate their recovery.

Travellers should also check their own government’s official travel advice, such as Australia’s Smart Traveller, New Zealand’s Smart Travel and the United States’ State Department websites.