Local Porters in Nepal: Acute Mountain Sickness and Load Weight of Cargo Carrying

Local porters who haul burdens for trekkers are understudied and underappreciated for the labour they do in Nepal. Their susceptibility to Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) along with the weight of the loads they haul and carry in return for meagres payment, contribute to the difficulties of their very austere and under-resourced employment. They are frequently underpaid for their efforts. Acknowledgement by government organizations and trekking business owners could make their employment more viable by giving them a higher wage in spite of their occupation struggles. Data was gathered from 31 porters completing instruction at a Nepali Porters’ training establishment, based in Kathmandu, Nepal. The research used semi-structured in-depth interviews. Participants participated in a 45-60-minute interview, which was recorded at the field site. All the interviews were documented and then transcribed into English by a bilingual Nepali PhD student. The data was coded using a hierarchical, thematic coding structure approach. Findings showed that porters knew about and had experienced AMS, and that their work of carrying heavy cargoes for trekkers and trekking companies were often not compliant with prescribed kilogram load limits.

Editorial Vol.3

No abstract available.

Climate Change and Possible Impacts on Travel and Tourism Sector

Nepal is a diverse country with lowlands of Terai to the highest mountains attracting many tourists and visitors to make visits. So, the tourism in Nepal is primarily nature-based as tourists are mostly attracted by the spectacular landscapes, majestic mountains, glaciers, lakes, rivers and biodiversity across its diverse ecological gradient. Mountaineering, trekking, whitewater rafting and jungle safari tours are the main forms of nature-based tourism activities in our country. Climate change is affecting Nepal in a number of ways and the travel and tourism sector cannot remain untouched. Various studies on climate change shows increased weather uncertainties and extremities resulting into long dry period and intense rain during monsoon leading to increased water induced disasters like floods, inundation, landslides, cloudburst floods, and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) which are projected to continue in future as well. This has affected natural landscapes, and Himalayas influencing every walk of life and livelihood options. Though the impacts of climate change can be observed in the whole world, poor country like Nepal is likely to suffer most due to limited resources to cope with and adapt to the effects of climate change. In this paper, an effort has been made to review the impact of climate change on the travel and tourism sector in Nepal through the study of previous literatures on climate changes.

Assessment of Tourism in Nepal with Reference to Regional Countries: Trend Analysis and ARIMA Approach

Tourism (either domestic or international or both) is an internationally flourished business or industry all over the world. The economic foundations of tourism are essentially the cultural assets, the cultural property and the nature of the travel location. So, it has a greater contribution to the country’s balance of payments. Simple trend analysis was carried out using a set of line graphs along simple linear regression. For forecasting of international tourist arrivals of period: 1962-2020, and real per capita international tourist receipts of period: 1995-2018, the suitable Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models were developed using Akaike Information Criterion along with method of autocorrelation function and partial autocorrelation function. Nepal has a significant growth rate of 1.372 of the international tourist arrivals. It has the eighth position for international tourist arrivals among nine counties. Likewise, Nepal has a significant growth rate of 1.315 of real per capita international tourist receipts. It has the fourth position for real per capita international tourist receipts among nine counties. Nepal has been receiving its international tourist arrivals, growth as well as real per capita international tourist receipts. Forecasts of international tourist arrivals of Nepal are 879638.3 in 2018, 860459.0 in 2019, 875824.1 in 2020, 891189.3 in 2021, and 906554.4 in 2022. Forecasts of real per capita international receipts in dollars are 687000000 in 2019, 727000000 in 2020, 807000000 in 2021, and 845000000 in 2022.

Boris Lissanevitch and Nepali Tourism: History Revisited

In the transitional phase of Nepal, attaining peoples’ democracy in the 1950, the tourism and hospitality sector witnessed dynamism. The isolated Nepal was on the way of opening for tourism. This paper tries to frame a picture of the era of 1950s in Nepal when commercial tourism was introduced. An overlooked pioneer, Boris Lissanevitch, who established the international-standard Royal Hotel in Kathmandu in 1954, assisted in making key changes in the progression of tourism as visa issuance, hospitality modernization, management of royal events, sightseeing activities, accomplishing inter-continental land cruise, and introduction of European vegetables and dishes. His vision of tourism as an economic sector led Nepal attaining its golden age (of tourism) thus paving the way for other tourism and hospitality enthusiasts to establish similar businesses. This paper aims at interpreting and appreciating the efforts Boris made in the development of tourism in Nepal among tourism scholars and stakeholders

Mountain Peaks of Nepal Himalaya

Nepal is a mountainous country with numerous peaks and pinnacles. It is shaped by tectonic movement, the action of gravity, and erosion. It is a gradual transition process from plain to mountain terrain. The present study explores the peaks of the Nepal Himalaya and visualizes the peaks as open sources for mountaineering. The height of Nepal Himalaya is derived from 'Nepal Himalaya Inventory' Gurung (1994), 'Inventory of Nepal Himalaya' (CDG, 2002), and 'Spot Height Shapefile' (DOS, 1998). The total number of peaks opened and mountaineering royalty are derived from the Department of Tourism. The spot height and administrative boundary are derived from the Department of Survey (DOS, 1998 & 2020). Shapefiles and Google Earth are used to map the distribution of the Himalayan peaks of Nepal, and the height categories are based on mountaineering royalty reports. This study also discusses some essential aspects of royalty generation and seeks a better understanding in exploring and identifying peaks for further mountaineering activities.

Ecological Restoration in Gautam Buddha's Birthplace Lumbini

The historical information about natural vegetation of Lumbini is not clearly known. Modern day human colonization around Mayadevi temple could have been intensified after Khadga Samsher's visit to Lumbini in 1896, followed by the eradication of Malaria in the Tarai of Nepal around the 1950s. The dense human settlements around the Mayadevi temple (place where Buddha was born) was gradually shifted outside the area of Lumbini Development Trust (LDT) (16 x 4 km2 area), and the area was planted with a huge number of plant species. Hence, the forest within LDT is essentially a secondary forest without a scientific method of forest management (only plantation), as a result some species were not able to get naturally established and disappeared gradually. Studies indicated that there were around 354 species of plants species in LDT (Siwakoti, 2008) however, a recent vegetation survey (Tiwari, 1919) recorded only about 250 species including 39 tree species and other herbs and shrubs (the data is being produced, and needs second round survey to confirm). Some very common plant species have not been found from the region, indicating the heavy anthropogenic pressure including construction activities, grazing, fire, and plantation of trees without knowing microhabitat have taken the toll, and also by the encroachment of alien and invasive plant species both in terrestrial and aquatic environment. It is quite important to update the biodiversity, study regeneration of plant and animal species and management of invasive species in order to restore the natural ecosystems of Lumbini to develop it as both a sacred pilgrimage site and nature reserve. Ecosystem conservation and reintroduction at LDT could be done by following the strong reliance of Gautam Buddha's teaching about nature and life.

Conservation of Gosainkunda and Associated Lakes: Morphological, Hydrochemistry, and Cultural Perspectives

In this paper, we present the current situation of the Gosainkunda and associated lakes based on the preparation of an inventory of lakes using the Google Earth Engine and 2020 Sentinel 2A satellite imagery. Furthermore, we discuss the hydrology, hydrochemistry, and cultural significance of the lakes based on the systematic review of available literatures. In 2020, there are 22 lakes along with Gosaikunda (12.7±0.4 ha) in the Upper Trishuli watershed (59.2 km2), extending from 1274 to 4993 m elevation and covering a total area of 80 ha. The largest lake is Bhairabkunda, with an area of 15.5±0.5 ha. The water bodies in the region are drying, and some of the lakes have already disappeared from the region. But some lakes in the region are evolving as temporary water bodies. The high-altitude lakes are sensitive indicators of anthropogenic disturbance and changing climate. Though the lakes have better hydrochemical quality than the urban lakes located in the southern part of the country, the evidence shows increasing local and long-range transport and deposition of the pollutants in the lake water. The presence of chemical constituents of anthropogenic sources in the water of oligotrophic lakes is possibly evidence of the long-range transport of pollutants. Considering the cultural importance of the region, the number of visitors is increasing annually. Increasing human activities in and around the lake, long-range transport of pollutants, and changing environment in the area are demanding for the lake's conservation. We suggest regular monitoring of the high-altitude lakes to understand the ongoing climate change and anthropogenic impacts.

Mountaineering Risk, Safety and Security

The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the underlying mountaineering risks, safety and security issues found in the traditional activity known as mountaineering. The paper also highlights some of the commonly known and distinguished terms of mountaineering. Mountaineering is the art of moving through the mountains using a set of technical ‘mountaineering’ skills. In Europe, it is often called alpinism when done in the Alps, apart from known as trekking, hiking or even fell walking. It includes traditional outdoor rock climbing in a mountain setting, multi-day rock climbing, skiing, snow-shoeing, a multi-day journey in the mountains, whether camping or in lodges. Mountaineering is not necessarily restricted to the greater mountain ranges as many countries with low altitude mountains have many citizens that go ‘mountaineering’ inside their borders. There are no predetermined heights at which a hill becomes a mountain; many geographers state that a mountain is greater than 300m (1,000 feet) above sea level, but the Oxford English Dictionary puts the hill limit at 600m asl. Another consideration is the latitude of the ‘hills’. For example, the hills of Scotland, although the highest being Ben Nevis at 1345m asl, are considerably further north than the Pyrenees with its highest mountain, Pic Aneto, at 3404m asl. The arctic winds, the northern European winds and the south-westerly gales are as harsh as any found in the higher ranges.

Adventure Tourism: The new frontier: A Critical Review

Writers: John Swarbrooke, Colin Beard, Suzanne Leckie & Gill PomfretPublisher: Butterworth-HeinemannAn imprint of Elsevier Science Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP 200 Wheeler Road, Burlington MA 01803First published 2003, Copyright © 2003, Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved