tailieunhanh - Impact of earthquake on tourism sector in Nepal

This paper aims at highlighting the impacts of catastrophic Gorkha earthquake of April 25, 2015 on tourism sector of Nepal and is based on secondary data collected through literature narratives from published and unpublished sources. The magnitude earthquake struck a large part of central Nepal and heavily affected the tourism business and livelihoods based on tourism. The overall economic loss due to the earthquake was equivalent to US$ 7 billion, and the disaster effect on tourism sector was estimated at 81241 million, percent of total. Of the total amount, 76 percent represents the value of destroyed physical assets, and 24 percent reflects the losses and higher costs of production of goods and services arising from the disaster. The impact of earthquake was clearly observed on tourist arrival. The inbound tourist arrival was below pre-earthquake levels even after nine months of the earthquake, and fell to a six-year low in 2015. The impact of earthquake on economy and livelihoods was enormous. The overall economy was almost paralyzed for a long time. The recovery and the development of tourism business are closely tied with the reinstating of important tourism infrastructure and facilities. | IMPACT OF EARTHQUAKE ON TOURISM SECTOR In NEPAL Shiba Prasad Rijal ABSTRACT This paper aims at highlighting the impacts of catastrophic Gorkha earthquake of April 25 2015 on tourism sector of Nepal and is based on secondary data collected through literature narratives from published and unpublished sources. The magnitude earthquake struck a large part of central Nepal and heavily affected the tourism business and livelihoods based on tourism. The overall economic loss due to the earthquake was equivalent to US 7 billion and the disaster effect on tourism sector was estimated at 81241 million percent of total. Of the total amount 76 percent represents the value of destroyed physical assets and 24 percent reflects the losses and higher costs of production of goods and services arising from the disaster. The impact of earthquake was clearly observed on tourist arrival. The inbound tourist arrival was below pre-earthquake levels even after nine months of the earthquake and fell to a six-year low in 2015. The impact of earthquake on economy and livelihoods was enormous. The overall economy was almost paralyzed for a long time. The recovery and the development of tourism business are closely tied with the reinstating of important tourism infrastructure and facilities. Key Words cultural heritage earthquake economy gross domestic products tourism infrastructure livelihoods tourism business. INTRODUCTION Tourism comprises the activities of persons traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure business and other purposes WTO 1999 cited in Gautam 2011 . It is one of the largest industries of Nepal in terms of employment sources of foreign exchange and revenue and has remained an integral part of Nepalese economy since many years. Natural disaster with catastrophic consequences can have serious effects on tourism for obvious reasons as it destroys the natural environment and the things which the