Mon, Feb 10, 2003 page11

• Travelers vanish from Napal as the insurgency grows

  • NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  Fifty years after this Himalayan kingdom captured the world's attention in May 1953 with the bulletin that Sir Edmund Hillary had conquered Mount Everest, the news is mostly grim for a nation that still depends on mountaineers and other travelers from abroad for its economic vitality.

  The tourism industry in Nepal, a nation towered over by some of the world's highest mountains and revered as the birthplace of Buddha, has virtually collapsed as a result of the Maoist insurgency that now controls more than a third of the countryside and is seeking to abolish the monarchy.

  Although the insurgents have said that foreign travelers and major tourism sites will be spared from violence, clashes between the rebels and government forces have left nearly 8,000 Nepalese dead since the guerrillas took up arms in 1996.

  In November, the State Department said Americans "should consider deferring nonessential travel" to Nepal after the Maoists claimed responsibility for murdering a pair of Nepalese security guards who worked at the US Embassy here.

  At the end of January, a surprise cease-fire spurred hopes for an end to the violence. Even before that, Nepalese government officials said that the nation's most important tourism areas, including the popular trekking routes in the foothills of the Himalayas, remained safe.

  They insisted that they would go forward with celebrations this spring to mark the golden anniversary of the ascent of Everest by Hillary and the Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay. But the officials are not optimistic that the anniversary will signal any sort of turnaround for tourism.

  According to figures from the official Nepal Tourism Board, the number of foreign visitors fell nearly 28 percent last year, as measured by airline passenger arrivals, after dropping 20 percent the year before.

  The number of travelers arriving by air last year was 215,900, compared with 298,900 in 2001. Although the board offered no exact nation-by-nation breakdown, it said that the number of American visitors fell by nearly half last year.

  "It's very sad, because we've been operating there for 25 years and think Nepal remains a very safe destination," said James Faubel, president of Himalayan Travel of Danbury, Connecticut. "We certainly wouldn't advise our clients to go into areas that have been problematic in western Nepal, but tourists never went there anyway."

  He said that his agency had sent an average of 300 Americans a year to Nepal before the insurgency, but that the number fell to under 100 last year, a result of the rebel threat and the turmoil that resulted from the June 2001 massacre of much of the Nepalese royal family by Crown Prince Dipendra, who then shot himself. Faubel said that despite the recent chaos, none of his clients had ever found themselves in danger -- or reported any other problem.

  For foreign visitors willing to take the risk, there are remarkable bargains to be found, especially among the major hotels in the Katmandu Valley, which have slashed rates. The Hyatt Regency, a palatial structure that dominates the capital's skyline and is arguably the most luxurious hotel in the country, is offering a basic nightly rate of US$80 for two this month, down from US$105 when the hotel opened in 2000.

  Apart from a notable lack of foreigners, there is little in Katmandu to suggest the chaos found elsewhere in the country; the capital's narrow, temple-clogged streets remain calm, and its residents are eager to make visitors feel welcome -- and safe.

  The insurgents, who call themselves the People's Army and are believed to number about 5,000, have said repeatedly in public pronouncements that they do not intend to undermine tourism and that they will not attack foreign visitors, apparently in recognition of the fact that tourism provides jobs to the Nepalese masses whose support they seek.
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