Floods between Nepal and Tibet threaten adventure tourism as peak season approaches

Nepal’s renowned adventure tourism industry is facing a harsh reality, according to local mountain tourism associations and lodge owners, following devastating floods on Nepal’s border with China.

The death toll from last week’s disaster, which devastated villages along the Nepal-Tibet border, rose to 987, authorities said Tuesday. Almost 4,250 people are missing, they added.

The catastrophe began on August 26 in the Himalayas, a mountain range that contains some of the highest peaks in the world, including the tallest, Mount Everest.

A massive glacier collapse in northern Nepal triggered a calving of ice, rock and meltwater in the valleys below, with powerful floods that swept away or isolated entire communities and damaged roads, bridges and hydroelectric facilities.

The tragedy, which prompted Nepali Prime Minister Balendra Shah to push for international climate action, underlines the growing impact of climate change on adventure tourism.

Rajendra Bahadur Lama, general secretary of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, described the floods as a “serious warning” for Nepal’s tourism industry.

“This disaster should not be seen as the end of adventure tourism in Nepal; it should be a wake-up call,” Lama told CNBC in an email. “Climate change is changing the Himalayas, and Nepal must now build a tourism industry that is not only adventurous, but also safer, smarter and climate resilient.”

Tourism infrastructure, routes and destinations will need to be evaluated and redesigned with better protection against floods, landslides and other extreme events, Lama said, noting that international tourists are “increasingly aware” of climate change and safety.

To rebuild from the catastrophe, Nepal, one of the least developed countries in South Asia, has estimated a cost of between $4 billion and $5 billion, equivalent to almost a tenth of its economy.

The tourism industry is a fundamental principle of the Nepalese economy and is an important source of foreign exchange and income. The country of nearly 30 million people is world-renowned as a hotspot for hiking and mountaineering, as well as a premier global destination for spiritual journeys.

However, tourists have canceled reservations in recent days, just as Nepal approaches its most popular travel season, Sept. 15 to Nov. 15, said Saroj Bhandari, owner of the Wander Thirst hostel in the capital city of Kathmandu, more than five hours’ drive from the flood site.

Bhandari expects, at best, his 122-bed hostel to reach 60% occupancy during this year’s peak tourism season, up from 100% last year. Most cancellations come from European tourists, he said.

“This time only a part of Nepal is little damaged by the flood and many tourists think it is not safe to go to Nepal because of that,” he said, pointing out that the country is not only made up of mountains but also flat lands.

Bhandari said Nepal is nearing the end of its monsoon rainy season. He highlighted the government’s system of alerts for landslides and road closures, noting that the state typically shares flood and landslide warnings with the lodge every day, which the lodge then relays to guests.

While he did not know whether China had sent out an alert, Bhandari said that people who first saw the flood had warned those living downstream, but that those living downstream had underestimated its size.

A Nepali government spokesperson was not immediately available to respond when contacted by CNBC. Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Ministry has said it is preparing a third batch of emergency aid for Nepal and will continue to “stick firmly” to its neighboring country.

Meanwhile, Tibet Vista, a regional travel organizer with offices in Nepal and China, said in a statement to CNBC that all of its travelers and team members were safe.

“None of our guests were at Gyirong Port when the flooding occurred, and no Tibet Vista travelers were affected by the disaster,” Tibet Vista said Monday. “We are deeply saddened by what happened and our thoughts are with the victims, their families and everyone affected by this tragedy.”

On August 30, the US embassy in China flagged the risk of further landslides and flooding due to additional rains through September 1. Beijing had sent Premier Li Qiang to visit the flood site on Aug. 27 and focused a regular month-end meeting of top leaders on the response to the catastrophe, with a readout noting that the disaster occurred in a cold plateau region surrounded by glaciers and potential dangers.

A United Nations deputy secretary-general warned on Tuesday that millions of people in the Himalayan region were at risk of glacial floods, with fears that entire river banks could become effectively uninhabitable.

“Technology cannot advance fast enough to prevent losses along these huge river systems that trap outburst glacial lakes,” Kanni Wignaraja, UN undersecretary-general, told Reuters in an interview.

Researchers have previously identified 47 dangerous glacial lakes in Nepal, China and India, although the actual number has since been estimated to be much higher.

“The devastating impacts of the Nepal floods cannot be underestimated,” Carlo Buontempo, director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (CS3), told CNBC by email.

“While it will take time to piece together the precise chain of events that led to this disaster, the broader picture is already clear: the world’s frozen regions are losing mass and, as they do, becoming less stable.”

In fact, as the climate warms, Buontempo said the loss of glacial ice around the world would have important consequences for mountain landscapes.

“Glaciers reinforce the slopes around them; frozen ground holds fractured rocks in place; meltwater accumulates in lakes behind fragile natural dams. As ice thins and permafrost melts, mountains held together for millennia begin to lose their grip,” he added.

This process usually happens slowly, but sometimes it can happen suddenly, as when a huge collapse of ice and rock on Switzerland’s Birch Glacier buried the Alpine village of Blatten in May last year.

“The floods in Nepal underline the importance of continuing satellite monitoring for early warning signals, to inform future risk planning and save villages, such as in the case of Blatten, where residents were evacuated before the landslide. It is clear that the climate of the past has changed; we must redouble our efforts to prepare for the future,” Buontempo said.