the tourism sector at a standstill due to the health crisis

Clinging to the foothills of the Himalayas, the Nepal fascinates with the beauty of its snow-capped peaks. Pauline Driard has decided to make her life in this mountain country. Installed at Nepal for 12 years, she had run a small hotel in the capital Kathmandu. The building, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a former palace. This Frenchwoman invested a lot of time and money in it, but she had to part with it two months ago, because of the Covid-19 epidemic. She sold the hotel at half of its purchase price. “It was becoming urgent for me to sell it. I unfortunately do not have the funds to be able to cover the losses for the next two years“, she regrets.

Kathmandu has a hundred French entrepreneurs who face heavy losses in the absence of tourists. Benoit Perraud ran a trekking agency there. High mountain hiking is the heart of tourist activity in the Nepal. He must have put the key under the door. It has gone from an average of 200 clients per year to zero. He is worried about his future but especially that of millions of Nepalais who worked in the tourism industry. In normal times, foreign tourists report to Nepal more than a billion and a half euros in revenue per year.