8 April, 2020; Nepal. Tourism, it is the most important factor for the development of economic sector of each and every country. Especially Nepal, which is rich in natural, cultural diversity, is depending on the tourist for the development of economic part. In the current situation, Nepal was about to organize a great event “visit year 2020” but a global virus COVID-19 called corona virus became the main problem and it let to postpone the event.
Corona virus pandemic, COVID-19 is supposed to be transmitted from civet cats or bats to human. Corona virus is zoonotic i.e. it is transmitted between animals and humans. Corona viruses (COV) are a large family of virus that causes illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-COV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-COV).
Due to this epidemic, all of the international flights are locked down in Nepal. Because of which tourism area of Nepal is adversely affected. Not only in Nepal, but also globally. In China, around 3200 people have lost their life due to COVID-19.It is the diseases that is communicated from one to another and now it is spreading all over the world. At the same time, United states of America is facing a lots of trouble with a lots of patients suffered from this virus where 12,857 people have already dead. Till now 14,32,686 people are suffering from COVID-19 all over the world where total death is 82,124
Nepal is a beautiful naturally gifted country that has great potential in the tourism industry. At the recent time, with the successful campaign of 2011, Nepal was about to organize new events called Visit Nepal 2020. For this campaign, the Nepal government had separated 5 sectors to equally promote and develop this area. They were people and heritages, nature and wildlife, culture cities and leisure, religion and pilgrimage and lastly adventure and outdoor.
Travelling Nepal during Nepal tourism year 2020 was supposed to be very fruitful with heavy discount on the trekking package. Every sector of tourism industry like hotel, airport, and tourist destination were developed. But at the same time, the virus named COVID 19 is spread all over the world. Because of which World Health Organization (WHO) has enlisted Nepal as a country with high risk which lead to cancel all the international flights. The government of Nepal has lockdown the whole country for few weeks. Yes, it was an important step stepped by Nepalese government with the quotation “Prevention is better than Cure”. Due to which the impact of corona virus is already worldwide with the cancellation of trips, public events and falls in income. Mostly, hotels airlines, trekking agencies and guides are highly influenced with this situation.
Tourism is also the main reason in maintaining the economy of Nepal. It has been stated that tourism industry contributed to a total of 7.9% of the GDP of Nepal in the same year, which shows the significance of tourism in Nepal. Due to COVID 19, the tourism economy will be hit badly which decrease the economy of country.