HOW HAS THE 2016

EARTHQUAKE IN NEPAL

Q11615061

Table of Contents
1 Introduction........................................................................................................ 2
1.1 Background...................................................................................................... 2
1.2 Research Questions......................................................................................... 2
1.3 Research methods........................................................................................... 3
2.0 The impacts of Tourism.................................................................................... 3
2.1 Political impacts............................................................................................... 3
2.2 Economic impacts............................................................................................ 3
2.3 Social-cultural.................................................................................................. 4
3.0 Tourists arrival numbers after the earthquake................................................. 4
Figure 1;................................................................................................................. 4
4.0 Conclusion....................................................................................................... 5
5.0 Reference........................................................................................................ 6

1 Introduction
Nepal was hit by the biggest earthquake in history with the Mw 7.8
Gorkha (Nepal) earthquake occurred on 25 April 2015 in the central
Himalaya (Wang, K., and Y. Fialko (2015). After the event in Nepal, there
was another large earthquake occurred on May 12 (Mw 7.3), 75 km NE of
Kathmandu (Parameswaran et al. 2015). The purpose of this essay is to
find out the effects that caused in Kathmandu the capital city of Nepal. It
was the biggest earthquake in Nepal's history. Since the terrifying
earthquake, the tourism industry and the economy have been effected by
many ways in the country and the capital city Kathmandu. The impact on
the cultural and historical have made the tourism numbers declined.

1.1 Background
Nepal is a beautiful country located in Southern Asia, between China and
India. Nepal is recognised for the eight of the worlds ten tallest
mountains, the most famous one is Mount Everest, which is the highest
mountain in the world. Nepal is also known for its own culture and it is a
natural beautiful country. It has the biggest Hindu temple of Lord Shiva in
the world. The two most religion in Nepal is Hinduism and Buddhism.
There are beautiful places like Pokhara and Annapurna Circuit, Khumbu
and Langtang for trekking. Nepal is also famous for hiking and trekking.
Economically, Nepal has GDP of US $ 7.3 billion and GDP/capital of US $
254 where an estimation of 1.2 million jobs is supported by the tourism
sector of the country (Barahi, Fan, Hung, Malla & Yeung, 2011).
Kathmandu is the capital of Nepal and it is the largest city in Nepal.
Kathmandu city has a total population of 700,000 and it is the only
developed and modern city in the entire Nepal. Kathmandu forms the core
of the nations most popular urban region. Kathmandu is one of the main
spot for tourism in the country. Kathmandu is situated in a valley full of
ancient temples and shrines, golden pagodas and fascinating villages,
national museums, Botanical gardens and parks, historic sites, national
sites, national parks and traditional houses and villages. Being the poorest
countries, Nepal and the capital city Kathmandu highly relies on the
tourism heavily. After the earthquake, the event has destroyed cultural
and historical sites and has killed thousands and injured thousands of
people. People around the world are frightened to visit Nepal after what
has happened. This is affecting the tourism and economy in many ways in
the country and the capital.

1.2 Research Questions

The main aims of my theory are to find out the impacts of the earthquake
that has occurred in Kathmandu on May 25, 2015, in tourism industry of
Nepal. The key priority will be to find out on the following substances.

Impacts of tourism economic after an earthquake in Nepal.

Impacts of tourists' arrivals numbers after an earthquake in

Kathmandu.

1.3 Research methods

For the research methods, Quantitative methods will be used to finding
out the statistical and numerical analysis of data collection using the preexisting statistical data using computational techniques. Searching on the
search engine to find out the statistics of tourists arrivals numbers after
an earthquake in Kathmandu.

2.0 The impacts of Tourism

The tourism industry is growing fast. The Country is classified as one of
the worlds poorest nations, but is abundantly rich in natural and cultural
diversity. (Nyaupane, G.P. and Thapa, B., 2004). Nepal relies on tourism
heavily and tourism is one of the sources of the employment of the
country and growing the economic outcomes, for maximum benefits for
the local people and their environment. Political, social, and economic
inequality among places should be understood not only as the result of
differentiation, but also as a cause of the particular pattern of
differentiation which evolves (Logan 1978). The impacts of tourism from
Political, social-cultural, and economical issues.

2.1 Political impacts

Political impacts are important to tourism and it can be positive and
negative. Nepal is trying to recover after the earthquake, as the country is
poor, it is taking a while for the country to recover. There was a big crisis
going on in the country due to the earthquake. According to (Dixit and
Diplomat 2015) "In the absence of permanent shelter, 200 villagers have
established a temporary camp in a square, where they eat and sleep
together" and it wasn't the right time for the tourists to visit Nepal due to
this crises and disaster. After the earthquake the boarders of India and
Nepal were blocked due to the political issues, which lead to lack of fuels,
foods and many other things that usually comes from India. Nepal is now
confronted with another humanitarian crisis, this time due to a blockade
at a crucial crossing on the border with India, which has halted oil and

other essential supplies landlocked

neighbour (Ojha and Diplomat 2015).

Nepal

obtains

from

its

giant

2.2 Economic impacts

Economic impacts can lead to development and growth for the country. It
benefits the country with tax revenues, development in the local and
national business, creating jobs, trade and capital investment, creating
jobs and entrepreneurialism for the workforce and protecting heritage and
cultural values. The tourism industry has been beneficial for Nepal by
establishing
many
businesses.
Those
businesses
include
accommodations, transportations, foods and drinks and other entertaining
ways. According to (Tourism, N.E.I.O., 2000) Economic recession and the
impacts of natural disasters such as Earthquake as changing tourism
patterns can have a devastating effect on the local tourism sector and
Nepal is effected extremely, which is taking a while for them.

2.3 Social-cultural
Murphy (1985) defines tourism as a sociocultural event for both the
guest and host. Nepal has different cultures, which attracts tourists from
all around the world. It has a life-style not many people have seen or
experienced before and they want to take part. However, social-cultural
can be positive or negative. It can lead to culture clash, different lifestyles,
religion between locals and tourists and much more. The degree to which
sociocultural impacts influence or are experienced by host communities
may depend on a number of factors, including the number and type of
tourists, the nature of tourism development in the area, and the pace of
development (Brunt, P. and Courtney, P., 1999).

3.0 Tourists arrival numbers after the earthquake

Figure 1; Biography of Arrivals of Tourist in 2014 and 2015. (Bhuju 2015.)

According to (Visit Nepal, 2012) there are four climate seasons in Nepal;
Spring between March till May; Summer between June till August; Autumn
between September till November; Winter from December till February.
On March 2015 was the highest number of 83,469 thousands of tourists
visited Nepal between 2014 and 2015.
Figure 1 shows the visitors numbers in Nepal during 2014 and 2015. The
earthquake in Nepal happens in May 2015. In May, June, and July the
numbers of tourists have a huge declined by thousands because of the
earthquake. Tourists were frightened to visit Nepal, which effected the
tourism industry. June has the lowest number of visitors who visited Nepal
during the year of 2015, it was just after the event happened in Nepal.
The visitor's numbers are slowly increasing not by much, but few
hundreds a month. People dont want to take a risk at all. The tourism
industry around the world are warning people before they travel.

4.0 Conclusion
Due to the recent earthquake that has effected Nepal, the country itself
was not prepared for the event to take place. It has destroyed lot of
historic places and buildings, not only that, thousands of life and people
houses and tourism sector related. People in Nepal were suffering badly,
which most of the developed countries such as China, USA, United
Kingdom and many other countries, sent food and drinks, rescuers to help
the Nepal after the event. It wasnt a right time for tourist to visit Nepal
during the May, June and July 2015. Tourists who were in Nepal for a visit,

it was frightening experience for them, and most of the tourists rushed to
the airport to take a flight back home.
The research was only based on internet articles and related topics to
Earthquake in Nepal 2015. It was easier to get access to information
online because the research from other authors have been started after
few months the disaster happened.
The tourism industry remains in big crises after the devastating
earthquake. The earthquake hit most of the historic and cultural heritages
sites and buildings and many other tourism attractions. Some are in the
state of half destroyed and some are completely destroyed. Most of the
attractions have been shut down and some are slowly opening for tourists.
The numbers of visitors have been declined more than 75% after the
earthquake, which then effected tourism industries such as hotels room
being cancelled, local and nation business not having visitors and much
more.
The internal and political issues also didnt help tourism industry, because
of blockage on the borders of Nepal. This had a huge impact on the local
community because there was not food or drinks, fuels and much more
which comes from different countries. This could be a huge impact on the
tourists if they wouldve arrived after the event.
However, Nepal will take some time to fully recover, not only the country
itself, the economic factors and tourism industry. As Nepal is poor and less
developed country, it can take more than few years to fully recover. Not
only the effects of the earthquake, also from the internal and political
issues.

5.0 Reference

Barahi, S., Fan, R., Hung, P., Malla,P. & Yeung, R. (2011). Tourism Cluster in Nepal:
Microeconomics of Competitiveness. Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness,
Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School.
Bhuju, K. 2015. Visitor Numbers in 2015 Not so Low but Tourism Suffered.
Accessed 12.3.2016. http://myrepublica.com/economy/story/34806/visitornumbers-in-2015-not-solow-but-tourism-suffered.html
Brunt, P. and Courtney, P., 1999. Host perceptions of sociocultural impacts.
Annals of tourism Research, 26(3), pp.493-515.
DIXIT, K. and T. DIPLOMAT, 2015. Nepal and the politics of earthquakes [viewed 2
January 2017]. Available from: http://thediplomat.com/2015/09/nepal-and-thepolitics-of-earthquakes/
OJHA, H. and T. DIPLOMAT, 2015. The India-Nepal crisis [viewed 2 January 2017].
Available from: http://thediplomat.com/2015/11/the-india-nepal-crisis/
LOGAN, J.R., 1978. Growth, politics, and the stratification of places. American
Journal of Sociology, 84(2), 404416
Murphy, P. E. 1985 Tourism: A Community Approach. London: Routledge.
Nyaupane, G.P. and Thapa, B., 2004. Evaluation of ecotourism: A comparative
assessment in the Annapurna Conservation Area Project, Nepal. Journal of
Ecotourism, 3(1), pp.20-45.
Parameswaran, R.M., Natarajan, T., Rajendran, K., Rajendran, C.P., Mallick, R.,
Wood, M. and Lekhak, H.C., 2015. Seismotectonics of the AprilMay 2015 Nepal
earthquakes: An assessment based on the aftershock patterns, surface effects
and deformational characteristics. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 111, pp.161174.
SHEPPARD, P.S. and M.D. LANDRY, 2015. Lessons from the 2015 earthquake(s) in
Nepal: Implication for rehabilitation. Disability and Rehabilitation, 38(9), 910913
TOURISM, N.E.I.O., 2000. Economic impacts of tourism.
VISIT NEPAL, 2012. When to come Nepal: Information about climate, seasons,
temperatures [viewed 4 January 2017]. Available from:
http://www.visitnepal.com/travelers_guide/when_to_come.php
Wang, K. and Fialko, Y., 2015. Slip model of the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha (Nepal)
earthquake from inversions of ALOS2 and GPS data. Geophysical Research
Letters, 42(18), pp.7452-7458.

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