Sars hits Nepal tourism

Sushil Sharma
BBC correspondent in Kathmandu

Reports from Nepal say that the mysterious respiratory disease, Sars, has begun to hit the country's crucial tourism industry.

Some flights from Nepal have been suspended

The disease has not yet been reported in Nepal but the slump in the tourist movement in south-east Asia has had its effect.

Many western tourists visiting Nepal travel through that region.

Tourism entrepreneurs say there has been a big drop in tourist arrivals following the global Sars scare.

President of the Nepal Travel Agents Association (NATA), Joy Dewan, said that tourist arrivals had gone down by 30% in recent weeks.

Many other potential visitors have cancelled plans to tour the country.

Suspended flights

The suspension of flights as a precaution against Sars has also hit the numbers of tourists coming into the country.

The Nepalese national airline, Royal Nepal, has suspended flights to Singapore for three weeks.

India is the only country in South Asia to confirm Sars cases so far

Flights to Shanghai in China are also due to be suspended.

China and Singapore are among the countries worst affected by Sars.

The cancellation of tours to Tibet has caused a further decline in tourist arrivals.

Most of the tourists travelling to Tibet cross over from Nepal.

Economy hit

The Sars scare is a blow to the gradual revival of Nepal's tourism, which suffered a series of setbacks in recent years.

Tourist arrivals dropped from almost half-a-million three years ago to a little over 200,000 last year, mainly due to security concerns caused by the long-running Maoist insurgency.

There had been signs of improvement after a cease-fire was declared early this year ahead of peace talks to resolve the seven-year conflict.

Tourism is a major source of foreign currency earnings and employment in Nepal.

Its growth is considered crucial to revive the country's battered economy which last year shrank for the first time in 20 years.