BMD

At a time when Nepal’s tourism has been picking up slowly with a remarkable drop in the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths, Lonely Planet has lately enlisted the country among the world’s top 10 destinations to travel in 2022. This listing by the popular US travel guide has highlighted Nepal as one of the most appealing tourist destinations worldwide.
With unrivalled topography featuring mountains, green valleys, beautiful rivers and plain lands, Nepal is undoubtedly very rich in cultural diversity as well. Adventure seekers, including mountaineers and trekkers, and those interested in the people’s culture and lifestyle find the country to be a suitable destination.

Lonely Planet has listed Nepal’s Mustang as a must-see destination for the next year. A CNN article focussing on the top 10 destinations mentions that Nepal has almost always been tagged with Mount Everest. “But this Himalayan nation has so much more on offer for travellers who aren't climbing the world's highest mountain".

The guidebook has made a special reference to Mustang, a hilly district, sharing its borders with the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. "In the remote region of Mustang (which means "fertile plain"), trekkers can explore the high desert and meet locals at homestays along the way, dining on Nepali specialties like coffee with yak butter and momos served "kothey" style -- half fried and half steamed," the travel guide explains.
Egypt, Malawi, Oman, Anguilla, Slovenia, Belize, Mauritius, Norway and Cook Island (in descending order) are the other top destinations for 2022.

The travel guide has brought out its Best in Travel 2022 book after a long gap. Issuing a statement, Tom Hall, Lonely Planet’s VP of Experience said: "After an enforced hiatus, it's time to take those long-postponed travel plans off the shelf and make them a reality.” The publication of this travel book suggests that the situation is now returning to normalcy gradually. As air services and numerous tourist destinations have now reopened throughout the world, global tourism is likely to revive in the days ahead.

The tourism industry across the globe has been one of the worst-hit sectors globally since the outbreak of COVID-19 in late December 2019 about two years. In terms of tourism incomes, the year 2020 was the worst period ever as all the activities related to this sector were disrupted due to lockdowns and various other restrictions in place to deal with the pandemic. Nepal’s tourism, too, passed through the most unfavourable situation owing to the lingering pandemic. Thousands of people involved in tourism have lost their livelihoods and jobs to this global public health emergency.

Tourism is an important sector for Nepal as it is the second largest source of foreign exchange earnings after the remittance. In 2019, the contribution of the travel and tourism industry to the gross domestic product (GDP) was about 7.9 per cent. But its contribution has now fallen down sharply owing to the pandemic.

Amid the dipping inflow of remittances and tourism receipts, Nepal is now in a position to cut down imports of luxury goods. A recent of the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has indicated that the existing foreign exchange reserves are adequate to finance only 7.8 months of imports. This really calls for making extra efforts to recover the tourism sector.