Winter pushes tourism entrepreneurs out of Khumbu

By Our Correspondent,Solukhumbu, Dec. 31: With the arrival of winter and the end of the tourism season, local businessmen have started leaving Khumbu to escape the biting mountainous cold. Toya Shrestha of Lukla said that exodus of entrepreneurs had left the Himalayan region empty. The airport, hotels and sightseeing spots in Gorakshep, Labuche, Gokyo, Chukung, Jongla and Thame, which were packed with tourists until autumn, now lie deserted, she said.

Major hubs like Namche, Kalapatthar and Everest Base Camp are also desolate, with all but a few commercial establishments closed. The few hotels that are open are manned by workers, with the owners and managers in Kathmandu and other cities to dodge the frigid chill.

Some also go abroad. This year too, many have gone to Bodhgaya and other pilgrimage places in India and Nepal, locals shared with The Rising Nepal. Many said that the annual winter migration was necessary because snowfall made the area inaccessible and caused shortage of essential goods for six months of the year. 

The decline in human activity is most visible at the Lukla Airport. During the peak of the tourist season this year, the airport saw more than 100 flights take off and land on a daily basis. Now, that number has fallen to less than five, informed Dwarika Achhami, head of the Lukla office of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.