This summer the Foreign Office (FCO) removed its prohibitive ‘advice against all but essential travel’ restriction for trekking areas in both Pakistan and Nepal. The change has reopened these spectacular trekking and mountaineering areas to foreign tourists and will bring back their much-needed inward investment and spending to poor – and in Nepal’s case disaster-struck – regions.
The reopening of areas such as Skardu and Gilgit in Pakistan has unlocked itineraries such as Mountain Kingdom’s K2 Base Camp trek, which had been off-limits since 2009. With awe-inspiring views of the Karakorams this glacier trek through icy granite peaks tops out at 5,117m at the base camp of the world’s second highest mountain, K2.
As of July, the same restriction was lifted from travel in Nepal, including the capital of Kathmandu, and the famous mountain trekking areas of Pokhara, Annapurna Sanctuary, Chitwan and Bardia.
With eight of the world’s ten highest mountains in the country, this is not only good news for companies like Mountain Kingdoms, who have been able to reopen the majority of their many tours in the stricken country, but also for Nepal itself, where tourism was vital to the national and local economies even before the earthquake earlier this year.
Some 10 percent of the economy and over half a million Nepalese are involved in tourism, so it’s clear that getting the industry back up and running is essential if the country is going to be able to rebuild itself.
For up-to-date information of the Foreign Office travel advisories in any country, see gov.uk
