Summit Murder Mystery Series

Do more than just taking pictures. (Reuters/Adnan Abidi) Susanne Becken Every year 800,000 international visitors travel to Nepal to experience its unique attractions. These include Sagarmatha National Park (Mt Everest), the Annapurna and Langtang trekking regions, and the Kathmandu Valley, which is dotted with UNESCO World Heritage sites such as the Durbar Squares in Patan and Bhaktapur. The April 25 earthquake and aftershocks seriously affected all these places. Tourism is critical to Nepal’s economy. The World Travel and Tourism Council reports that the industry contributed 8.9% to Nepal’s gross domestic product in 2014, supporting 1.1 million jobs. Before the earthquake, Nepal was the 26th fastest-growing tourism economy out of 188 countries. What impact will the earthquake have on tourism? Based on the Nepalese culture, tourism and civil aviation ministry’s tourism statistics, about 23,000 visitors would have been in...

Moshi tour guides, porters speak out Tourists and their guides during one of the trips to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro   Kilimanjaro climbing is a tough task. For one to trek this snow peaked highest mountain in Africa he has to be physically fit and forbearing. But it is soothing when one manages to climb the mountain up to it’s highest point-the Uhuru Peak (5,895 meters above the sea level),” says Boka wa Boka (not his real name) a tour guide working with one of the Moshi-based Tourism and mountain hiking tour companies. Speaking at different times with the writer of this article on condition of anonymity, for fear of reprisal by tour operators some of Mt. Kilimanjaro tour guides and porters said that, in spite of the difficulty of their work, most tourguides and porters are underpaid. This is regardless of the routes they use to reach the peak, explaining “all mount Kilimanjaro routes are hard, but other routes are most hardier that ot...