The increased number of trekkers in the Annapurna and Manaslu regions last year brought cheer to the hospitality players in the areas and now they expect 2023 to be a bumper year.

The Annapurna area in Kaski is famous for the Annapurna circuit and Annapurna base camp treks while Manaslu in Gorkha draws trekkers for short treks because of its proximity to Kathmandu.

Hoteliers said that the rooms were almost fully sold out in 2022 due to the increased footfall of trekkers after two years of brief halts caused by the Covid pandemic.

Lekhnath Gautam, chief of the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) in Manang, said the number of trekkers jumped nearly seven-fold in 2022 as compared to 2021.

In 2020, Nepal had just launched an ambitious Visit Nepal Year campaign with much fanfare, aiming to attract at least 2 million tourists, only to have to abandon the programme shortly later after the incipient pandemic exploded into worldwide proportions.

The disastrous year ended with 230,085 arrivals.

In 2021, the number of foreign visitors entering the country totalled 150,962, a long way from the 1.19 million arrivals in pre-Covid 2019. The numbers rose to 614,000 last year.

“Obviously, we did not receive trekkers in 2020 and 2021,” Tsering Lopsang Gurung, proprietor of Hotel Tilicho in Upper Manang, said. “The number, however, has increased significantly last year.”

Tens of thousands of guides lost their jobs after Nepal’s trekking sector was virtually closed.

The hotels and restaurants suffered too as arrivals hit rock bottom in the key trekking areas.

Binod Gurung, president of the Tourism Entrepreneurs Association in Manang, is optimistic that the number may rise this year.

He, however, said it might take a few more years for the country’s arrivals to reach pre-pandemic level.

The hotel entrepreneurs in the trekking areas breathed a sigh of relief last year, said Kanchha Ghale, chairman of Manang Ngisyang Rural Municipality. “Their businesses crumbled in 2020 and 2021.”

There are more than 100 hotels in the Manang and Lamjung sections of the Annapurna Circuit.

According to the statistics of the ACAP in Manang, there were around 15,900 foreign trekkers in the Annapurna area last year.

The highest number of tourists, 4,654, visited the area in October followed by 2,981 in November and 2,382 in April.

The month of January and February, the peak winter periods, saw 41 and 169 trekkers respectively, the monthly lowest.

In 2020, the number of trekkers in the Annapurna area was 1,976 which rose to 2,376 in 2021. In 2019, the Annapurna trek had seen 26,647 visitors.

There were no foreign visitors for nearly seven months during the Covid lockdowns.

The Annapurna Circuit was named among the top 10 most incredible travel experiences in the world by Lonely Planet in October 2020.

The trek begins at Besisahar in Lamjung and passes through Manang, Thorong La Pass which is situated at an altitude of 5,416 metres, Mustang and Myagdi before ending at Pokhara.

Some tourists trek only to Tilicho Lake situated at an altitude of 4,919 metres in the Manang district.

Originally the Annapurna Circuit is a 21-day trek, but the duration has been reduced to 7-10 days after the Myagdi-Jomsom-Muktinath and Besisahar-Manang roads came into operation.

Meanwhile, the trekker numbers have increased by sixfold in the Manalsu area, said Satya Narayan Shah, project in-charge at Manaslu Conservation Area Project.

The area saw around 6,100 visitors in 2022 as compared to 925 in 2021. “We expect the number to reach the 10,000 mark this year,” said Shah.

The area saw around 2,071 visitors, the highest number, in October.

When the Covid pandemic was at its peak in 2020, only 374 tourists visited the area. In 2018, the Manaslu area had seen 7,640 tourists.

The March-May period and October and November are considered the best times of the year to visit the Manaslu area.

The government opened the Manalsu area for trekkers in 1991.

“Since the area is still untouched by the road networks, the area can be more attractive to trekkers,” said Shah.

Though the tourist check post has been keeping only the record of foreign visitors, the area has seen more domestic visitors in recent years, Shah added.