Impact of Tourism on Everest Region

Annotated Bibliography
Brändlin, A. (2014). Taking control of Everest climbers' environmental impact. [online]
Deutsche Welle. Available at: https://www.dw.com/en/taking-control-of-everest-
climbers-environmental-impact/a-17502443 [Accessed 1 May 2019].
The ongoing boom in alpine tourism has resulted in Mount Everest being covered with
debris. According to the Nepalese authorities, the number of visitors to the Sagarmatha
National Park, housing the Everest, has more than tripled over the last 20 years. Owing to the
rising number of tourists, a greater amount of debris is left behind on the mountains such as
food-wrappers, oxygen cylinders, climbing gear, as well as the bodies of climbers having
died along the way. Owing to the frigid temperatures, the trash does not biodegrade. During
the last six decades, it is estimated that about 50 tons of trash has been left behind on the
Mount Everest, resulting in it earning the nickname of the world’s highest garbage dump.
Mountaineering associations have objected to the rising number of inexperienced climbers
who leave behind their garbage in order to conserve the energy needed to reach the summit or
else return to the base camp alive. Finally the Nepal's tourism ministry has sprung into
action by declaring that from April 2014, each climber who goes beyond the base camp must
bring back at least eight kilograms (17.6 pounds) of his or her personal waste and deposit it to
officials stationed there. The prime objective was to ensure that no new trash was left on the
Everest. Everest climbers are required to pay a deposit of $4,000 (2,900 euros) which would
be refunded if proved that everything that was taken up the mountain had been brought back,
however, it has been difficult to enforce this rule. The Director of Programs, Gordon Janow,
of the United States-based mountaineering school, Alpine Ascents has welcomed the new
trash rule as he believes that there should be personal responsibility for removing items off
the mountain but wasn’t sure how the new rule would be implemented.

Nepal, S. (2005). Tourism and Remote Mountain Settlements: Spatial and Temporal
Development of Tourist Infrastructure in the Mt Everest Region, Nepal. Tourism
Geographies, 7(2), pp.205-227.
The author SANJAY K. NEPAL explores the structural and sequential impact of the tourism
industry on the human settlements arrangements and developments in and around Everest in
Nepal. The article is a credible source as it appeared recently in an academic journal
pertaining to the tourism development. The article specifically relates to the development of
tourism in the Everest region and hence studies the targeted destination. The article adds to
the study of human civilization in the Everest region and make its growth stages more
comprehendible. Further, it also describes the evolution along the varied phases, aspects that
led to the changes and respective transitions and the shift in practical traits of single housing.
Over the thirty years of thriving tourism business in the rural villages of Everest district in
Nepal, the structure of the old-style of human civilizations has changed in those region. The
demand arising from the tourism business in the region has not only led to considerable
increase in the construction of accommodations, but even traditional residential houses are
been transformed into contemporary tourist lodgings and hotels. The development of human
habitats and lodging facilities are done in a process which usually flows from the movement
of travellers and their requirement instead of the conservative operations of settlements in the
village in Everest region. The findings revealed five distinct and main settlement in the
Everest region along with their development phases, dimension and role being identified in
the study. The human accommodation have gone through various changes, right from the
prime occupation of animal herding in villages to periodic tourist centres and into stable
structures in the present day. The study concluded that a detailed investigation and analysis of

settlements in the remote mountainous region is necessary for the gaining a better perspective
of the area dynamic nature, and in developing approaches for a structured growth.
Rai, D. (2017). Tourism development and economic and socio-cultural consequences in
Everest Region. Geographical Journal of Nepal, 10, pp.89-104.
The author Dhyanendra Bahadur Rai writes about the impact of tourism in the Everest region,
both socio-economically and culturally. Everest Region (Sagarmatha National Park) has
become the second-most popular trekking destination in Nepal after the Annapurna Region.
The number of tourists visiting the Everest Region has risen considerably from 1406 in the
year 1971-72 to 37124 in 2014-15 (as per the records of Sagarmatha National Park at
Jorsale). The author carried out a detailed study of the hiking routes from Lukla to Dinboche,
and conducted interviews of key persons in the region as well tourism business survey. The
findings of the study suggested the quantum of hotels and guest-inns in the towns and regions
all along the trekking route has gone up significantly. The principal basis of economic life of
the Sherpa community has undergone a distinct change from the earlier agro-pastoralism to
the evolving tourism-based business. The level of employment as well as the income of
native people has improved significantly. Nevertheless, tourism has diluted the Sherpa
culture with the introduction of new values as well as lifestyles influenced by westerners,
eroding the fundamental role of religion as well as traditional values of the Sherpa
community. The younger generation find the tourists’ behavioural norms as well as
consumption patterns to be pretty seductive. This is a sure sign of the loss of cultural value of
the Sherpa community as well as their world identity going forward. The social impact of
tourism development can be seen in the rising social tensions between those that benefit from
tourism and those that do not benefit, as well as between the large stakeholders (big
hoteliers), the smaller stakeholders (tiny tea-shop owners), local entrepreneurs as well as
newcomers.