Nepal says Indian plane hijacking hurt tourism

KATMANDU, Nepal (Reuters) -- A Nepal tourism official says the number of tourists visiting the Himalayan kingdom has fallen sharply this year because of the December hijacking of an Indian airliner.

Total arrivals between January and September were 250,957, compared with 287,768 in the same period last year, a fall of 12.79 percent, said Tek Bahadur Dangi of the Nepal Tourism Board.

He said arrivals from neighboring India fell 32 percent to 71,996 this year from 105,901 in the first nine months of 1999.

"The hijacking of the Indian Airlines airplane last year is responsible for the decline," Dangi said.

An Indian Airlines Airbus was hijacked soon after takeoff from Katmandu for New Delhi on December 24.

The hijack drama ended a week later in Afghanistan after India released three pro-Kashmiri militants from its jails as demanded by Muslim militants who seized the plane.

The airline suspended all its flights to Nepal after the hijacking and only resumed operations there in June.

Arrivals from countries other than India declined 1.6 percent to 178,961 in the first nine months of 2000 from 181,867 in the same period last year.

Dangi said the hijacking had hurt Nepal's image and damaged its tourism industry, which contributed $168.1 million in 1999.

Officials said a four-year-old Maoist insurgency to overthrow Nepal's constitutional monarchy had not hit the country's tourism industry so far because no tourists had been killed and there had been no attacks in tourist areas.

But they added the industry could suffer if the mountainous nation's security perception did not change.

"The Maoist insurgency could hit tourism by projecting Nepal as an insecure destination," Dangi said.

The Maoist campaign started in February 1996 and covers more than a third of impoverished Nepal. Nearly 1,500 people have been killed in the revolt.

Tourism is the third biggest source of the kingdom's exchange earnings after exports and international aid.

Nepal, sandwiched between Asian giants China and India, is a popular destination for Western mountaineers and trekkers.

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