Editing Nepal (section)

===Tourism===
{{main|Tourism in Nepal}}
[[File:USAID Measuring Impact Conservation Enterprise Retrospective (Nepal; National Trust for Nature Conservation) (26428623908).jpg|thumb|Tourists view a [[greater one-horned rhinoceros]] from an [[Asian elephant]] in [[Chitwan National Park]].]]
Tourism is one of the largest and fastest-growing industries in Nepal, employing more than a million people and contributing 7.9% of the total GDP.<ref name=tkptour19/> The number of international visitors crossed one million in 2018 for the first time (not counting Indian tourists arriving by land).<ref name=tkptour19>{{cite web|url=https://kathmandupost.com/money/2019/05/26/nepal-tourism-generated-rs240b-and-supported-1m-jobs-last-year-report|title=Nepal tourism generated Rs 240b and supported 1m jobs last year: Report|website=Kathmandu Post|language=en|access-date=2 December 2019|archive-date=30 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190730002145/https://kathmandupost.com/money/2019/05/26/nepal-tourism-generated-rs240b-and-supported-1m-jobs-last-year-report|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://tourism.gov.np/files/statistics/2.pdf|publisher=Government of Nepal, Ministry of Culture, Tourism & Civil Aviation, Planning & Evaluation Division, Research & Statistical Section|title=Nepal Tourism Statistics 2017|date=May 2018|editor-last=Ghimire|editor-first=Dandu Raj|display-editors=etal|access-date=1 December 2019|archive-date=24 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190124041439/https://tourism.gov.np/files/statistics/2.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Nepal's share of visitors to South Asia is about 6%, and they spend much less on average, with Nepal sharing 1.7% of the earnings.<ref name=thttour>{{cite web|url=https://thehimalayantimes.com/business/nepal-enough-opportunities-tap-tourists-visit-south-asian-nations/|title=Nepal has enough opportunities to tap tourists who visit other South Asian nations|date=6 November 2016|website=The Himalayan Times|language=en-US|access-date=2 December 2019|archive-date=3 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303183849/https://thehimalayantimes.com/business/nepal-enough-opportunities-tap-tourists-visit-south-asian-nations/|url-status=live}}</ref> Premier destinations include Pokhara, the [[Annapurna Circuit|Annapurna trekking circuit]] and the four UNESCO world heritage sites—[[Lumbini]], [[Sagarmatha National Park]] (home to Mount Everest), seven sites in the Kathmandu Valley collectively listed as one, and Chitwan National Park. Most of Nepal's mountaineering earning comes from Mount Everest, which is more accessible from the Nepalese side.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Issues with Overtourism in Destinations Like Mount Everest |url=https://www.ucf.edu/pegasus/too-many-tourists/ |access-date=2024-06-08 |website=Pegasus Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>

Nepal officially opened to westerners in 1951 and became a popular destination at the end of the [[hippie trail]] in the 1960s and 1970s.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://academic.oup.com/chicago-scholarship-online/book/18777/chapter/177037645 |title=Nepal's Discovery of Tourism and the End of the Hippie Era |access-date=2024-06-08 |website=academic.oup.com |date=2017 |doi=10.7208/chicago/9780226429137.003.0010 |last1=Liechty |first1=Mark |chapter=10. Nepal's Discovery of Tourism and the End of the Hippie Era |pages=271–294 |isbn=978-0-226-42894-9 }}</ref> The industry, disrupted by the civil war in the 1990s, has since recovered but faces challenges to growth, owing to a lack of proper facilities for high-end tourism termed the "infrastructure bottleneck", mounting issues facing [[Nepal Airlines]], and a handful of destinations properly developed and marketed. The home-stay tourism, in which cultural and eco-tourists stay as paying guests in the homes of indigenous people, has seen some success.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/68553/|title=Homestay registration on the rise|last=Sunuwar|first=Muna|website=My Republica|language=en|access-date=2 December 2019|archive-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308222435/https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/68553/|url-status=live}}</ref>