Mustang tourist arrivals fall 41.5 per cent as flood damage keeps visitors away in peak season

Visitor numbers in Mustang, one of Nepal's best-known trekking districts, fell 41.52 per cent in the first three months of the current fiscal year, according to figures from the Mustang District Police Office reported on 19 October 2026. Between mid-July and mid-October, 69,403 domestic and international visitors arrived, down from 118,685 a year earlier.

The decline is concentrated in the autumn peak. Arrivals were 30,534 from mid-July to mid-August, 20,268 from mid-August to mid-September and 18,601 from mid-September to mid-October. A year earlier the same periods recorded about 19,000, 23,205 and 75,599. The first period was therefore higher than last year; the final period, normally the busiest, collapsed.

Road damage is the main cause cited. The Beni–Jomsom road, Mustang's principal overland link, was completely blocked for more than two weeks after the 26 August Bhotekoshi flood and heavy rain on 27 September, according to the district police information officer, Inspector Ishwar Mahat. He said travel on the highway "has yet to return to normal" even after repairs by the Korala Road Project reopened it. In late September and early October only limited numbers reached the district, by air on the Pokhara–Jomsom route. Suraj Gurung, president of the Muktinath Hotel Association, described Mustang as "unusually quiet this year", despite the usual September-to-November surge, and operators fear further disruption.

The wider disaster explains the scale of the shock. A House of Commons Library briefing published on 12 October records that the 26 August flash flood on the Nepal–Tibet border had left 1,455 people confirmed dead in Nepal as of 5 October, with about 5,285 missing. Nepal's government estimates USD 2.7 billion in damage and losses and USD 4.7 billion in recovery needs. The UK announced £5 million in emergency funding on 27 August, and the briefing notes that UK bilateral aid to Nepal is set to fall from £46 million in 2025/26 to £5 million in 2028/29. Mustang's figures cover one district and one three-month period; they should not be extrapolated to national tourism without Department of Tourism data.