旅游经济学案例（经济学人）

《经济学人》：珠穆朗玛峰登山业卷入俄乌战争？

原文标题：

Ukraine, Russia and mountaineering

No Everest for the wicked

The fallout from the war reaches the peaks of Himalayas

Ascents have plummeted because Russian and Ukrainian mountaineers are busy with other things

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LIFE ON AND around the world’s tallest mountain has been even harsher than usual in the past few years. Avalanches in 2014 and 2015 killed dozens, closing Mount Everest to adventurers. The pandemic pre-empted the climbing season in 2020. This year brings fresh bad news. On April 9th Nepal’s tourism department announced it had issued 204 climbing permits—half of last year’s record figure of 408. Nearly 30% of mountaineers attempting Everest’s summit come from Ukraine, Russia and nearby European countries such as Poland. Most of them have cancelled their plans.

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“A lot of Sherpa guides and porters have lost out on their income,” says Dawa Steven Sherpa of Asian Trekking, one of the oldest expedition organisers in Nepal. Mountaineers aiming for the top typically spend $60,000-100,000. They often bring friends who hang around at base camp, spending another $1,500 a head. Most years some 50,000 breathless (literally) tourists visit base camp. This year even those will be fewer in number.

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That may be good for the mountain. In recent years Everest has carried more people than it can handle. In 2019 a record 354 climbers queued to reach the summit on a single day. The place got so filthy that authorities cleared 11 tonnes of rubbish from its slopes that year.

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But the dearth of climbers is bad for those who make their living from Everest and other tall mountains. Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 peaks above 8,000 metres. Its 30m people rely heavily on tourism, which provides 8% of GDP and more than 1m jobs and is the second-biggest source of foreign exchange after remittances. “We may have to dig into our savings to survive,” says Mingma Sherpa, the youngest person to have scaled all 14 peaks, who runs Seven Summit Treks, a local company.

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After the setbacks of the past few years mountain workers have learned to survive. They do odd jobs. Many are subsistence farmers, growing potatoes, carrots and radishes. Their wives run lodges in the low-lying Khumbu region. Sherpas also find it easy to borrow money as they are seen as a safe bet: in a good year they earn around $6,000 and sometimes as much as $12,000—Himalayan amounts compared to the average Nepali’s annual income of $1,070. Wealthy foreign climbers, too, chip in during hard times, says Mr Dawa Sherpa.

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Little wonder that Nepal has resisted efforts to drag Everest into the war. Last month the Ukrainian embassy in Delhi, India’s capital, sent a diplomatic note to the Nepalese authorities asking for a ban on the handful of Russian climbers coming this year. They politely declined.

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量489左右）

原文出自：2022年4月16日《经济学人》Asia版块

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理：Irene本文编辑校对: Irene仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）

夏尔巴人（Sherpa）：藏语意为“来自东方的人”，以“喜马拉雅山上的挑夫”著称。散居在喜马拉雅山两侧，主要在尼泊尔，少数散居于中国、印度和不丹，语言为夏尔巴语，使用藏文，1980年（陈乃文考察时期）人口约4万，中国西藏境内仅有约1 200人，居樟木沟和陈塘沟。神秘的珠穆朗玛峰滋养着夏尔巴人，同时也赋予了夏尔巴人神秘的色彩。

在夏尔巴人的历史中有着这么一段神秘的往事。相传，在喜马拉雅山脉中有一种叫雪人的神秘的生物，而最早发现这种神秘生物的就是当地的夏尔巴人。雪人传说中它是介于人与猿之间的神秘生物，身躯庞大，红发披顶，全身裹满灰黄色的长毛。它时而温和，时而彪悍，有着掌控一切的力量；它步履快捷，自如穿梭于不同的空间，所到之处都留下神秘的气场。尼泊尔（Nepal ）是多民族、多宗教、多种姓、多语言国家。国语尼泊尔语，上层社会通用英语。居民86.2%信奉印度教。尼泊尔北部喜马拉雅地区，海拔高度在4877米-8844米之间。世界上14座海拔超过8000米的山峰，其中8座在中尼边界的喜马拉雅山区，包括珠穆朗玛峰、干城章嘉峰、洛子峰、马卡鲁峰、卓奥友峰、道拉吉利峰、马纳斯鲁峰和安纳布尔纳峰。中部山区占尼泊尔国土面积的68%，主要由最高峰达到4877米的马哈布哈拉山系和相对较矮的丘日山系组成。南部的特莱低地占尼泊尔领土面积的17%。

经济落后，世界上最不发达国家之一。上世纪90年代初起，开始实行以市场为导向的自由经济政策，但由于政局多变和基础设施薄弱，收效不彰。严重依赖外援，预算支出四分之一来自外国捐赠和贷款。旅游业是尼泊尔的支柱产业。 尼泊尔地处喜马拉雅山南麓，自然风光旖旎，气候宜人，徒步旅游和登山业比较发达，产值约占国民生产总值的29%。高峰时，外国游客达到60多万人次/年；低峰时，外国游客也能达到20多万人次/年。2020年3月，尼泊尔政府为避免新冠肺炎疫情扩散，宣布禁止所有登山者登山，其中包括该国喜马拉雅山脉的世界最高峰珠穆朗玛峰，停止所有入境时签发的旅游签证。

【重点句子】（3个）

In recent years Everest has carried more people than it can handle. Sherpas also find it easy to borrow money as they are seen as a safe bet.Nepal has resisted efforts to drag Everest into the war.

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