Nepal
尼泊尔：在喜马拉雅山徒步
Visitor numbers to the Himalayan nation grew strongly through the 1990s and 2000s — leaping from 385,000 in 2004 to 790,000 in 2014. But then came the April 2015 earthquake, killing almost 9,000 people, injuring 22,000 and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. After the rescue operations were completed, tourists found themselves in a quandary, anxious not to put added strain on resources, or seem insensitive, but also aware of the importance of tourism to the economy. Many decided to stay away: overall arrivals fell 32 per cent in 2015; the number of people visiting for trekking and mountaineering slumped 91 per cent.
从上世纪90年代初到本世纪，造访喜马拉雅山麓国家尼泊尔的游客数目增长迅猛——从2004年的38.5万飚升至2014年的79万人。但2015年4月大地震不期而至，造成该国9000人死亡、2.2万人受伤以及几十万人无家可归。抗震救灾工作结束后，游客们发现自己进退维谷，一方面迫切不希望让该国资源雪上加霜，又不想显得无动于衷，但也深感旅游业对该国经济举足轻重。许多游客最终选择“敬而远之”：结果2015年造访游客数大降32%，徒步旅行与登山者更是骤降了91%。
“This year still felt too early to go back for many but 2017 will be the year to visit,” says Jarrod Kyte of Steppes Travel. Tim Greening of KE Adventure Travel agrees and reports that forward bookings are up 94 per cent compared with the same point last year. “The earthquake will never be forgotten, but next year tourism will be back to what it was in 2014, at least in the Annapurna and Everest regions,” he says.
“对很多游客来说，今年重回尼泊尔旅游仍言之过早，但今年将是旅游盛行之年。”Steppes Travel旅行社产品总监贾罗德•凯特(Jarrod Kyte)说。KE Adventure Travel旅行社负责人蒂姆•格里宁(Tim Greening)持同样看法，并说游客预订量同比去年增加了94%。“大地震会刻骨铭心，但明年尼泊尔的旅游业会恢复至2014年的水准，至少安纳普尔纳大环线(Annapurna)与珠峰(Everest)地区是如此，”他说。
Tourists will still see earthquake damage, says Greening, who returned from the country last month, but infrastructure, hotels and transport are all operating normally, and the Nepalis are eager to welcome visitors back. Beyond the post-earthquake recovery and the release of pent-up demand, Nepal’s tourism prospects are also being boosted by an expanding offering of destinations and activities. New roads have eased access, and where once tourists were strictly corralled into a handful of permitted trekking areas, there are now numerous routes across the country. Mustang, a remote district with a strong Tibetan culture, is tipped by the panel, and will see several more upmarket lodges opening in 2017. For those eager to see the Himalayas without walking, Steppes has a helicopter tour that visits the base camps of all eight of Nepal’s 8,000m peaks.
游客们仍会亲睹大地震造成的巨大破坏，上月重返尼泊尔的格里宁说，但基础设施、酒店以及交通设施都已正常运营，而尼泊尔国民也热盼游客重返该国。除了震后重建与潜在需求释放外，尼泊尔旅游业前景因不断推出的新旅游目的地及旅游项目而看涨。新建公路使天堑变通途，游客过去只能进入寥寥几个徒步区域，如今徒步路线遍布尼泊尔全境。偏僻的藏族村落Mustang尤受我们的旅游专家小组青睐，2017年几处高档度假屋会投入运营。对于那些渴望饱览喜马拉雅山雄姿的非徒步行游客来说，Steppes旅行社的直升机游项目可造访尼全国8座8000以上高峰的所有营地。
Uzbekistan
乌兹别克：游览丝绸之路
“With time-rich baby-boomers driving growth in adventure travel, we’re increasingly seeing our clients take longer, once-in-a-lifetime trips, and nowhere is hotter right now than the countries of the Silk Road,” says Jonny Bealby of Wild Frontiers. He says demand has been boosted by recent books and television programmes, including Peter Frankopan’s best-selling historical epic, The Silk Roads, Sam Willis’ BBC series The Silk Road and comedian David Baddiel’s Discovery Channel documentary, On the Silk Road.
“随着有充裕时间的婴儿潮一代成为冒险游主力军，历时更长、一生一次的旅游甚嚣尘上，而丝路沿线国家如今成为最热门的旅游目的地。”Wild Frontiers旅行社创始人强尼•贝尔比(Jonny Bealby)说。他说丝路沿线国家旅游需求大幅增长，推波助澜者是新近出版的旅游图书与相关电视节目，其中就有彼得•弗兰科潘(Peter Frankopan)的历史巨著《丝绸之路》 (The Silk Roads)、萨姆•威利斯(Sam Willis)主持的BBC纪录片《丝绸之路》以及喜剧明星大卫•马蒂尔(David Baddiel)的探索频道纪录片《丝绸之路》(On the Silk Road)。
For those without the months needed to make a full journey along the route, Uzbekistan offers a convenient taste of some of the highlights — including the mosques, mausoleums, mosaics and minarets of the ancient trading cities of Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand. However, the allure of such sites has always been tempered by the difficulties of getting a visa (until recently, for example, the London embassy would only accept payment by postal order, while travellers arriving overland have occasionally found the borders unexpectedly closed to mark public holidays).
对于那些因时间所限无法游览丝路全程的旅客来说，乌兹别克可让他们饱览丝路文化的精华部分——其中包括清真寺、各种陵墓、马赛克工艺以及希瓦(Khiva)、布哈拉(Bukhara)、撒马尔罕(Samarkand)等古丝路沿线的贸易城市；而饱览这些丝路遗迹总是因获取签证的繁文缛节而作罢（比方说在以前，乌兹别克驻伦敦大使馆只接受汇票付款，而陆路抵达乌国的游客偶尔也会遭遇边境会毫无征兆地关闭，原因竟是休公假）。