• Becoming a rafting guide takes years of training, but offers little stability at home
• Dams, environmental pressures and weak promotion undermine Nepal’s potential as a rafting destination, industry insiders say

KATHMANDU, NEPAL 

For Puskar Kandel, a young man from a remote village near Trishuli River in central Nepal, the local river beach was an open university where he learned the skills that would define his life.

He spent all day at the beach or in the river, where senior rafting guides from his village taught him and encouraged him to practice kayaking, canyoning and rafting.

“I didn’t even continue higher education after completing my intermediate degree,” Kandel said. “Instead, I joined the nearby Royal Beach Camp as an intern, where I learned all the skills required for leading river expeditions.”

After three years of training as an intern and another six leading rafting expeditions for foreign tourists across Nepal’s rivers, Kandel had become a trusted name in the rafting community.

But the profession he loved could not sustain him.

“I didn’t see a better future because our country is not yet fully promoted as a rafting destination,” he told Anadolu.

Today, Kandel, like many of his peers, works as a rafting guide in Japan, earning a stable income far beyond what was possible at home.

A land of 6,000 rivers

Nepal is globally known for mountaineering, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest peaks. Yet it is also crisscrossed by thousands of rivers flowing from the Himalayas and could be considered among the best destinations for rafting, kayaking and canyoning.

But industry representatives say that potential remains largely untapped. Limited river permits, hydropower construction, environmental degradation and inconsistent tourism flows have made guiding an unreliable livelihood.

“In Nepal, rafting has not been established as a sustainable adventure tourism industry,” Kandel said. “In Japan, the work is reliable and the salary is better.”

Rafting operators say repeated political instability, natural disasters and economic shocks have disrupted tourism over the past decade – from the 2015 earthquake and regional disruptions to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another problem, operators say, is a lack of promotion of water adventure sports.

“Since rafting is not promoted, Nepal isn’t a major rafting destination. Guiding jobs are not reliable, as the flow of raft-loving tourists isn’t regular,” Kamal Bahadur Thakuri, president of Nepal’s national rafting agency, told Anadolu.

Out of the around 6,000 rivers in Nepal, only about 16 are officially permitted for commercial rafting. Even among those, many routes have been shortened or damaged by dams, pollution and climate change.

“Rivers permitted for rafting are also affected because of haphazard hydro dam construction,” Thakuri added.

The government has increasingly prioritized hydropower projects as a source of national income, exporting electricity to neighboring countries – often at the expense of river-based tourism.

A skills drain years in the making

Training a professional rafting guide takes years of physical, technical and psychological preparation.

Nepal’s Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM), the government body responsible for certification, has licensed around 1,300 rafting guides in recent years. Industry estimates suggest more than 60% now work abroad, either seasonally or permanently.

“Everyone is desperate to leave,” said Bishnu Gurung, a rafting instructor who now works in Japan. “It has created a huge gap in trained manpower at home.”

The migration of rafting guides follows the trends of thousands of Sherpas leaving the country, seeking a better future for themselves and their children.

Rafting guides migrate to countries including Japan, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and India. More recently, demand has emerged from the Gulf, with Saudi Arabia recruiting licensed Nepali rafting guides.

“One can easily earn 230,000 Nepali rupees ($1,600) a month abroad,” said Sukra Lama, a guide who has worked in Japan for 13 years.

In Nepal, a guide earns a maximum of Rs 3,000 ($20) a day.

Why they don’t return

In theory, guides could return to Nepal during the spring rafting season, when rivers abroad are closed. In practice, many instead take other jobs during the off-season abroad, since there is no guarantee of getting a job at home.

Some guides have settled permanently overseas. Kandel, who married a Japanese citizen, is now planning to open his own rafting business in Japan.

“I want to improve my economic status first, so I’m thinking of running my own rafting business in Japan at least for a few years,” he said. “I have no plan to return to Nepal immediately, where rafting hasn’t been established as adventure tourism.”

Som Bahadur Magar, an aspiring rafting guide, is another example. He practiced rafting for six years before obtaining a certificate, but is now seeking a formal certification to work abroad.

“A certificate will open new avenues in my career,” he said.

The migration has made it increasingly difficult for operators to find trained guides inside Nepal.

“We’ve reached the point where we need to produce guides ourselves,” said Ram Silwal, who runs Royal Beach Camp. “But there also needs to be a national effort to protect rivers and promote rafting as a viable profession.”

Industry figures warn that without meaningful policy support – from protecting rivers to promoting rafting and retaining trained guides – Nepal risks losing a generation of skilled workers who could have transformed the country’s vast river network into a cornerstone of its adventure tourism sector.