But with the exception of a tew regions like the Annapurna Conservation Area in west Nepal and the Khumbu in the east, revenue is rarely channelled back to the villages, "Tourism revenue should be shared with the area for which it is charged. With half the royalty the government collects for the Khumbu mountains, the area would need no outside help for cleaning the garbage and the place could become a piece of Austria or Switzerland," argued social scientist and former tourism minister, Harka Gurung, at a recent conference.
Pakistani climber and tourism entrepreneur Nazir Sabir goes a step further, "Countries like Nepal, Pakistan in the Himalaya should go for zero royalty...it will encourage more expeditions to come, and it is the mountain communities which will benefit."
"Mountains have become our cash cows," says Tashi Jangbu Sherpa, President of the Nepal Mountaineering Association. "We milk them for all they are worth. But we haven\'t begun to plough the money back to the people living in those mountain areas."
