SOLUKHUMBU, March 11: Of course, they wish to welcome more and more tourists to their hometown. With this desire, the women of Khunde came together to build tourism infrastructure in their area so that more tourists would come to their village. 

Khunde, a village that lies at a distance of a fifteen minutes' walk from the famous tourist destinations Namche and Khumjung Valley along the Khumbu region, is witnessing a very least number of tourists these days. 

Such situation prompted the local women to construct a helipad and a view tower on their own as they hope that their efforts would help promote local tourism by attracting tourists to visit the village. Tourists arrivals in Khumbu is high, but in contrary it is occasional in our village, said Yangji Sherpa, who heads a local women's group, adding they have so far got no support either from the government side or a non-government sector in their efforts to promote local tourism. 

Only potato and buckwheat are produced in Khunde and it has some hotels as well opened targeting the tourists. But hotel business is yet to see a boom due to the least number of tourist arrivals. 

So, almost all women here are involved in agriculture and livestock farming while men work as trekking guides outside the village. The helipad constructed by Khunde women has proved very useful to bring patients suffering from altitude sickness in course of the mountain climbing to the Khunde Hospital based in the village, she said. RSS

 
• women
 
• tourism
 
• khunde