The hotel business, badly affected by the earthquake, is likely to take time to recover, hotel booking data shows.

Hotels in Nepal would normally have 80-85 percent occupancy during the autumn season, but this year the number is likely to drop to around 30 per cent, according to the Hotel Association of Nepal.

Most tourists who booked rooms before the April earthquake, have cancelled their travel plans as the media reporting that Nepal is still not safe due to the aftershocks, says Prabesh Aryal, executive director of HAN.

General Secretary of HAN, Binayak Shah is hopeful that though the number of tourists this season has been less compared to the previous years, the number will pick-up after Dashain and Tihar. He believes till that Dashain and Tihar, the reconstruction authority would have started its work and experts will be coming to Nepal.

The earthquake has not only has affected the hotel business in Kathmandu, but also in areas unaffected by the quake, such as Pokhara, Chitwan, Sauraha and Lumbini.