Nepal's national tourism body started the new year with a resolution.
They wanted at least a million travellers to pass through the country before the end of 2023.
After three years of pandemic-induced disruption — visitor numbers dwindled to about 151,000 in 2021, down from more than a million a year pre-COVID — it was a big goal, and they had a strategy to match.
WARNING: This story contains content that some readers may find distressing.
One of the first steps was opening a new international airport in Pokhara, a tourist hotspot and the country's second-largest city, nestled in the shadows of the towering Annapurna mountain range.
On the first day of the year, officials, industry leaders and Nepal's newly-elected prime minister gathered at the airstrip alongside the public for a grand inauguration, the date symbolising optimism for the future of a country heavily reliant on foreign tourism.
Such was the excitement that the city declared a public holiday for the occasion and strongly encouraged all residents to join in the celebration.
As Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal addressed the ceremony, no one could have predicted what would happen only two weeks later, just a few kilometres from where the lively crowd stood.
Nepal's worst aviation disaster in 30 years
On January 15, just before 11am local time, a Yeti Airlines ATR 72-500 approached the Pokhara airport from Kathmandu — a speedy trip that usually takes less than half an hour.
A witness noticed the plane approaching at a low altitude and pulled out his phone to start filming. The footage shows the twin-engine aircraft suddenly tilt to the side, its left wing pointed vertically towards the ground, before moving out of frame.
Moments later the plane crashed into a hillside, killing all 68 passengers and four crew members on board. One Australian, 29-year-old Myron Love, was among the victims.
Investigations are underway, but it's so far unclear why the plane appeared to suddenly roll to its left as it approached the airport in clear conditions.
The small Himalayan nation — home to eight of the world's 14 tallest mountains — has a long history of aviation disasters, with nearly 350 people killed in plane or helicopter crashes since 2000.
In May last year, 22 people were killed when a plane crashed 15 minutes after taking off from Pokhara. In 2018, another 51 passengers died when a Bangladeshi airliner came down in cloudy weather while approaching Kathmandu.
Years earlier, a History Channel documentary named Lukla Airport, near the base of Mount Everest, the world's most dangerous.
But this tragedy marks Nepal's deadliest single aviation disaster in 30 years, and another blow to a tourism industry trying desperately to get back on its feet.
A place like nowhere else on Earth
Most regular travellers to Nepal are familiar with the risk that comes with internal transit. Asked why they continue to travel there knowing this, the answer is often some variation of "it's worth it".
"It's the only place my head stops thinking," says Australian academic Suzanne McLaren, who has been to Nepal three times and is planning a fourth trip next year.
"Being in the Himalayas, it's these magnificent mountains, and you are just this small dot. [The feeling] is quite hard to explain, but it's the most majestic place I've ever been."
The Himalayan nation's unique topography meant it was always going to attract trekkers, climbers and mountaineers eager to summit the planet's highest peaks. It's this landscape that also necessitates the frequent use of air travel, which provides a crucial lifeline between remote villages and base camps.
Not only is Nepal a gateway to Mount Everest, the most famous mountain in the world at a height of 8,849 metres above sea level, it's also home to other show-stopping formations, like Kanchenjunga (8,586 metres), Lhotse (8,516 metres), and Annapurna (8091 metres).
But travellers also remark on the friendliness of the people, the warmth of the culture, and the natural beauty closer to sea level. "I've travelled to many countries, and this is just so special, the scenery and the people," Suzanne says.
The number of international tourists travelling to Nepal has grown steadily since the country opened up midway through the last century, peaking in 2019 with 1.17 million visitors — 39,000 of them Australian.
"If you're a hiker, trekker or mountaineer, the Himalayas is a mecca," says Steve Kelly, a keen trekker who is planning his third trip to Nepal later this year.
"There is nowhere else in the world that can provide the same sense of adventure or the same awe-inspiring experience that the Himalayas provides for trekkers and mountaineers. That's why I keep going back."
Som Tamang, who runs a Nepal tour company from Australia, says bookings have just started to pick back up after years of pandemic-induced border closures and, before that, the 2015 earthquakes, which killed around 9,000 people.
"Right now, in the last few weeks and last couple of months, we've been getting a lot of interest," he says.
Nepalese-born Som says he seeks to provide "a real Nepal experience" for travellers, mixing trekking and hiking with volunteering opportunities. Part of this, he says, means carefully communicating the risks associated with domestic travel in the country and providing a range of transport options to his customers.
"Even though I fly quite regularly up and down the Everest base camp … I do fear each time I go on a plane, but that's the way it is," he says.
"It's about knowing the risk, not knowing the risk is another thing."
Flying isn't the only danger
There are a number of reasons posited for Nepal's poor air safety record, some of them laid out in a 2019 report by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.
"Nepal's majestic mountains and capricious weather patterns have created a huge challenge to flight operations," the report reads, noting that "civil aviation in Nepal has been expanding rapidly".
Since last week's crash, Som says he's received more inquiries from incoming travellers about alternative transport options.
While his company doesn't use flights from Kathmandu to Pokhara, instead relying on road travel, he says short flights are necessary to reach the Everest base camp unless travellers have an extra 10 days to spare. For that route, the company offers a private helicopter option at an additional cost.
"It's definitely having an impact on people's thoughts," he says, "I truly don't think it will stop people travelling, but it will definitely impact people looking for alternative routes and alternative ways to get there rather than using domestic flights."
Flying from Kathmandu to Pokhara takes just over 20 minutes, compared to about six-hours on a tourist bus — which comes with its own danger.
Due to the mountainous terrain, narrow and poorly maintained roads, and unpredictable weather, deadly traffic accidents are also common in Nepal.
Less than a week into the year, six people were killed when a bus veered off a cliff in the country's west. In December, a bus accident about 90 kilometres from Kathmandu left 18 dead.
Then there are the dangers on the mountains; with more tourists crowding the trails comes increased risks of medical emergencies, altitude sickness and falls. Bad weather and avalanches are also difficult to predict and are often deadly.
In 2015, an earthquake triggered an avalanche that wiped out a remote village 60 kilometres north of Kathmandu, on a route popular with foreign trekkers. A year earlier, an unseasonal snowstorm buried part of the popular Annapurna Circuit, killing at least 43 people.
"This kind of thing happens with monotonous regularity in the Himalayas," Steven says.
“The answer to why do people keep going back, it’s a fairly simple one, really: because it’s the Himalayas."
Will this crash impact tourism?
The people ABC News spoke to for this story had no plans to cancel their upcoming trips to Nepal, and history suggests the incident won't be enough to deter those determined to see the country for themselves.
"At the end of the day, these are still very small risks, the rates of crashes compared to how many flights there are," Suzanne says. "But there's a greater risk there than there is elsewhere, but you weigh that up."
Melbourne resident Greg Nowotna is currently considering his options before a three-month trip later this year. In the late '80s and early '90s, he spent a cumulative nine months exploring Nepal, which he calls his "favourite place on earth".
He's now retired and the Tara crash last year and the Yeti incident have led him to rethink his plans to fly between cities.
"Now I'm obviously older, I'm not looking forward to spending eight hours on those buses because it's a very bone-jarring ride," he says. Instead, he's now planning to hire a private jeep to get him around.
But like others, the crash is not enough to make him reconsider travelling all together.
"The mountains are the biggest, most impressive thing I've ever seen in my life," he says. "Even on my third trip to Nepal, I thought I'd seen the mountains … and it wasn't going to impress me that much, but when I got there for a third time, my jaw still hit the floor."
For Suzanne, there's another motivation for going back. "The last thing Nepali people need is for tourists to stay away," she says.
When she was there in October, she says sometimes her group were only people staying in a lodge. "The people were so grateful to have us, they were hoping so much that tourists were coming back."
Som is confident tourists won't abandon Nepal because, "it's a bucket list [item] for people, to climb the highest mountains on Earth".
"As time goes by, unless there is another crash within the next month, then it will shake the country and tourism, but if not, it will go away from people's mind," he says.
"Anyone who's been there never regrets it."
