The brilliant orange resort stands proud so far as the attention can see – however sadly for its proprietor Bishnu Sharma, there may be hardly anybody there to see it.

His resort affords breath-taking mountain views from the city of Lumbini in Nepal – Buddha’s birthplace.

But a hoped-for surge in vacationer numbers has did not materialise, blamed partly on tensions between Nepal’s big neighbours India and China.

Lumbini noticed near one million guests in 2022, based on the Lumbini Development Trust – and it was this quantity the federal government was betting on when it spent $76m (£61m) to construct the Gautam Buddha International Airport, which opened in May final 12 months.

Domestic vacationers make up many of the guests, with simply lower than a 3rd travelling from neighbouring India.

The terminal, often known as Bhairahawa Airport, lets vacationers fly on to Lumbini as an alternative of travelling 250km (155 miles) by land from the capital, Kathmandu.

Yet the anticipated journey increase by no means materialised, one thing journey trade specialists attribute to a scarcity of early promotion and incentives to worldwide airways.

“The government asked us to expand tourism infrastructure saying more international flights would come. But my hotel is two-thirds empty. I am now struggling to repay my loan,” Mr Sharma tells the BBC, including that he’s tens of millions of rupees in debt.

Travel trade specialists argue vacationer arrivals, notably from abroad, will go up if there are common scheduled worldwide flights working out of Bhairahawa airport.

But Nepali officers say Delhi has refused to permit large passenger planes to fly west by its airspace – that means planes can’t fly over India to achieve the Gautam Buddha airport. Access to Indian airspace would imply shorter flights at decrease value.

Some in Nepal additionally consider that Delhi is cautious of the truth that the Gautam Buddha airport was constructed by China’s Northwest Civil Aviation Airport.

In 2020, a serious encounter between India and China killed not less than 20 troops. At the centre of their dispute is an ill-defined, poorly-demarcated 3,440km (2,100-mile)-long border- referred to as the Line of Actual Control, or LAC.

The presence of rivers, lakes and snowcaps means the road can shift. The troopers on both facet – representing two of the world’s largest armies – come nose to nose at many factors.

The scenario on the border is mirrored by rising political pressure, with strained ties between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Observers say talks are the one manner ahead as a result of each nuclear-armed nations have a lot to lose. The two nations have fought just one struggle, in 1962, when India suffered a humiliating defeat.

The Gautum Buddha airport was meant to be the important thing to Nepal’s plan to develop visitors by easing the load of Kathmandu – which has been for years its solely worldwide gateway. Kathmandu Airport is closely congested and was briefly shut down by a strong earthquake in 2015.

A 3rd worldwide airport situated in Pokhara – a city with beautiful views of the Annapurna mountains and identified for journey sports activities – is going through a well-known drawback to Bhairahawa.

Since it opened final January, the airport – constructed with a $215m mortgage from China – has not welcomed any worldwide flights, save for a constitution flight from Chengdu that introduced in Chinese officers and vacationers.

Currently, Gautama Buddha and Pokhara have a mixed visitors of 80-85 home flights per day. But specialists say the terminals want substantial worldwide visitors to maintain operations.

“I don’t think only domestic flights will make these two airports commercially viable. It may be difficult to repay the loan without regular international flights,” says Tri Ratna Manandhar, the previous director basic of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.

Pokhara International Airport chief Bikram Raj Gautam says Nepal wants “proactive diplomacy” to persuade nations like India to open their airspace to business flights that may land in Nepal.

Experts say Nepal may also have a look at attracting vacationers from the east like Thailand, Japan and Cambodia, whereas Delhi’s restrictions choke visitors from the west.

Nepal Airlines has simply began a weekly flight from Bhairahawa to Kuala Lumpur – one thing that ought to ship a constructive message to different airways, Dipak Bajracharya, director of the Gautam Buddha International Airport tells the BBC.

But Nepal’s minister for tourism and civil aviation, Gopal Kranti, stays optimistic that there will probably be a decision with Delhi – and shortly.

“We are in constant touch and dialogue with Indian officials and diplomats,” he tells the BBC. “They are very positive.”

With extra reporting by Surendra Phuyal in Kathmandu