It's a pretty robust and long-lasting industry, so the idea that their profits are "severely limited" doesn't pass the sniff test. They no doubt just increase their unit cost accordingly.

Anyway, although fewer than 1000 people summit Everest each year, 500 people per day reach Everest Base Camp, so there's plenty of room for profits.

It’s a matter of scale, right? 500/day sounds pretty low, if you’re trying to start a new airline or taxi company. But if I could sell 500 books per day that’s a huge slamdunk success.

Sure. A guided trek to Base Camp is, at a minimum, a few thousand dollars, and there's a good chance that's not the only tourist dollars you're spending while in Nepal.

Yea, but again a trip to base camp isn’t particularly dangerous.

If your business model is running a cruise ship where a few people take extreme risks and 98% are doing a normal holiday then sure that’s reasonable. Building a business on 3k customers/ year worldwide might survive but it’s lucky to make the same money as a single decent restaurant location.

Reaching Everest base camp is nowhere close to as risky as seriously trying to climb it. The record is 800 people per year actually reaching the summit and ~3,000 people making serious attempts.

That’s a tiny market, and yes companies do get involved but it’s not the sole source of income for any significant business.

Nepal introduced limits on the number of permits it will issue recently, because there’s more people who want to climb Everest than it can safely accomodate each year.