The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Bhutan welcomed 23,547 visitors in May 2024, marking the highest monthly arrivals since reopening after the pandemic. From January 1 to May 31, 2024, Bhutan received a total of 64,941 guests, a significant increase compared to the 43,074 visitors during the same period in 2023.
In May 2023, the country saw 16,609 arrivals. The estimated SDF revenue collected between January and May 2024 is approximately USD 16.25 million.
A release from the Tourism Department says the breakdown of the 2024 visitor arrivals shows that 66% originated from India, while the remaining 34% came from the US, China, the UK, Germany, Singapore, France, Italy, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, and Canada.
Excluding Indian arrivals, other international visitor arrivals reached 21,507 this year, compared to 11,259 during the same period in 2023. There were more international arrivals in May 2024 than there were in May 2019. Indian arrivals totalled 43,434 in 2024, up from 31,815 last year. Some source markets, including the USA, Malaysia, Spain, and Singapore, have exceeded or are very close to pre-pandemic levels. Overall, international arrivals (excluding Indian visitors, who were exempt from SDF at the time) are at 78% of the levels seen during the same period in 2019.
Over the past three months, there has been a noticeable increase in guests arriving from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Australia, Canada, Italy, Taiwan, Indonesia, Russia, Spain, Japan, Israel and Philippines.
Bhutan’s Department of Immigration has confirmed that the data mentioned above includes only guests entering Bhutan as tourists, and not those in any other category.
