The Bhutanese Leading the way.
On 29th January 2024, the Prime Minister issued two directives to the Ministry of Industry Commerce and Employment (MoICE) on tourism which had to do with increasing tourist arrivals and promotion of tourism in border towns in the south.
After that committees were formed and a series of meetings were held but till date there has been no robust outcome of those directives.
This is with the autumn season only a couple of weeks ago.
Tourism industry stakeholders had earlier said that while they do not want to change the USD 100 SDF they wanted the earlier duration and group discounts that were additional incentives under the old MDPR policy.
A senior official said that the MoICE and Tourism Department are going to propose a carefully calibrated duration discount to the cabinet for approval.
The official said the main aim of the duration discounts will be to spread tourism to other parts of Bhutan like center, east and south so that tourists get more time there.
In the earlier system after the 9th night tourists got a 50% SDF discount and after the 15th night it was a 100% SDF discount.
This encouraged tourists to spend more time in Bhutan and also travel further out.
The official said the duration discount has always existed and the aim will be to make it more liberal.
However, before it can go to the cabinet the MoICE is trying to find out why the duration discount existed, what is its purpose and revalidate its merits.
The proposed duration discounts will largely resemble the duration discounts of the past but with an aim to push tourism in other areas.
However, weather duration discounts will be accepted or not will depend upon the cabinet.
The tourism sector has also requested for the group discounts of the old system. This meant that if there is a pac of 10 tourists then one of them or the tour leader would get a 50% discount on SDF by the old TCB, airfare by Druk Air and even hotels.
If someone brought a pac of 15 tourists then one of them would get a 100% discount on everything and enjoy everything free.
A tourism industry person said this was a major incentive for agents or people who got in large numbers of tourists to Bhutan.
The senior official said that the group discount would likely not be there as the Tourism Department has already given the option of familiarisation visits to international travel agents wanting to visit Bhutan with SDF waiver.
To improve the numbers of tourists coming to the east the official said that the Samdrupjongkhar check post on both sides will be an integrated check post allowing tourists to enter and exit from there. He said the only step left is to find the right dates and inaugurate it.
The senior official said that marketing efforts are on to increase the numbers and meet the 300,000 target and MICE (see separate story on pg 7) would be an important part of that.
The official said that marketing efforts are going on and the aim is 300,000 tourists as the if the data is looked at then the tourist arrivals and usage of hotels and airlines still leaves is well below the pre-pandemic numbers.
