The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB) has plans to promote Bhutan in numerous ways.
As of 31 December 2012, 951 travelling agencies are registered with the tourism council out of which only 428 agencies are actively functioning in the market and 528 agencies are inactive. The TCB has undertaken a strict check of the licenses of travelling agencies.
Asked about the promotion of Bhutan in television channels, marketing officer Sonam Pelden of the TCB said, “We rather find it more effective to get journalists from these popular channels to visit Bhutan and this is how we make sure that Bhutan is featured in the popular TV channels .We got International tour operators to sell Bhutan in tourism where we work jointly with them.”
“We even participate in the travel-related events where we set out together with the local tourism stake holders to meet with the international travel trade members and the Media to talk about Bhutan where we also share information with them by way of promotional materials developed by the TCB and the respective local Bhutanese tourism stake holders,” she said.
“We also got international media focus in both television and in print because as we know our country is a year-round destination for tourists where we are able to highlight some of the main attractions and activities of the country to the visitors.”
There has been an increase in the numbers of tourist arrivals in 2012 which was more than the targeted figure of 100,000 as there is no fixed number of the tourists arriving in the country. But now the TCB has made sure that the figure does not drop and that it maintains the number of tourists visiting.
As of now TCB does not charge any fees for the Guide training courses because now the training course has been outsourced privately. A minimal fee of Nu 20,000 is however charged which includes transportations and snacks for the trainees.
The fee can be paid in installments.
Sonam Wangmo / Thimphu
