The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Many special and exciting events are planned to take place throughout the country in 2015 to celebrate the 60th Birth Anniversary of His Majesty the Fourth King Jigme Singye Wangchuck. The ‘Visit Bhutan 2015’ has a series of tourism events planned across the country to attract regional and international tourists.
According to Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB), the information on ‘Visit Bhutan 2015’ is currently available in English and Japanese on separate online web portals. A TCB official said tourism seminars, road-shows, and travel fairs are some of the main international events organized with tourism industry partners in the main source markets, like Germany, Japan, India, Australia, Thailand, Singapore, etc., to attract tourists in the country this year.
The tourism official said that TCB is also promoting domestic tourism in Bhutan by improving tourism infrastructure in the country. One of the main ways of promoting domestic tourism is by developing relevant information collaterals, both in terms of print and broadcast media. There are few tour operators that are already promoting pilgrimage tours within Bhutan.
TCB said having good connectivity within Bhutan, both by air and by land, is important for Bhutan, and not only for ‘Visit Bhutan 2015’. “We hope that the domestic air services become more frequent and similarly, the west to east road widening project completes soon as it will allow easy movement of tourists to different parts of Bhutan,” said the TCB official. Of the many special events organized by different agencies across Bhutan this year, some of the events are a once in a lifetime event to be held only this year.
The ‘Visit Bhutan 2015’ website also uploads offers on the site. The TCB official said everyone can see the offers and change in daily tariff. The tourists have the option of choosing from a range of offers from hotel and airlines as well.
TCB has consolidated these events into a booklet called “Visit Bhutan 2015 Events Calendar” and this can also be accessed online at www.visitbhutanyear.com. The website has five main sections which are user friendly and easy to search for events and special offers.
The ‘Visit Bhutan 2015’ is accompanied by tagline, ‘celebrate happiness’, and the calendar of events was launched in November last year.
TCB records show that a total of 65,399 regional tourists and 68,081 international tourists visited Bhutan in 2014.
