Tourism In Bhutan

Bhutan’s Tourism industry began in 1974. It was introduce with the primary objective of generating revenue, especially foreign exchange, publicizing the country’s unique culture and traditions to the outside world, and contribute to the country’s socio- economic development. Since then the number of tourist visiting Bhutan has increased from just 287 in 1974 to over 2,850 in 1992 and over 15, 000 in 2006

By the late 1980’s tourism contributed over US $ million in revenue to Royal Government. In 1989, the royal government raised the tourist tariff. That year only 1480 tourist visited Bhutan but the government still earned US $ 1.95 million through Tourism. By 1992 tourist revenue contributed as much as US $ 3.3 million and accounted for as much as 15 – 20 % of the total Bhutan exported goods and services.

The Royal government has always been aware that unrestricted flow of tourists can have negative impacts on Bhutan’s pristine environment and its rich and unique culture. The Government, therefore, adopted a policy of High value – low impact or low volume tourism, controlling the type and quantity of tourism right from the start. The government privatized tourism in October in 1991 to encourage increased private sector participation in the Tourism sector. Today there are more than 150 licensed tour operators in the country.

After the privatization process, a regulatory body, the Tourism Authority for both Cultural tours and Treks is US $ 200 for the high season and US $ 165 for the low season. There is no quota or limit on the number of tourist allowed to visit Bhutan. Rather the volume of tourist coming to Bhutan has been limited by the capacity constraints of tourism infrastructure due to the pronounced seasonality of tourism in the country.

So far the Royal Government’s over all objectives of maximizing foreign exchange earnings while minimizing adverse culture and environmental impacts of tourism seems to have paid off. The Tourism industry has made significant contributions to the socio – economic development of the country. A high level of profits is available to tour operators and an increasing number of tourism is investing in the Tourism sector. Bhutanese have also found employment as guides, cooks, transport, operators, hotels and restaurant owners. Tourism contributes significantly to rural incomes through earnings from tourist transport and portage. Tourism has also provided the impetus for the development of service sector, including hotels, restaurants, transportation and communication. Another visibility impact of tourism has been the promotion of the indigenous cottage industry.

Bhutan is keen to develop its tourism in way that is socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. It should be recognized that Tourism in Bhutan has been sustainable so far due to the sound environmental and cultural policies of the Royal Government which has authority over setting policy direction. The future sustainability of tourism will, however, depend on greater participation from Tourism industry.

The tourism industry must realize that our environment and culture are the basic recourses on which it thrives and grows. It must be recognize its responsibility for the conservation and sustainable natural resource management by committing to and working within principles and guidelines to achieve sustainable tourism development. The sustainable development of tourism will require partnership and co-operation within the tourism industry, and between the industry, government, tourists and people. Local input and involvement are also important for the long term sustainability of tourism in Bhutan. If the local residents and communities are part of tourist operations and receive benefits from tourism, then the goals of the local communities, tourism operators and the government can be met.

Environmental and Cultural Impact of Tourism

Al though tourism in Bhutan is referred to as model for other fragile mountain areas where there is much concern over the society’s traditional heritage, there has emerged as number of pressing issue tourism related environmental and cultural problems in the last few years.

Among the problems currently encountered are:

• The destruction of vegetation through the cuttings of slow growing trees for firewood. This is particularly more pronounced in Bhutan’s high alpine regions through which most the trekking routes are located.
The local people in these sense areas rely on wood for fuel and tourism adds pressure on the forest

• Erosion of delicate vegetation is another visible problem associated with Tourism in Bhutan. Although Tourism activities are not solely responsible for the erosion in the high mountains areas, the use of horses and yaks during the treks has a significant impact. Also local residents tend to increase the size of their domestic herds for transport contracts with the tourism industry, which in turn adds to the limited carrying capacity of fragile mountain ecosystems.

• The creation of garbage trails from the indiscriminate disposal of non biodegradable waste is another visible environment problem, associated with the Tourism industry. It has been pointed out that tourism is promoting changes from sustainable farming and cropping patterns to other more profitable and less sustainable livelihood to meet the needs of affluent tourists. Some people also argue that interactions with tourists have led to the erosion of Bhutanese culture and value systems.

• Several steps have been taken by the governments to address these problems. The Department of tourism has banned the use of firewood on treks. The Departments of tourism has banned the use of firewood on treks. Tour operators now use liquid petroleum gas and kerosene. The Department also levis a fine of Ngultrum 5, 000 on operators who continue to use firewood on treks and for littering. Although the fine is not substantial, operators might not get trekking permits for the next season, if they are charged with tow violations in particular season. The Department has also constructed permanent campsites, rest houses, toilet facilities along the more popular trek routes.

• The Department of tourism has conducted several training courses for guides and has instituted a system of licensing cultural and trekking guides. All guides employed by any tour operators in have to be licensed, which ensures that all guides have basic training in trekking and mountaineering techniques and are briefed on all aspects of tourism in Bhutan with special emphasis on the environmental and cultural issues.

• Problems that affects the future sustainability of Bhutan’s Tourism

There are other problems associated with Tourism in Bhutan that might affect the sustainability of the industry in the long run if they are not addressed now. These included:

Seasonality: Tourist arrivals in Bhutan are subject to pronounced seasonality. March/ April and October / November are the top months as the weather ideal for trekking and religious and cultural festival are taking place over the country. January / February and June / July are the months with the lowest activity as the weather is too cold or rainy for trekking and they are hardly any significant cultural events taking place. The seasonal nature of tourism leads to a highly inequitable distribution of visitors throughout the year adding pressure on the limited infrastructure during the peak season and private operators resort to makeshift arrangements that may not meet the desired quality of services.

• Regional Imbalance: Another problem that might affect the sustainability of tourist is that is mostly limited to a Himalayan zone for mountaineering and high altitude trekking and central zone for cultural tours. As such tourism is mostly limited to the western valleys of Paro, Thimphu, Punakha, Wangdiphodrang and the central valleys of Trongsa and Bumthang

• Insufficient products Diversifications: Tourism in Bhutan is so far mostly limited to cultural; tourists, sightseers and trekkers. In 1999, out of total of 7, 158 tourist there were 6, 328 cultural tourist and 830 trekkers. Although Bhutan as vast potential for forms of tourism and special interests such as sports tourism, adventure tourism and nature tourism, the process of product diversification is just beginning.

• Weak Institutional Base: The Department of tourism lacks both manpower and finance to manage and monitor the tourism industry effectively. There is a lack of qualified manpower, particularly at the management and entrepreneurial levels. There are no formal hotel and tourism training institutes in the country. Most companies have problems in attracting and keeping adequately trained employees at all levels.

• Involvement of the Local Community: The government and local communities are now beginning to argue that local communities need to be more involved in the business and should receive more benefits from tourism. Local communities involvement is currently limited in providing tourism transport and portage

• Lack of Substantive Tourism Research: Proper research, surveys, feedback, statistics, data collections and processing and research related to tourism development are needed for making sound policy decisions in the future.

• Deterioration in pricing Integrity: Although the Government’s policy allows a high margin of profitably to tourism operators, increasing competition has brought about undesirable results. This has led to a break down in pricing integrity. Operators are resorting to discounts and rebates to foreign operators in order to snatch business away fro competitors. This practice not only has a direct impact on the royal government’s policy of high value – low volume tourism but also leads to deterioration in the quality of services provided.